Your guide to the Wonderful West End

Your guide to the wonderful

West End December 2011

Special offers and competitions • Getting around the West End FREE Christmas and New Year parking • Christmas events and activities Sponsored by

shopping, entertainment & culture

like nowhere else

What’s on in the

West End Get Into London Theatre

Discover more about your favourite show and meet the talent behind London’s hottest productions with an exclusive show and activity experience from Get Into London Theatre. There are some very special opportunities to Shimmy with Chicago, Unleash Your Inner Dancing Queen with the cast of Mamma Mia! Take Tea with the Gruffalo, or Tour the Beautiful Old Vic with Stage Door Keeper Ned. The perfect Christmas present idea for the theatre-lover in your life! Tickets are for 1st January – 10th February 2012 and are available for just £10 – £35.

Visit www.getintolondontheatre.co.uk for the full line-up.

West End Sales Watch Keep an eye on www.westendvip.com for your one-stop roundup of all the best sales in December and January on Oxford Street and Regent Street. Make sure you’re first with all the news, offers and updates.

St Martin’s Courtyard, Covent Garden WIN a luxury shopping trip to St Martin’s Courtyard with the exclusive prize draw in the new magazine ‘St Martin’s Courtyard Presents...’ The magazine also contains information and contact details for all the shops and restaurants at St Martin’s Courtyard including Barbour, COS, Jack Wills, Jamie’s Italian, Joules, Melvita and Twenty8Twelve, as well as interviews and features. The magazine is free and is available from shops and restaurants at St Martin’s Courtyard or from www.stmartins courtyard.co.uk/magazine

Shopping help Need help finding that perfect present?

The West End has it covered, with special shopping advisors and gift wrapping services in many Regent Street stores, special help for the boys in Seven Dials, in collaboration with Fox & Squirrel lifestyle walks (www.foxandsquirrel. com) and The Wardrobe Consultant personal shopping service in St Martin’s Courtyard (www.stmartins courtyard.co.uk/the wardrobeconsultant) – there’s no excuse not to find gorgeous gifts!

The National Gallery

Newburgh Quarter For unique concept stores and one-off Christmas gifts, head to the Newburgh Quarter – Carnaby’s creative hub and a real gem of the West End. Mixing fashion, lifestyle and entertainment, this historic part of London is on-trend and fashion-forward, bringing together the best of contemporary British and international talent in fashion, jewellery and accessories. www.carnaby.co.uk

02 Your guide to the wonderful West End

Take a break from the rush – visit the National Gallery and enjoy inspiring art by some of the world’s greatest ever painters, including van Eyck, Titian, Holbein, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Turner, Monet and Van Gogh. Or cultivate a festive mood with Christmassy activities, shopping treats and traditional tales. www.nationalgallery. org.uk/whats-on/christmas/

St Martin-in-the-Fields There’s still time to come to a fantastic seasonal concert at St Martin-in-theFields, Trafalgar Square. Enjoy carol concerts on 19th and 23rd December and performances of Handel’s Messiah on 22nd and 23rd December.

On 29th December experience some of Bach’s finest works with the Complete Brandenburgs at Christmas and on 30th December a Viennese Christmas.

Or, bring in 2012 with a New Year’s Day Extravaganza with music by Handel, Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi, or on 2nd and 6th January celebrate the finest music for choirs with the first two concerts from the Brandenburg Spring Choral Festival.

020 7766 1100 and www.smitf.org

Amazing arcades Shop in style in beautiful Victorian arcades in the heart of London – Burlington and Princes Arcades bring together old and new, offering a timeless shopping experience. Then stroll through Piccadilly Arcade and discover the vibrancy of this famous junction and its incredible landmarks.

Covent Garden Regent Street

Take a trip to Covent Garden for traffic-free shopping, an amazing Christmas food market and a unique nativity scene installed by visual artist Martha Fiennes.

Head to Regent Street this Christmas for some inspiring gift ideas. Enjoy sewing workshops at world-famous Liberty’s, cooking lessons from The Cookery School and pampering at the Organic Pharmacy and The Chuan Spa. Indulge in festive afternoon tea at the Langham and breakfast lunch or tea dates with Father Christmas at Hamley’s. This year, the famous street is packed with festive fun.

Royal Opera House

Casino night

Celebrate the festive season in the magnificent surroundings of the Royal Opera House. La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi runs until 25th January. Packed with glorious tunes that go straight to the heart, don’t be surprised to feel a touch of heartbreak before the evening’s over. Tickets: £9 – £195 (Eve) £7 – £154 (Mat) www.roh.org.uk/traviata

Experience a touch of Vegas for a night you’ll never forget at The Casino at The Empire, Leicester Square. Enjoy the stunning decor throughout the bars and restaurants, and wide range of games to play – there’s fun to be had for everyone, 24 hours a day.

Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg runs until 8th January.

The colour, characters and vibrant life of medieval Nuremberg are at the heart of this glorious opera about a singing contest.

Tickets £9– £208 (Eve and Mat) www.roh.org.uk/meistersinger

For more news, events, offers and activities in the West End, visit www.westendlondon.com Your guide to the wonderful West End 03

Browse beautiful bespoke suits on London’s worldfamous Savile Row.

This Christmas season, walk the ‘Mile of Style’ under a canopy of glittering lights whilst you seek out that special Christmas gift on London’s famous Regent Street.

Restaurants in Regent Street’s food quarter (Heddon and Swallow Streets) are hosting special Christmas meals throughout December.

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Disabled Bays Theatres This product includes mapping detail licensed from Ordnance survey with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. © Crown copyright and/or database right 2011. All rights reserved.

Licence number LA 100019597

Visit the beautiful Mayfair Library – an oasis of calm in the heart of theHyde Park Corner West End.

04 Your guide to the wonderful West End

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Visit a bastion of world cinema with a rich cinematic history and a dedicated audience of film enthusiasts, the Curzon Mayfair.

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Discover Kingly Court – a stunning open air courtyard with 30 independent fashion and lifestyle boutiques: three floors of one-off creations, unique products, cafes, restaurants and bars.

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Raise the stakes with a visit to the Ritz Club at the Ritz London Hotel and Casino, or experience the ultimate in Luxury in one of five types of suite available.

Celebrate Chinese New Year on 29th January in London’s famous Chinatown.

2012’s New Year of the Dragon celebrations are set to see the most spectacular yet. www. chinatownlondon.org/

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Pure indulgence for adults and children at the ice cream parlour at London’s famous Fortnum and Mason.

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Head to Leicester Square to see the official London 2012 mascots Wenlock and Mandeville in screenings at Odeon cinemas, then visit M&M’s WORLD® London.

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Covent Garden’s muchloved reindeer petting is back this year in the Piazza, every Saturday from 12midday-5pm.

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For original gifts this Christmas look no further than Seven Dials, who have added a handful of pop-ups to their collection of independent boutiques, heritage brands and vintage stores.

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan exhibition at the National Gallery until 5th February 2012.

Your guide to the wonderful West End 05

Getting to the

West End Every day and night Westminster City Council works to ensure the streets of central London are clean and safe and seeks to promote the West End as a vibrant place to visit and do business.

Successful cities are inevitably busy and often congested and the council uses parking controls to manage the number of vehicles staying in the centre and the time they remain parked in busy streets. In the West End there are places for people to park on the street as well as in off-street car parks. There are special places for disabled drivers to park, and there are a number of Car Club bays for people who want to drive, but don’t own their own car. The West End is also served by world-class public transport including trains, buses and tubes, and by London’s world-famous ‘black cabs’.

There are 17 safe, secure car parks in the West End. There are many car parks in the West End, and from January 2012, many of them will be offering special discounts to people driving in to the area in the evenings.

Make the most of your visit to the wonderful West End and take advantage of one of these great offers from Q-Park: • Q-Park Trafalgar, Soho, Burlington Street and Oxford Street car parks (marked on the map) will be offering a rate of only £2 per hour for overnight parking from 6.30pm – 7am. Customers can park all night between these hours for just £8.

All of these car parks are within a 15 minute walk of Leicester Square. n Q-Park Trafalgar is 5 ½ minutes walk n Q-Park Soho is 7 minutes walk n Q-Park Burlington Street is 11 minutes walk n Q-Park Oxford Street is 15 minutes walk

Public transport in the West End The West End is served by 10 tube stations, 1 rail station and numerous buses, many of which run throughout the night.

To find out about buses and night buses to and from the West End, visit www.tfl.gov.uk/buses

• Theatre-goers can get 50% off the cost of their parking in Q-Park car parks across the West End at Chinatown, Soho, Trafalgar, Oxford Street, Park Lane and Pimlico. Q-Park have worked with the Society of London Theatre to put together the deal, which is open to audiences at 42 London theatres. You can find out more at www.q-park.co.uk • These two offers can be combined for £1/hour parking in the West End. • Businesses and other organisations can also get special deals which can reduce the cost of parking to as little as £5 all night for their staff or members in the evenings, and on Sunday. Contact 0207 402 5916 or info@q-park.co.uk if you would like to know more.

