Sing carols around the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree

At this time of year, the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree assumes a place in your author's mind - and surely in the minds of many Londoners - as the centre of London's Christmas celebrations, and the ongoing season of Christmas carols around the tree are a key part of this.


The traditional carol-singing season began this year on Tuesday 7th December, and runs until Wednesday 22nd, allowing a range of organisations to lead carols in the evenings from around 5pm to 9pm, and raise funds for voluntary or charitable organisations.

This evening you can see the Mickleham Choral Society from 5pm until 6pm, followed by the Spitalfields Crypt Trust until 7pm, then Global Action Plan until 8pm, and finally the Starry Night Singers, who close the singing at 9pm.

For more, see http://www.london.gov.uk/trafalgarsquare/events/xmas.jsp

Play table-football at Cafe Kick

Trading in Exmouth Market, in Clerkenwell, since 1997, Cafe Kick is a 'continental cafe/bar' with a great range of food and drink on offer, which bills itself, and its sister bar in Shoreditch as 'the only places in London where table football is more than just a decoration or a feature'.


It has a relaxed attitude, serving up cocktails, tapas and sandwiches, alongside football and table-football, with three tables up for grabs in a relatively small bar, and walls decorated with bank notes and football memorabilia from all over the world.

Cafe Kick is open Monday to Thursday, from noon until 11pm, and Friday and Saturdays until Midnight. On Sundays, it is open from 1.30pm until 10.30pm. For more, see http://www.cafekick.co.uk/cafe-kick/

Investigate the Malt Whisky Room at the Vintage House

Situated at 42 Old Compton Street, in the heart of Soho, the Vintage House is a family business, founded during the Second World War. The quintessential off-licence, it is excellently stocked, claiming to offer the World's largest list of malt whiskies.


During his time here, owner Malcolm Mullin has, apparently, sold wine to The Beatles and cigars to Angelina Jolie, mixed with legendary London gangsters, been shot at, and had a front row seat on all goings on in Soho for nearly forty years.

Alongside the whiskies, which are mostly to be found in a special room at the back of the store, the Vintage House also sells Armagnacs dating back as far as 1879, and an excellent range of fine wines, Cuban cigars, Liqueurs and other spirits.

Prices are as you might expect in this area of town, but if you're looking for something special for Christmas it is an excellent bet. For more information, click here.

Browse the Columbia Road Christmas Tree Market

Your author usually tries not to mention the same road twice in a week, but we are right in the middle of Christmas-tree-buying season, and so he thought readers might like to know that, this time of year, the weekly flower market in Columbia Road also gets Christmassy.


It's not a great time for flowers, so the sellers tend towards wintry plants, holly wreaths and Christmas Trees, and they sell like hotcakes. As readers might imagine, the prices are a little steeper than at your local B&Q, but Columbia Road has always been more about the experience than the value and you can pick up a tree for less than £20.

For more, and directions, see http://columbiaroad.info/map.html

Meet friends at the Eros Statue

Popularly known as Eros, actually designed to be his brother Anteros, and also referred to as The Angel of Christian Charity, the statue at Piccadilly Circus is amongst the most popular meeting places in London at any time of the day.


Sitting atop the Victorian Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain, which was designed by London-born Aesthetic sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert, it is often described as being symbolic of London, the statue featured on the Evening Standard masthead until the recent redesign.

The whole sculpture was a memorial to Lord Shaftesbury's philanthropy and Anteros, as the God of Selfless Love, was thought to represent the philanthropic 7th Earl perfectly. For more information, click here.

_{^Picture © Chilli Head used under Creative Commons^}

Sip cocktails in a caravan at Barrio North

When the people who designed Barrio North, a 'neighbourhood DJ bar' in Islington, were looking to decorate their bar, they settled on a rather left-field seating solution. They installed a caravan.


Billed on the bar's website as 'La Carvana', a mis-spelling of the Spanish Caravana, it started life in 1976 as an 2-birth ACE touring caravan, before being snapped up on ebay and installed in a bar on Essex road to seat up to 15 people whilst they neck cocktails in what is cringingly referred to in decorations as an 'alcoholiday'.

It's an interesting feature, and the bar is reasonable, as long as you're there during one of their regular happy hours, though annoyingly they make you 'join' the bar to take advantage.

For more on the Caravan, visit http://www.barrionorth.com/bookings.php, but make sure your speakers are turned down first.

Wear a piece of London history

Created from clay pipes found on the Thames foreshore, discarded over hundreds of years, the new range of jewellery from Amelia Parker is certainly different. If you're looking for an unusual present for that special someone with an interest in London history, this could be for you.


Often manufactured in London, the fragments date back as far as the 16th century. Smokers found their cheap clay pipes often clogged up after a few uses, and as a result sailors and dock workers routinely discarded them into the Thames, where they have spent many years being eroded and coloured by the Thames. They were then collected, cleaned and made into jewellery.

You may have seen them mentioned yesterday over at Londonist, but your author wanted to give it a special plug here today as Amelia Parker has a stall at this evening's festive fair at the Museum in Docklands from 6pm until 9pm, which is worth a visit anyway if you are interested in an a festive evening of carols and craft stalls.

For more information, and to order some items directly, visit http://www.amelia-parker.com/

_{^Picture © Amelia Parker used with permission^}

Go late Christmas shopping on Columbia Road

There are some great little shops on Columbia Road, in East London, and every year for the past five they have been opening late in December to encourage after-work shoppers to the area.


