TIMEOUT.COM/LONDON December 15 2020 No. 2604 2020: Year of the takeaway pint ...and 49 other things that arenít you-know-what Inside Light in the darkness We’ve managed to find (fifty!) This issue of Time Out things from this frankly rotten year in no time at all that we think are worth celebrating PAGE 12 Yes, chef! London’s greatest gastronomic gurus tell us what dishes float their (gravy) boats PAGE 34 Absolute beast The NHM’s new show mixes nature’s weirdest creations with oddball fauna from the Potterverse PAGE 33 Lights, camera, Campy pastel (some) action uniform alert Despite cinemas closing, there were The phenomenon that is Accidentally actually some cracking movies this year Wes Anderson is putting on a show PAGE 42 PAGE 26 FEATURES AND REGULARS 7 City life 12 Fifty genuinely good things to have come out of 2020 25 Things to Do 34 Food & Drink 38 Love Local 40 Escapes 42 Time In 46 Exclusive offers PORTRAIT: IFE AKINROYEJE IN MILE END PARK BY CELIA TOPPING; FOOD: LOBSTER AT FROG; FANTASTIC BEASTS: TRUSTEES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM HISTORY NATURAL THE OF TRUSTEES BEASTS: FANTASTIC FROG; AT LOBSTER FOOD: TOPPING; CELIA BY PARK END MILE IN AKINROYEJE IFE PORTRAIT: 3 December 15 2020 Time Out London Hello, London Advertising 7813 6000, [email protected] Joe Mackertich Circulation [email protected] London Editor @j_mackertich Global Editor-in-Chief Caroline McGinn London Editor Joe Mackertich Deputy Editor/Chief Sub Editor Chris Waywell Despite my notoriously miserable face I am an advocate Deputy Chief Sub Editor Sarah Cohen for positive thinking. Yes, this year sucked. Yes, almost Features Kate Lloyd (Editor) everything life-affirming about London was curtailed, News & City Life Isabelle Aron (Editor) diminished or banned. And yes, now when I unintentionally Events Katie McCabe (Editor), Alexandra Sims glance at a reflective surface, I see a disheveled, twitchy gnome (Deputy Editor) Film Phil de Semlyen where once there stood a giant (or at least, a slightly happier (Global Editor) Culture Eddy Frankel, gnome.) But unless we find some way to feel positive about Andrzej Łukowski the future, the present becomes a grim place indeed. Global Commercial Editor Stephen Farmer Global Branded Content Editor Rose Johnstone This year, unable to rely on the conventional triad of friends, Commercial Designer Julia Robinson nice food and booze, Londoners had to find new ways to channel Commercial Copywriter positivity. And for some people that involved Time Out. If this George Blew Head of Digital Content was you, then thank you. Thank you for letting us into your Jordan Waller London Digital Director/ life and allowing us to be the conduit that connects you to the Drink Editor Laura Richards impossible, infinite, irrepressible city in which you live. Engagement Editor Sam Willis International Editor James Manning This week also marks my one-year anniversary as editor of International Travel Editor Ellie Walker-Arnott Time Out. Despite sub-optimal circumstances, I’ve had an International Commissioning Editor Huw Oliver absolute blast. Chatting to you each week has been my way of Art Director Bryan Mayes staying positive. And If I ruined your favourite magazine, well, Picture Desk Manager Ben Rowe it was hardly the worst thing that happened this year, was it? Photographer Andy Parsons Head of Production Unless it was. In which case I’m sorry. Dave Faulkner Production, Admin and Sales Support Katie Mulhern-Bhudia Commercial MD EMEA Lawrence Horne Advertising Sales Ian Tournes (Director), Natalie Reynolds, Juliet Three things you have to do in London Grant, Banbha O’Hagan, THE EDITOR’S ESSENTIALS Nesha Fleischer, James Hooper, Robyn Eldridge, Emma Myland Creative Solutions Wayne Mensah (Director), Charlie Liddington, Nicola Foxwell Project Management Junior Olokodana (Project Management Lead), Nicki Wymer, Zara Taylor MD Global E-commerce Minesh Shah Time Out Group CEO Julio Bruno ORDER these EAT this SNACK these is a deliver Chinese food all Turn the page. Look at that Marvellous Greens & Beans Rice Guys Cover south London shop that also helps over London, including this whole amazing, topical confectionery. Illustration Ben Fearnley fund local primary schools. Order marinated Cantonese duck. Just Thanks to Wimbledon geniuses the one of its great fruit and veg boxes. pop it in the oven. What a delight. Biscuiteers for making them for us. Time Out Digital Ltd 77 Wicklow Street, London, WC1X 9JY. @timeoutlondon facebook.com/timeoutlondon @timeoutlondon timeout.com/news www.timeout.com 020 7813 3000 NOT FOR RESALE PARSONS ANDY BISCUITEERS: MIDDLEHURST; PHILIPPA GUYS: RICE Time Out London December 15 2020 4 Advertisement feature Welcome to Page 5G! Future