3 best tips to enjoy the Chinese New Year in London

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festival in the Chinese calendar and this year we say goodbye the year of the dragon and welcome the year of the snake!

This Sunday (February 10th) from 10 am, London is ready to celebrate with feasting, fireworks, firecrackers, lanterns and Snake dances.

Here's our 3 best tips to enjoy the Chinese New Year in London: 

Trafalgar Square and Soho are a must

London celebrates Chinese New Year with festivities in Trafalgar Square, Chinatown & Shaftesbury Avenue. Enjoy the colourful floats, music, dancing, Chinese dragons, lions, acrobats, rounded off with a firework display at 5.55pm. This is one of the largest celebrations outside of Asia attracting around 250,000 people each year and you cannot miss it.

Chinese New Year Parade 

The heart of all celebrations will be in Soho, the London’s Chinatown, and it is going to be spectacular. Lanterns, Chinese dragons, delicious food and amazing dancers will surround you and guide you through this magical area.  

Try the street food 

If you want to get in the real mood of the festivity, try the street food and try some of the snacks at the street food stalls. In this way you can avoid to be stuck in a restaurant for hours and you can enjoy the celebrations while tasting delicious and tipical chinese food.

Have your camera ready 

Go out and take a picture with your camera, and maybe you can show us a side of Soho that has never been seen before. 

We would love to see your pictures. You can share them on our Facebook and Twitter page. 

You will always remember your wonderful time in London during the Chinese New Year.

Happy Chinese New Year! 

by Sara Laccone

London Jazz Festival: 9 - 18 November

What better way to start the new month with The London Jazz Festival? 

Boutique London Lets gives you the essentials on one of the London's biggest music festival. Produced by Serious in association with BBC Radio 3, The London Jazz Festival, which runs from 9 to 18 November, is aiming to take jazz to a massive audience, in one of UK's landmark music events.

History

The beginnings: Camden Jazz Week

In the 1970s, the London Borough of Camden had decided to organize The Camden Jazz Week to introduce key international figures, including many of the emerging Europeans, and always committed to UK artists.

Imelda May

Emergence of the London Jazz Festival

The 1992 is the year of the transition that saw the evolution of The London Jazz Festival.

Taking the mix of international and British artists—and a commitment to education activity—that had been at the heart of the Camden weeks, the new Festival began to spread its wings, with the intention of celebrating the place of jazz in a city which was becoming at ease with its rich cultural diversity, and drawing in the venues across London that present music throughout the year.

The London Jazz Festival will host some of jazz's biggest stars, including Herbie Hancock playing his first ever UK solo show, Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Jan Garbarek, Tigran Hamasyan and Paco de Lucia. 

Over 40 hours of the festival's live music will be broadcast on Radio 3, while workshops, talks, masterclasses and films will provide opportunities for thousands of people to get involved.

Check here to discover  What's On and the Event Calendar of the festival. 

Top London Halloween events 2012

Halloween is one week away and you can’t decide what to do right?

Boutique London Lets has found a wide rage of activities for families, kids and adults to make sure you will enjoy the scariest night of the year. 

For kids and families: 

Life 123

• The London Eye Storytelling

The Halloween Storytelling Experience is available from Saturday 27th October to Sunday 4th November 2012 at 1.30pm, 2.30pm, 3,30pm, 4.30pm and 5.30pm.

• London Canal Museum and a trip through Islington Tunnel in a decorated boat

The event will run on Saturday 27th October and Sunday 28th October 2012. The Halloween trip is a unique trip through Islington Tunnel at halloween on board one of London's community narrowboats specially decorated for the occasion with a friendly witch amongst the crew. Be prepared for some surprise sights in the darkness of the 192 year old tunnel!

• Lost Souls Part II Halloween Spectacular - London Aquarium

‘Lost Souls…Part II’ kicks off on Friday 26th October from 8.00pm- 12.30am with a live scare maze through the Aquarium’s Rainforest area.

• Terrifyingly Spooky Afternoon Tea

From October 26th – November 5th, you can taste the selection of scary sandwiches, creepy cupcakes, chilling chocolate and supernatural scones of the Podium Restaurant.

• Halloween Family Fun Day at the Royal Museums Greenwich
  The day will end with prizes for best fancy dress, so make sure you come in your best witch or warlock costume.

For adults:

• The Blood and Tears Walk

If you are planning to go, it is very important to book in advance.

• Simon Drake's Halloween House of Magic

Created by star of Channel 4's 'The Secret Cabaret', Simon Drake, this permanently themed, 4,000 sq ft Victorian mansion is hidden away at a secret Central London location. (You can try google but you will only find 4 totally incorrect addresses. The real location is only found by appointment, by invitation or after ticket purchase).

• Haunted Pubs

England's capital has the reputation of being the most haunted capital city in the world. Discover these pubs and good luck! 

• Up at The O2: Climb of The Cursed

27 October - 4 November 2012 Day and night Halloween climbs take place from 12 noon - 10pm.

• Halloween Screening Party at the Water Poet

Screening of two seasonal classics, 'Hocus Pocus' (1993) and 'Beetlejuice' (1998).

