Things To Do In London Today: Monday 23 December 2013

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This looks EXCELLENT. Wallace and Gromit set to a live orchestra at Barbican, details below.

Listings

BLOOD: Today’s opportunities to donate blood are outside County Hall in Waterloo, Bishopsgate Institute and Hammersmith Town Hall. Free, see site for terms and conditions.

CHRISTMAS MARKETS: Many are still running around the capital. Take a look at our round up and pop to one for last minute shopping, festive drinks and mince-pie-face-cramming.

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS: Still stuck on a gift idea for that certain someone? There are plenty of excellent London-themed presents available, take a look here for what we found this year.

BETHLEHEM UNWRAPPED: A festival of art, film, music, comedy, dance, and food through the 12 days of Christmas begins at St James's Church, Piccadilly. The launch today (which is free) includes the unveiling of a major art installation and the screening of a specially-commissioned film to play on it. See website for full listings, until 5 January

MAGIC: Barons Court Theatre is the setting for an atmospheric family magic show. The Ice Cave Magic Show promises to wow you with "the seemingly impossible" in the theatrical setting of an ice cave. ££12/£8, prebook, until 4 January

WALLACE AND GROMIT: Oh, we love Wallace and Gromit. If you do too then head to Barbican today as a new animation Musical Marvels screens alongside the multi award-winning A Matter of Loaf and Death on the big screen to the backing of a live orchestra. £25-£35, prebook, 10.30am and 2.30pm

CONCERT: Cello and piano duo Y-Squared perform Chopin, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Kapustin at St Martin in the Fields in this special lunchtime concert. Free, just turn up, 1pm

DICKENSIAN CHRISTMAS: London's Charles Dickens Museum has a host of lovely Christmas events taking place over the festive period, and tonight it's a chance to explore the writer's Victorian home after dark, with candles restoring the home to how Dickens would have seen it. £20, prebook, from 6.40pm


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London Connection Puzzle

Congratulations to Paul Baker, the first to spot the connection in last week's clue-words. Samuel Johnson, William Hogarth, Dick Whittington and Sir Robert Grosvenor all have their pets immortalised in sculpture. Johnson's cat Hodge can be found near their former home in Gough Square. Hogarth appears with his pug in a statue on Chiswick High Road. Whittington's statue outside Guildhall Art Gallery includes his possibly apocryphal cat, and another likeness of the moggy can be found on Highgate Hill. Finally Sir Robert stands proud in Belgrave Square, accompanied by two dogs.

From the Archive

Photographs of motorbikes and bikers from 2011. One of them has an inflatable Father Christmas. That's festive.