By Charlotte Cox
Kitsch and cool dining, wall-to-wall raving and cocktails in the sky. Your weekend just got brilliant
DRINK: Snow Globe in the Sky
Anyone fancy getting high this Christmas? In the literal sense, we mean: 40 storeys up (not sure what you were thinking). Well, here’s your chance, at this gorgeous new festive pop-up at the top of The Gherkin. Its famous glass dome has been transformed into a real-life snow globe – think twinkly lights and powder-covered pines – as the private members’ club Searcys throws open its doors to the public. I.e. You. And best of all? This snow globe has cocktails – truffle and chocolate espresso martinis, egg nog – and is serving an afternoon tea full of puddings and macaroons. Which is just our kind of (sugar) high.
30 St Mary Axe, London EC3A 8EP searcysthegherkin.co.uk
NIGHTLIFE: RBMA Secret Rave
If there's one thing that Red Bull know how to do (other than keep us caffeinated), it's throw a party. And the good news is, they're at it again this Friday. Taking over a mystery location somewhere within the M25, the Red Bull Music Academy (the project devoted to all that’s beat-filled and brilliant) has come over all old-school, harking back to the day of underground raves by keeping not only the location, but the line-up under wraps until the day of the event. In fact, there are only three things about this that aren’t top secret: 1. That it’s happening this Friday (because we just told you). 2. That you can be there by tweeting #0800R1NG2RAV3, and checking Twitter for further details. And 3. That it will involve a mighty dance names. And perhaps caffeinated mixers.
4 Dec; free London location TBA redbullmusicacademy.com
NIGHTLIFE: Numbers
Haven’t you heard? It’s party season. So act accordingly, and get yourself along to this latest instalment of the now-legendary club night The Hydra. They’re hosting Glasgow party starters Numbers at Studio Spaces – which means strobing electronics from Koreless, huge beats from label boss Jackmaster and an all-night, 11am-7am roster of the finest in bleeding-edge dance. Way more fun than sleeping.
5 Dec; £15 Studio Spaces, Unit 2, 110 Pennington Street, Wapping E1
ART: London Illustration Fair
It’s back – and this time, it’s bigger than ever. Moving to a roomy new Oxo Tower Wharf venue, London’s only illustration-based event is filling it with some the most exciting folk ever to have picked up a sketchbook. Seventy of them, to be exact. Look out for stylised landscapes by Robert Hunter, acid-bright birds by Fly Chen and bold geo blocks by Camille Walala. Plus there are DJs, a bar, the CraftyFox market hijack (hello, unusual Xmas gifts), interactive installations and one-off murals. All goes to prove that more really is more.
4-6 Dec; £5 Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Road, Southbank SE1 9PH thelondonillustrationfair.co.uk
FOOD: Coin Laundry
So, you know fashion has been in love with the 70s for ages now? Consider this new restaurant the foodie equivalent of Chloé’s Fleetwood Mac-soundtracked a/w 2015 catwalk. Only even more retro. And kitsch. And downright tasty. Themed around a (you guessed it) vintage coin laundry, the cocktail menu features grasshoppers, snowballs and even a boozy Soda Stream (yes!). There are also classic board games, quirky period décor, a vintage pinball machine – and as for the food? Expect prawn cocktails, black forest trifles and the finest chicken kiev this side of 1975. In fact, the only thing that could make it more retro would be to turn in Chloé top to toe. Dare ya.
Now open 70 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QP, coinlaundry.co.uk
FOOD: Flat Iron III
We suspect Flat Iron has a plan for global domination. New world order? Top-notch steaks and cocktails for all. And that noble goal comes a little closer this week, with the opening of this, their third location within just three years. What can we expect from the new Covent Garden outpost? A dedicated Yorkshire ale bar, a glass-fronted butcher-in-residence (butchery: the new rock n roll), and the same succulent £10 hunks of beef and no-reservations policy that made the Flat Iron name. Consider the steaks raised. Ahem.
17/18 Henrietta St, Covent Garden, WC2E 8QH Flatironsteak.co.uk
FILM: Sunset Song
We remember when Agyness Deyn was all bleach-blonde hair, DMs and Henry Holland catwalks. But just look at her now! A serious actress drawing seriously good reviews in a seriously beautiful literary adaptation. She takes the lead role in this windswept version of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Scottish romance, which follows a farmer’s daughter as she struggles against her violent father, falls for a local lad and then faces the tumult of the First World War. Sure, it’s grand and sentimental and overblown. But with landscapes as epic as its plot, it’s damn good-looking – and we’re not just talking about Miss Deyn.
Out 4 Dec; cinemas nationwide
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