--- title: "London Calling: The Week Starting 16th November 2026" description: Winter Wonderland, new ice rinks, the London Jazz Festival's final week and Van Eyck at the National Gallery. Eight things to do in London from 16th November. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-12T13:24:05.592Z updated: 2026-11-12T13:24:52.402Z canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/london-calling-the-week-starting-16th-november-2026 image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-14854912.webp categories: Lifestyle content_type: Guide publication: Rich Woman Magazine schema_type: Article --- This is the week London turns festive in earnest. Hyde Park Winter Wonderland opens its gates, three more ice rinks arrive, the London Jazz Festival plays its final seven days and two of the season's biggest exhibitions open on the same Saturday. It is also Anti-Bullying Week, and the city gives you plenty of chances to show the children in your life what kindness looks like. Here are eight ways to spend it. ## Anti-Bullying Week and Odd Socks Day Anti-Bullying Week runs from Monday 16th to Friday 20th November across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the theme [Break the Silence](https://richwoman.co/article/in-conversation-with-dame-neslyn-how-do-you-break-the-silence-on-bullying-at-work). More than 200 children and young people helped to choose it. On Monday 16th November, Odd Socks Day, children wear mismatched socks to celebrate what makes each person unique. **Make it count:** wear odd socks to work on Monday and tell your colleagues why. Then ask one child in your life an open question, such as 'Is anyone being left out at school?', and listen to the whole answer. ## The Final Week of the EFG London Jazz Festival The 34th EFG London Jazz Festival, [which opened on Friday 13th November](https://richwoman.co/article/london-calling-the-week-starting-9th-november-2026), runs until Sunday 22nd November across more than 60 venues. On Tuesday 17th November, Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca and cellist Vincent Segal play Cadogan Hall, and on Thursday 19th November saxophonist and composer Soweto Kinch returns to the Barbican with the London Symphony Orchestra. On Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd November, the Barbican recreates Peter Cat, the Tokyo jazz club that Haruki Murakami ran before he became a novelist, with tickets from £34. **Insider tip:** the Guildhall Jazz Festival puts on 19 free performances at Milton Court Concert Hall on 18th, 20th, 21st and 22nd November, including the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. ## Hyde Park Winter Wonderland Opens Hyde Park Winter Wonderland returns on Thursday 19th November and runs every day except Christmas Day until Sunday 3rd January 2027. It opens at 12pm on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th November, and from 10am to 10pm on most days after that. Entry must be booked in advance and costs £1 off-peak, £5.50 standard or £8.25 peak, with rides and shows charged separately. **Book smart:** a November weekday is the cheapest and calmest time to go. The nearest stations are Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge and Marble Arch. ## Three New Ice Rinks Open London's skating season grows this week. The Queen's House ice rink in Greenwich opens on Wednesday 18th November among the historic buildings of the Royal Museums Greenwich site. On Thursday 19th November, the riverside rink at Hampton Court Palace and the rink outside the Natural History Museum in South Kensington both open, with the Natural History Museum rink running until 3rd January 2027. Skate at Somerset House, open since 11th November, has tickets from £11 to £28.50. **Make it count:** skate with someone you have not seen for a while. An hour on the ice is impossible to spend on your phone. ## Van Eyck: The Portraits at the National Gallery On Saturday 21st November, the National Gallery opens Van Eyck: The Portraits, bringing together every surviving portrait by the 15th-century Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck for the first time. Alongside the gallery's own Arnolfini Portrait, loans arrive from Berlin, Vienna and Bruges. Standard tickets cost £18, and the exhibition runs until 11th April 2027. **Why go:** these paintings almost never travel, and the gallery describes this as the only time they can be seen together. Faces painted nearly 600 years ago still look back at you as if they are about to speak. ## Peggy Guggenheim in London at the Royal Academy Also on Saturday 21st November, the Royal Academy of Arts opens Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector. It tells the story of Guggenheim Jeune, the London gallery she ran before she became one of the great collectors of the 20th century, through more than 80 works. Tickets cost £17, and the exhibition runs until 14th March 2027. **Why go:** Guggenheim backed artists long before the art world agreed with her. It is a weekend to think about whose talent you could back early. ## Where We Grow at the Foundling Museum On Tuesday 17th November, the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury opens Where We Grow: Nature, Nurture and Childhood, an exhibition on how children grow and what helps them flourish. The museum tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, founded in 1739 to care for children whose mothers could not keep them. Tickets cost £13.50, including museum admission, and the exhibition runs until 18th April 2027. **Make it count:** it is a moving visit for parents and grandparents during Anti-Bullying Week, and a good place to talk with older children about how every child deserves to feel safe. ## Last Chance: Building the Bank at the Bank of England Museum Friday 20th November is your last chance to see Building the Bank: 100 Years On, a free exhibition at the Bank of England Museum on the creation of the Bank's Threadneedle Street building. It is a short visit that fits into a lunch break in the City. **Before you go:** Christmas at Kew is closed on Monday 16th November, so if you planned an evening on the light trail, book another date. ## Your Week in One Line Wear odd socks, listen to jazz, look into a face painted 600 years ago and say something kind to someone who needs to hear it. London is giving you a week to be seen and to make sure others are seen too.