Gabby Colvin

Scotland’s national poet Rabbie Burns turns 264 this year and Burns Night is an opportunity to have a kilt-raising, whiskey-filled good time in celebration. Even if you’re not in the big guy’s motherland for the day, London still has plenty of food, booze and partying. When is Burns Night in London? Burns Night always falls on January 25 – the day Robert Burns was born in South Ayrshire way back in 1759 – a Thursday in 2024.  Whether you want to get sweaty at a ceilidh, pipe in a haggis, or have a classy time at a whiskey tasting or indulgent Burns supper, this is how you can enjoy Burns Night 2024 in London.  We’ll be updating this page with more events as they are announced. RECOMMENDED: Here are London's best spots for a delicious Burns Night supper.

After selling out shows in Madison Square Gardens and the Hollywood Bowl, two-time Emmy and WGA award-winning writer, actor, and comedian, John Mulaney comes to London’s Apollo for two nights. Tackling the turbulent 18 months he’s faced, this phone-free show – that’s to say, your phone will literally be secured at the door – ‘From Scratch’ deals with divorce, drug and alcohol abuse, a newborn boy, and a stint in rehab. Despite the intense themes, Mulaney manages to take on even the darkest of subjects with a lightheartedness and whimsy that has continued to charm. The second date is sold out but as on early January there were still tickets for the first.

The comedy trio return to perform the silliest sketches from their ten (actually 12, but it didn’t sound as good) years of success at the Edinburgh Fringe and more (plus one genius new piece thrown in for good measure). Originally members of the Cambridge footlights and twigged by us as ‘ones to watch’ in 2009, expect 12 years of experience to be evident in this daft, confident, and chemistry-laden series of sketches at the Soho Theatre by Al Roberts (‘Stath Lets Flats’, ‘Starstruck’, ‘Feel Good’), Liam Williams (‘Ladhood’, ‘Pls Like’, ‘Stath Lets Flats’) and Daran ‘Jonno’ Johnson (‘Wedding Seasons’, ‘Parlement’, ‘Siblings’). 

One fifth of the UK population listens to podcasts, with a big increase over lockdown. Since we’ve emerged back into the world of live entertainment, podcasters are taking advantage of being able to reconnect to their audience in person again, or perhaps for the first time. So whether it’s looking to see how physically fit you can be in 2023, getting parenting advice or simply listening to two mates crack each other up without having to come up with anything funny yourself, there’s a live podcast show for you!  Laurence Howe 1. ‘The Receipts’ Hosted by Tolani Shoneye, Audrey Indome and Milena Sanchez (aka ‘your girl Tolly T, mamasita Milena Sanchez and Audrey [formerly known as Ghana’s Finest’]), ‘The Receipts’ is an advice podcast. The hosts take questions from listeners as well as pick up on current debates in the media to discuss womanhood, feminism, racism, growing up and dating. The three bring their honest expertise from the music and media industries as well as having chemistry which is as palpable as it is comforting. Catch them for one night only on March 4 at Indigo at the O2.    2. ‘The Rest Is Politics’ Finding common ground despite their opposing political views, ‘The Rest Is Politics’ sees former Downing Street director of communications and strategy for the Labour Party Alastair Campbell join forces with Conservative cabinet minister Rory Stewart. The two debate current affairs, provide their well-informed opinions on the state of the government and manage

Almost all workers in the UK are entitled to 5.6 weeks, or 28 days of paid holiday a year. Some employers may also choose to include bank holidays within this, reducing your holiday time to 20 days in 2023, but there are some sneaky ways to make this holiday stretch.  The astute among us last year may have noticed that the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, or ‘platty joobs’ affectionately, afforded us a few bank holidays meaning that if you were smart with your time off you could use just three days’ holiday to have nine days off in a row. So, with Blue Monday just a week away, here’s how to use your 20 days’ leave to get the most out of your time and give yourself a little something in the books to look forward to.  Our number one tip is to book the four days off between May 2 and May 8 which, utilising both the May Bank holiday and King Charles’s coronation, boosts your holiday time to give you nine days off in a row.  Next, book April 3 - 6 off or April 11 - 14 to give yourself 10 days away from the desk after using just four days’ holiday again.  So, there you have it, 19 days away from work by only booking eight days off -  get the dates on the system and your holidays pencilled in before someone else on your team beats you to it!   Have a look at the best places to travel in 2023 and the safest airlines to fly with.

