Check out this week's alternative guide to what's on in London. Welcome to my weekly email of lectures, talks, heritage events, organised walks and other random miscellany which Ian hopes would be of interest. | = Event is free of charge | | = Pre-Booking required. |
| | Saturday, 4th January | Fire, noise and celebration will scare off the bad spirits ensuring a good harvest in the coming year as we bless the apple trees in our orchard with this old English tradition. | | | Sunday, 5th January | Monthly opening of the organ collection, with many playing music through the day. | | A monthly opening of the Victorian museum of industrial testing equipment. | | A celebration of the New Year, mixing ancient seasonal customs with contemporary festivity. It is free, accessible to all and happens whatever the weather. | | | Monday, 6th January | | Tuesday, 7th January | Saving the whales and curing cancer are two of the great challenges of the present day, and mathematics has a part to play in addressing them. | | Stephen Tomkins tells this fascinating story - one that is rarely told as an important piece of English, as well as American, history - that is full of contemporary relevance: religious violence, the threat to national security, freedom of religion and tolerance of dangerous opinions. | | | Wednesday, 8th January | A lecture by Ursula von der Leyen, LSE alumna and President of the European Commission. | | This lecture asks what clinicians can learn from the world of jazz - and vice versa. | | | Thursday, 9th January | The fair features some forty distinguished specialist exhibitors, drawn primarily from BADA and LAPADA The Association of Art & Antiques Dealers. | | A talk about how the myth of Troy travelled to Roman Britain and influenced its inhabitants. | | This panel brings together leading scholars and practitioners in the field of climate litigation to discuss the potential and challenges for the law in addressing climate change. | | In this illustrated lecture based on his new book, historian David Welch, delves into The Central Office of Information Archive at the British Library. | | | Friday, 10th January | The fair features some forty distinguished specialist exhibitors, drawn primarily from BADA and LAPADA The Association of Art & Antiques Dealers. | | Dr Andrew Lownie explores the unique marriage between Louis Mountbatten, former Chief of the Defence Staff, and heiress turned humanitarian Edwina. | | Come to Pushkin House to taste and compare some styles of vodka and gin. Some cheese, chocolate and “zakuski” on bread will also be served at the tasting. | | Watch, or join in, as Welsh Londoners tour Central London pubs with the Mari Lwyd -- a decorated horse's skull. | | | Saturday, 11th January | The fair features some forty distinguished specialist exhibitors, drawn primarily from BADA and LAPADA The Association of Art & Antiques Dealers. | | This afternoon of talks and tours explores soldiers' stories from the past two decades. | | Exhibitions closing shortly | To celebrate 50 years since NASA’s Apollo 11 mission landed the first humans on the Moon, the UK’s biggest exhibition dedicated to Earth’s nearest celestial neighbour. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | This winter, more twinkling and fantastical than ever before, Christmas at Kew returns. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | A huge floating "Moon" will fill a darkened room and it's oddly exciting to see (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | A series of striking photographs of science in action will soon go on display at the Science Museum as part of the Royal Photographic Society’s inaugural Science Photographer of the Year competition. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | Discover what it was like to go to a show in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | Jide Odukoya’s photographic series shows Nigeria abuzz through the lens of traditional Nigerian weddings. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | Discover artists who have risked their lives in times of conflict for the music they love. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | The exhibition explores why cultural heritage is attacked during war and the ways we save, protect and restore what is targeted. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | Created in close collaboration with the artist, Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels, explores the development of Peyton’s unique art from the 1990s to the present day. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | All of the paintings and engravings in Hogarth's series have been united for the first time to examine his complex views on morality, the society and the city. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | The Museum of Architecture brings its hugely popular Gingerbread City exhibition to Somerset House. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | This light and sound installation will invite the public to experience and reflect on animated scenes depicting the consequences of climate change as they unfold beneath their feet. (Ends on Fri, 10th Jan) | An Exhibition of original Westwood McLaren couture clothing 1971-1980. (Ends on Sat, 11th Jan) | An 18-metre-wide sculpture fills the entire gallery space, with mirrored planes multiplying its dimensions to enable a reimagining of time and space. (Ends on Sun, 12th Jan) | Currently enjoying a resurgence in practice and teaching, this display is a timely celebration of drawing. (Ends on Sun, 12th Jan) | This exhibition presents the rich variety of objects from Java and Sumatra collected by Sir Stamford Raffles, the British colonial official who founded modern Singapore. (Ends on Sun, 12th Jan) | An exhibition of the life and leadership of a great Australian and one of the most remarkable and highly decorated womens’ leaders of the First World War, Dame Maud McCarthy, Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders, 1914-1919. (Ends on Sun, 12th Jan) | A striking series of works emphasising the importance of glaciers and our changing global climate. (Ends on Sun, 12th Jan) | | | |