06 Your guide to the wonderful West End

Westminster postpones new parking policy until after Olympics

NCP car parks are offering affordable evening and weekend parking across all of their 50 London car parks for businesses in the area. For further information please contact the London team at NCP on 020 7406 6916.

You may have read in the press about Westminster’s plans to introduce new parking charges in a small area of central London on evenings and Sunday afternoons, from January 2012. The council has now postponed the implementation of these proposed policies until after the Olympics next year.

All of the casinos in the West End are within a five minute walk of a secure offstreet car park.

This follows a High Court decision to consider the proposals in more detail through a judicial review.

We are a council that abides by the law so we recognise the significance of this decision.

FREE Parking in the West End this Christmas and New Year

There is a very real problem with traffic congestion in the West End and we continue to stand by that.

We are confident that we will be successful at the Judicial Review hearing on the strengths of our arguments, the comprehensive consultation and the need to make central London less congested.

On Christmas Day, 25th December, there will be free parking throughout the city, as no parking controls will be enforced. On Monday 26th December (Boxing Day), Tuesday 27th December and Monday 2nd January Sunday controls will apply, which means more free parking at Pay by Phone and Pay and Display bays (please note controls at some resident bays and other special bays will still apply).

However, London faces many challenges in 2012 and we do not wish this public debate to become a distraction to preparations for the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. Westminster has an important part to play in both these national celebrations and will be devoting substantial effort to making them both a success.

Half Price Car Parking for up to 24 hours

The judge rejected 10 of the 12 grounds for judicial review submitted by the applicants, but it does also require us to postpone implementation of the scheme, pending the full hearing.

As a result of this we have decided to postpone implementation of the new parking rules until after the Olympics even if we are successful at the Judicial Review hearing.

Q-Park Theatreland parking scheme

We will of course use the intervening period to discuss our policy and continue to listen to the concerns of residents, visitors and business who like us want to see congestion reduced while sustaining the economy.

We will also continue to work every day to make the heart of London experience cleaner, safer and more vibrant.

Cllr Colin Barrow Leader of Westminster City Council

Sponsored by Q-Park: Affordable parking in the heart of london

To find out more, visit www.westminster.gov.uk/ parkingpolicies2012 or download a copy of the council’s guide to parking in the city, ParkRight from www.westminster.gov.uk/parkright Your guide to the wonderful West End 07

Help keep the West Total eclipse of the arch On Saturday November 19th, in partnership with Veolia, business End wonderful: the New West End Company and local artists, the council built a don’t drop litter group 15 cubic metre model of iconic Marble Arch, using the amount of litter The council takes its responsibility for keeping the streets of Westminster clean very seriously: sweeping and cleaning the streets every day, picking up 17,000 tonnes of litter from the streets each year, but also making it as easy as possible for people not to litter, by providing on-street rubbish and recycling bins throughout the city.

It’s everyone’s responsibility to play their part:

dropped in one day on Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street.

If we added in the litter dropped in the rest of Westminster, it would only take two days for us to fill a full size replica of the famous landmark.

The result: A total eclipse of the arch, showing just how much litter is dropped on your streets, and what a huge undertaking it is for the council to keep the city clean and tidy.

Search for ‘Total eclipse of the arch’ on Youtube or visit www.westminster.gov.uk/yourstreets to see how we did it.

Businesses can work with the council to help keep the streets clean and tidy Residents can take pride in where they live, and help maintain the high standards that the council sets for clean, tidy, safe streets at the heart of the capital.

Visitors can respect the work others do to make this a wonderful place to visit, and treat our city as if it was their own.

The majority of people already play their part: Make sure you’re one of them

SAVE UP TO £6 ON SENSATIONAL SHOWS Enjoy a saving of £3 per person on half price and discounted theatre tickets with this voucher only at tkts Leicester Square.

T&Cs: Save £3 per ticket. Two tickets per voucher. Not valid on full price tickets or any other offer. Valid until 31/03/2012 only at tkts Leicester Square. Sales are at the discretion of tkts staff.

tkts is the half price and discount theatre ticket booth offering tickets at fantastic prices and for a wide range of London’s West End shows including musicals, plays, opera and dance. Tickets can only be purchased in person with hundreds available for on the day performances and up to a week in advance. The popular theatre ticket shop is based in the clocktower building, south side of Leicester Square. The official booth is run by the Society of London Theatre, with over 30 years of experience, you’ll find tkts trustworthy and well informed. www.tkts.co.uk

08 Your guide to the wonderful West End

shopping, entertainment & culture

like nowhere else