Liberty has long been a staple of London shopping, with its flagship store having been built in 1875. This Saturday, for the first time in its 147-year history, it’s unveiling a luxury material sale which offers access to quintessential designs at outlet prices.  Having built a reputation for rare and luxurious items so strong that the Art Nouveau period in Italy is called ‘Liberty Style,’ the store has well and truly established itself as a flagship of London retail. That’s not to say Liberty’s hasn’t kept up to date -  recent collaborators have included Florence Welch, Crocs, and Puma - the latter of which they worked with to create floral home kits for the Women’s Euros 2022. So, if you’re looking to house patterns from the world-renowned designers yourself, the sample sale will feature some of Liberty’s most iconic prints and in-house designs on their Tana Lawn Cotton, Silk Satin and Silk Crepe de Chine. A current metre of material from their Tana Lawn Cotton Classics collection would set you back £27.50 or, if you’re looking to splurge, a meter of the Crepe de Chine comes in at £65. The sale, which takes place on January 14, 10am - 8pm, will have all rolls of material priced at 70 percent off, less than a third of their original price, with prices starting at just £7.95 per metre.  Head up to the fourth floor of their store early on Saturday to secure your spot in the queue and sign up for ‘all the finer details’. Follow your trip to Liberty with some of our other sugge

On New Year’s Day, London Zoo got a new resident. Little Nova was born to sloth couple Marilyn and Leander, who live in the Zoo’s ‘Rainforest Life’ enclosure. It’s London’s only living rainforest and is kept at a balmy 28C to ensure that the sloth family, alongside titi monkeys, golden-headed lion monkeys and red-footed tortoises, continues to keep snug and thrive.  Two-toed sloths gestate in the mother’s stomach for around 11 months and emerge physically well developed: eating solid food and gripping on to their mothers with their characteristic long claws.  We won’t know the sex of the baby until hair DNA is analysed by vets, a difficult task as Nova will be clinging on to Marilyn’s stomach until reaching nearly a year old. Baby sloths do this to help build their muscles, ready to spend the rest of their lives swinging from tree to tree, with claws which also grow up to four inches to help them ‘branch out’.  Sloths are particularly vulnerable to climate change as they regulate their own body temperature. Nova’s birth is therefore all the more reason to celebrate with zookeeper Ronnie stating that ‘every birth is a conservation success and a vital part of ZSL’s work preserving and protecting wildlife’.  You can support the ZSL, London Zoo’s conservation charity, in continuing its work to protect animals and urge world leaders to act on climate change by swinging by and visiting Nova and 14,000 other animals this January. Find other great ways to spend your weekend here.  Ar

Only 2.5 percent of listed buildings in the UK are grade I, with the most famous including the likes of St Paul’s Cathedral, Nelson’s Column, and the Royal Opera House. Now, for the reasonable price of £595,000, you too can have your own slice of history – a place in the iconic Modernist apartment complex – the Isokon Building II.  Also known as the Lawn Road Flats, the Isokon Building was built in 1934 by handlebar-moustached Canadian architect Wells Coates for Molly and Jack Pritchard (influential furniture designer whose work is now displayed in the V&A) and is situated in Belsize Park, just a few minutes away from Hampstead Heath.  Coates followed French architect Le Corbusier in believing that homes should be ‘machines for living in’, and designed the building of 32 (now 36) flats to be immediately liveable even if you only owned ‘a rug, an armchair and a picture.’ The apartment block was also the first ever to be built using just reinforced concrete.  In 1937 The Isokon Building had a ground-floor bar installed to replace its communal kitchen (seems like a sensible trade). It soon became a hangout for the likes of Agatha Christie, who wrote her novel ‘N or M’ there, and enough Soviet spies that it was subject to special surveillance by the British Security Services. Belsize Park has been home to notable alumni ever since, including Sigmund Freud, Twiggy, Jude Law, Tom Hiddleston and Noel Gallagher.  The building passed through several hands after the Pritchards sold it