Today marks the second late shopping evening of the season, with around forty stores on the street flogging their wares from 6pm until 9pm, accompanied by seasonal foods, music and fun.

Your author has always been especially keen on independent shops, and Columbia Road is one of an ever-increasing number of streets in our city claiming to be wholly made up of independent outlets. As such, it is the perfect place to pick up unusual gifts for friends and family, visit a fantastic pub, or just relax and enjoy the festivities.

This year's late openings are on December 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd, in Columbia Road, E2. For more information, see http://columbiaroad.info/

Meet the animals at the Clore Rainforest Lookout

Opened in 2007 at London Zoo, aka ZSL, the Clore Rainforest Lookout allows visitors to get up into the rainforest canopy, face to face with tamarins, monkeys, marmosets, lemurs and pygmy marmosets. There is also an opportunity to wander at ground level and experience life on the forest floor.


Your author is constantly boring friends by talking about how London can provide all that life can afford, especially on grim wintry days like we have been having recently. However, as you trudge the street complaining of damp feet, or pointlessly press buttons in your featureless office, it's worth remembering that within half an hour you could be walking in the rainforest right in the middle of London.

Unfortunately, this being London Zoo, it can cost up to £19.80 per person to visit in peak season (full price list here), but a lot of that money does do towards conservation. ZSL London Zoo is open every day of the year except Christmas Day. For more information, click here.

_{^Picture © Louise Ireland used under Creative Commons^}

View Lorenzo Quinn's Give & Take III

Installed in November 2009, Lorenzo Quinn’s Give & Take III is a four metre tall bronze sculpture which was placed in West London's Berkeley Square to coincide with the opening of Quinn’s solo exhibition, Equilibrium, at Mayfair’s Halcyon Gallery.


Originally intended to spend only six months in the Square, and be removed in May, it was still there two weeks ago when your author popped by, and is presumably still there now.

The sculpture took more than a year to create, and is cast from bronze and brass, weighing in at around 1,300kg. For more information, click here.

Visit the Kirkaldy Testing Museum

Today is the first Sunday of the month, and the first Sunday of every month sees the opening of one of London's more unusual museums, the Kirkaldy Testing Museum.


This provides a rare opportunity for curious souls to visit the site of David Kirkaldy's Victorian testing works at 99 Southwark Street, in Southwark, and see the Museum's central - and most important - feature. David Kirkaldy's huge testing machine, was constructed in Leeds especially for the space in the 1860s, and built to test the strength and breaking points of various materials, and measuring 47 feet 7 inches long, and 116 tons in weight.

It's a fascinating place to visit, and a tour consists of a DVD charting the history of the Kirkaldy project, followed by a tour from one of the enthusiastic volunteers who come once a month to run and maintain the machine, and talk to the odd visitor along the way.

For more information on this great little museum, which is free to visit, visit the Wikipedia page here.

Buy a gift at the Present & Correct Pop-In Shop

Twee stationers Present & Correct open up a Christmas pop-in shop at the House of Propellers in Clerkenwell today, transforming the space into a festive vintage school classroom to show off their range of present ideas.


Gifts start at £2.50, and feature a range of original items from new and carefully sourced vintage lines, so this is your chance to stock up on anything from a rare and out-of-print book or poster to a vintage Olivetti typewriter, a set of hand-printed jotters, or just some fairly smart-looking pencils.

Your author will be honest, founder Neal Whittington asked him to write this, but he's a thoroughly nice chap, and has been creating, collecting and selling his wares in London since 2003, so it was a pleasure to help.

The shop is located at 5 Back Hill, in Clerkenwell, and is open from today until Tuesday 21st December, Monday to Saturday, 12 noon – 6.30 pm. There are also late openings until 9pm on Thurdays.

For more information, see http://www.presentandcorrect.com/

_{^Picture © Present & Correct used under Creative Commons^}

Attend a carol concert at St Martin in the Fields

This evening, the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields give one of their first Advent concerts with the Lord Nelson Brass Quintet in what is being billed as a 'vibrant celebration of Christmas'.


They will be playing seasonal favourites including O Come, All ye Faithful, Joy to the World, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, from about 6pm.

It's a bit steep, with entry costing £18, or £21 with mulled wine and a mince pie, but this is tourist central, and they have a fairly captive audience. For more information on the concert, which lasts around an hour, click here.

_{^Picture © James Cridland used under Creative Commons^}

Consider the Art of the Christmas Window at Fortnum & Mason

As readers may have noticed, it is now December, so your author will relent and start talking more about Christmas things. And let's start with Fortnum and Mason, who this year are celebrating the Art of the Christmas Window, with their seasonal window display.


They've teamed up with the National Gallery to produce their own three dimensional interpretations of a number of famous paintings from Western European art in their displays, including Willem Claesz. Heda's 'Still Life: Pewter and Silver Vessels and a Crab', as shown in a dodgy photo above.

The windows were revealed at 5pm on Tuesday 9th November, and have been in planning by chief designer Paul Symes and his team since April. For more information click here.

Read books at the Westminster Reference Library

Home to reference books of all shapes and sizes, the Westminster Reference Library is housed at 35 St Martin's Street, WC2.


It offers visitors the usual reference books and internet access, as well as providing a home to Westminster's Art and Design Collections, recognised as one of national significance by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

It's also home to a fair few tramps leafing through daily newspapers, but who can blame them when it's as cold as this outside.

The Library is open to all, Monday - Friday 10am - 8pm, and Saturdays until 5pm. For more information, click here.