What's On In London In November

London will be remembering Guy Fawkes and the Fifth of November this month, with many Bonfire Night fireworks displays, and also getting ready for Christmas. This is in addition to the countless exhibitions, concerts, festivals and shows that make London the entertainment capital of the UK.

Bonfire Night

November is a time for big public fireworks displays to commemorate the failed Gunpowder Plot which aimed to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Some of the best will be at Alexandra Palace, Battersea Park, Rotherhithe and Richmond, many of them set to music and featuring fairground rides and refreshments. Coram's Fields will be holding a special display designed especially for young children, and the fireworks displays at Ravenscourt and Bishops Park will be in two parts, with the earlier display for youngsters and a later display for adults.

Festivals and Shows

On November 9th the annual Lord Mayor's Show will travel from the City of London to Westminster, with a colourful parade followed by a huge fireworks display over the Thames. The London Jazz Festival has a ten-day programme of live music all over London in various venues, from huge concert halls to tiny jazz clubs. The world's largest early music fair is taking place at the Old Royal Naval College, where the annual Greenwich International Early Music Festival and Exhibition has a programme packed with concerts and master-classes. The Freeze Festival comes to Clapham Common, a five-day event mixing music with winter sports that will use 500 tonnes of real snow.

Concerts

Finding what's on in London always offers a huge range of music performance from stars of every era. You can rock out with Motorhead or Queens of the Stone Age, groove along to Sonnie Rollins or Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, or stand in awe as the legendary Bob Dylan plays the Royal Albert Hall at the end of the month. Special events include a Sixties Unchained concert at Wembley Arena and a series of Children in Need Rocks concerts at Hammersmith Apollo.

Exhibitions

The National Maritime Museum opens a new exhibition this month, 'Turner and the Sea.' Buckingham Palace is usually high on the list of places to see on days out in London, but not so many people visit the neighbouring art gallery, the Queen's Gallery. This has two new exhibitions this November: 'Castiglione: Lost Genius' and 'Gifted: from the Royal Academy to the Queen.' The National Portrait Gallery opens a new display of contemporary photography, the 'Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.' A fascinating new exhibition at the Science Museum is dedicated to the Large Hadron Collider and CERN engineering.

Christmas

The preparations for the festive season are well under way this month. The Christmas lights will be turned on in streets all over the city. Seeing stars turn on the lights at Oxford Street and Regent Street is one of the best free things to do in London, but many other streets will be holding Christmas ceremonies, from Carnaby Street to Covent Garden. Hyde Park is hosting a Winter Wonderland with an ice rink, observation wheel and Christmas Market. Many of the big attractions visited on days out in London feature public ice rinks this month, including the Natural History Museum, Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London. Christmas Fairs are another great way to get in the festive spirit. The Spirit of Christmas Fair takes place at Olympia, the Ideal Home Show at Christmas is on at Earls Court and the Country Living Magazine Christmas Fair is held at the Business Design Centre. One of the most festive things to do in London is to attend Sadler's Wells new staging of Raymond Briggs enchanting 'The Snowman.'

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