In November we took a deep dive back in time to the ’90s arcade mecca that was the Trocadero. In its prime, the Trocadero was a hub for acne-ridden teenagers to ride Europe’s tallest escalator, radically named ‘The Rocket’, get buzzed on Pepsi and chase each other through ‘Alien War,’ a walk-through immersive shooter game where you could hunt alien predators à la Ridley Scott.  For many, this blast from the past triggered a bout of ’90s nostalgia not felt in a minute, so here’s a selection of our favourite responses. ‘Playing “whack-a-mole” in the arcade and buying jelly snakes from the sweetshop was the pinnacle of excitement when I was 13/14 years old’ – Sara ‘Oh man, that place was like being in my actual dreams. It felt like I was in a sci-fi movie’ – Bunty ‘The cinema used to be the only place to see “The Exorcist” when it was still banned’ – Chris ‘I knocked myself out running into a wall during laser tag with my kids. There was no first aid kit, so I had to buy a can of Coke and hold it to my head on the way home’ – Jim ‘I loved “Alien War”. It was my first taste of immersive theatre and I’ve been hooked on it ever since’ – Naomi ‘From about 13 I would lie to my mum and tell her I was off to Gravesend for the day but ended up here. Wonderful times’ – Nina ‘I visited London for the first time in the late ’90s. Trocadero completely blew my mind, and it might be one of the reasons why I decided to move here years later’ – Veronica ‘I remember going to the Guinness world r

Transport chiefs this week have urged the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to keep bus fares under £2 despite this meaning that tube prices may have to rise again. If Mayor Khan chooses to continue with cheaper bus tickets, other public transport modes will have to rise in order to maintain the total price rise. Mayor Khan pledged that fares would be capped at £2 for 4,600 bus routes across England for the first three months of 2023. Not even a week into the fare-capping scheme, Mayor Khan is facing a dilemma following The Department for Transport’s December announcement that railway fares would rise by 5.9 percent - the most significant increase since 2013.  The London Mayor is having to negotiate between maintaining low bus fares and the terms of TfL’s post-Covid government funding: he is required to at least mirror the national rail increase or lose the £1.1bn secured last August. Kahn is due to decide by how much fares across the Underground, Elizabeth line, London Overground, and buses will increase city-wide on March 5. If cheaper bus tickets are prioritised, other public transport fares will have to increase to maintain the total price rise. He could also choose to sacrifice funding, but transport chiefs are currently working under the current prediction that prices will rise by at least 4 percent.  The Green party has been petitioning for the lowest bus fares possible at the expense of other transport modes, citing that Londoners who have been hit hardest by the Cost of L

London: middle-class parents commute into it, upper-class students move out of it (and then beeline straight back to Clapham upon return), the bus is always late, the strikes are on again, and you just spent £4 or more on a coffee. But you keep at it – for the culture, for the buzz, and to be in the city where it all happens.  There’s a heavy branch of low-hanging fruit: the people are rude, the pavements are dirty and there are too many Prets. But what are the specific things that push us Londoners to our limits, that have us leaning our heads against tube windows wistfully and considering a train from Paddington to anywhere but here?  Well, that’s the question Twitter user @theashrb posed when he asked our biggest icks about London. What are the things about the city itself and the people in it that could send you packing? Londoners, what are some of your icks about London? — Ash (@theashrb) January 4, 2023 People walking like they're are being chased — LU (@JaiyeandVibez) January 4, 2023 The time between two destinations on public transport takes an hour no matter what the distance is. — . (@brahhigg) January 4, 2023 Sometimes CityMapper says 40 mins on a good day! Have you ever blown your nose after being on the northern line? — Sophia (@yougottaseeher) January 4, 2023 Why is it the same as after you’ve left a three-day festival? The men — babyrae (@raellemusic) January 4, 2023 This one might be the same in most cities, bu

London Zoo’s annual census of its animals has begun this week. All of 2022’s newborns are being officially accounted for in the 200-year-old conservation centre’s yearly round-up. The headcount includes all creatures great and small, from the zoo’s asiatic lions, to tanks of tadpoles which are painstakingly totted up using photos.  The past year has been a wilder one than usual for the zoo as the grand animal tally totals around 14,000 and includes 300 different species, with many endangered animals. These range from snappy big-headed turtle Celia, whose parents were rescued from illegal wildlife traders, to ten humboldt penguins, with a vulnerable species status, who were born at the zoo’s own Penguin Beach and raised through its nursery and chick incubation unit.  Photograph: ZSL London Zoo/Dominic Lipinski There are several young critically endangered animals who were also successfully bred by ZSL this year, including two Sumatran tiger cubs, Crispin and Zac. Kiburi, a critically endangered 18-year-old western lowland gorilla, was shipped over by DHL from Tenerife as he was deemed suitable for the zoo’s gorilla breeding programme. The count takes an entire week. It’s a condition of the zoo’s licence, but it also informs conservation programmes globally as well as giving the keepers a chance to reflect on all the new arrivals, the work done and the busy year ahead.  Are Elf Bars on the way out in 2023? The No Trousers Tube Ride is back, and worryingly soon.