AI TAKES THE festivities TOP SPOT Three ways that 5G is going to Given the, ahem, ‘quality’ take Christmas to the next level of some of the Christmas number one songs over the years, we wouldn’t be ou think this Christmas 5G is already transforming (and 2No more late deliveries surprised if AI could write Yis weird? Wait until we’re improving!) every aspect ofour lives. You know the feeling: it’s two the next festive chart-topper. eating 3D-printed yule logs Hosts Dr Hannah Fry and comedian days before Christmas and that In this week’s episode of and reading each other Christmas Suzi Ruffell have taken listeners ring light for your Tik Tok-obsessed ‘Whatever Next?’, Dr Hannah cracker jokes written by AI. For the on a wild ride through everything little sister still hasn’t arrived yet. Fry and Suzi Ruffell will work last few months, we’ve been bringing from mind-controlled gaming and Nightmare! Luckily, the roll-out with experts (some human, you the eyebrow-raising highlights thinking prosthetics to parties of self-driving delivery robots is some not) to write and record from Samsung’s podcast ‘Whatever where everyone’s a hologram. If you just around the corner thanks to an AI Christmas song. But is Next?’, which is all about the ways haven’t listened to the whole series, companies like Starship. These it any good? You’ll just have to then we really recommend you get electric-powered little friends – tune in to find out… onto that. Thefinal, festive episode which use tiny amounts of energy is all about5G and Christmas, compared to delivery trucks – andit’s loads offun… autonomously bring your gift over while you track the journey on your Stress-free shopping phone. Not only will they make 1 Love it or hate it, we all know deliveries more sustainable and that stocking up on gifts is about as cost-efficient, but they’re also great relaxing as untangling a big ball of for those who may struggle to carry Christmas lights. Thankfully, with its their own shopping. super-fast data processing speeds, 5G might just take the edge off. You Bringing families could put on VR glasses and allow 3together augmented reality to show you to If 2020 has taught us anything, the location of your purchase – or it’s that humans really, really like even create an entirely virtual store being together – but it’s not always to visit in the comfort of your home. possible. TeslaSuit has invented a You could ‘try on’ a piece of clothing piece of haptic clothing which allows without actually putting it on (no one two people to hug remotely. Not only needs to know about that novelty that, but 5G will bring super-fast reindeer suit!), or in the case of internet to remote areas without Listen to episode eight, ‘Festive 5G Ikea’s Place app, virtually place connectivity, so that your online hugs’, on Spotify, Google Podcasts pieces of furniture in your home. hangs don’t have to be so pixelated. and Apple Podcasts. Search for the ‘Whatever Next?’ podcast today! A S N W ’ T T ’ City 2020 A life L L B A D EditedEditedd by Isabelle Aron @timeoutlondon@tiimeoutlondon The year that took the biscuit It’s been a year of rainbows, Zoom calls and debates over substantial meals. As it crawls to its end, Chris Waywell reflects on the ways the pandemic has left its mark on the city BACK IN MARCH, as the prospect In the round-up shows and end-of-year articles do with him. Tell him I’m there for him? Put him of London going into lockdown (including ours on pp-), will be the up for adoption? Send him to the shop for wine? loomed, my neighbours Creepy Jon year of the bog roll, the stockpiler, the face mask In London, against a backdrop of suffering and and The Shrieker sprang into action. and the Zoom call. It will be the year of the NHS, sadness, there have been innumerable acts of They got a massive fridge-freezer the rainbow, the takeaway pint; of the graveyard kindness, love and assistance; righteous anger at delivered by AO, and they added a Kryptonite daily walk, the park heatwave and a lot of dashed the Black Lives Matter protests, huge sacrifices by D-lock to the metal security gate across their dreams, shuttered businesses and isolation. our frontline staff. Everything good that has come front door. Then they settled down to wait for I’m not surprised that most Londoners have out of this year has been about solidarity, sharing the apocalypse. turned out to be decent, kind, and community- and society, and everything bad has been about That seems ridiculous now. I mean, it seemed minded. I knew that, I’d just taken it for granted. division, selfishness and blame. ridiculous then. Still, at that point no one knew What I am surprised by is my capacity to be moved So, yeah, in I haven’t made best friends what was coming.