Top September London's events

Do you want to know what's on in London next month? September is nearly here and I have picked the top September London's events! Enjoy and let us know which are your favourite! 

• London 2012 Paralympic Games  Aug 29-Sep 9

Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow says : “Olympics thrilled us, but Paralympics will take us to one of the most exciting places we have been”. 

• Floating Market in Little Venice Untill Sun 9 Sep

Barges and narrowboats have moored up along the towpath to ply their trades, selling everything from books and hats to vintage frocks and handicrafts.It lasts from the 20th of August to the 9th of September, daily from 10am-8pm. 

• Showtime: Bandstand Marathon  Sun 9 Sep 

To celebrate the last day of the Paralympics and the closing weekend of the London 2012 Festival, a triumphant fanfare will be heard from bandstands all over the capital featuring some 500 bandstands and public spaces nationwide.

• Warhol/Mauro Untill Mon 10 Sep

Halcyon Gallery presents a unique exhibition combining rare and original work by Pop Art icon, Andy Warhol, and Italian contemporary artist, Mauro Perucchetti.

• More London Free Festival – Free Film  Sep 12 - 28 

Enjoy open air free film screenings every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. They will screen a mix of classic, cult and contemporary films.

• The Mayor’s Thames Festival  Sep 8-9

This is the closing weekend of the London 2012 Games, and the Thames Festival will be the Mayor’s, and the city’s, final celebration of an amazing year for London. It’s going to be incredible - and unmissable - so put the date in your diary now.

• London Design Festival 2012  Sep 14-23

The London Design Festival will feature hundreds of events that take place across London, showcasing the city's pivotal role in global design.

• Let it be  Sep 14-Jan 19 2013

This is a spectacular theatrical concert jam-packed with over twenty of The Beatles' greatest hits!

• The Great River Race  Sat Sep 15 

This is the London's River Marathon and it is a spectacular boat race up the River Thames that attracts over 300 crews from all over the globe and appeals to every level of competitor from those who enjoy fun, fancy dress and charity stunts, to serious sportsmen and women who like to win. A great fun day out for competitors and spectators alike.

• Another London  (Tate Britain)  Until Sat Sep 15 

Bringing together 180 classic twentieth-century photographs, Another London highlights the vibrancy of the city as a dynamic metropolis, richly diverse and full of contrast.

• Andy Warhol: The Portfolios, Dulwich Picture Gallery  Until Sep 16

This summer, America's master of Pop Art is showcased in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, England's oldest public art gallery. 

• 100% Design 2012 Sep 19-22

100% Design is the largest and most prestigious single-site design event in the UK.  As one of the world’s most important design trade events, 100% Design is the commercial cornerstone of the annual London Design Festival.

• Great Gorilla Run  Sat Sep 22

You can join London’s best all-costume charity fun run – 100's of people, all dressed as gorillas and going ape for a day or just go and watch and have fun. 

• Open House London  22-23 September

This is a unique opportunity to get out and go under the skin of London’s amazing architecture, with over 700 buildings of all kinds opening their doors to everyone – all for free.

• Pearly Kings and Queens Harvest Festival 2012 Sun Sep 30

The festival starts at 1pm at Guildhall Yard with traditional entertainment before a parade to St Mary-le-Bow church for a harvest festival service at 3pm. All harvest festival offerings are donated to the Whitechapel Mission.

• Buckingham Palace Summer Opening 2012 Untill Sun Oct 7

Visit Buckingham Palace, one of the world's few remaining working royal palaces, in London this summer. 

I'm sorry but I can't tell you what it is: Secret Cinema

Although we have spoken recently about cinemas, this time we would like to tell you about a very very special kind of cinema.

Unfortunately I can't tell you what it is. That's the point of Secret Cinema, nobody is supposed to know what they will be doing or which film they will be watching before they turn up. 

Have you ever heard of secret cinema? 

Secret Cinema is an organisation that stages cinema events around London and the UK, selling tickets to audiences without them knowing what film they're about to see. 

Events incorporate theatre, live music and food with the aim of recreating the setting of the film to be screened. 

So If all you want to do is watch a movie, Secret Cinema probably isn’t for you. Its audiences like to act out the movies as much as watch them. 

“It's about creating a social cinema experience where the audience can connect with each other online and at the event." said the Secret Cinema's founder, Fabien Riggall when described the idea behind this innovative concept. 

Since 2007, Secret Cinema has screened classics such as Lawrence of Arabia and Alien to a largely delighted and seriously large group of people who can interact beforehand with film-specific sets and installations and actors dressed as characters from the movie. 

In June Secret Cinema put on the shows of a production of Ridley Scott's Prometheus, launched in tandem with the movie’s national theatrical release by Twenty Century Fox. The shows were produced with the full endorsement from Scott.

The interactive performances invited audience members to step inside the film and create a unique experience and journey, far beyond a traditional 2D or 3D viewing experience.

The line between actor and audience member was blurred with Secret Cinema's online community – it has 60,000 plus Facebook followers – signing up to take part in the London events and then the screening of the film, the identity of which is only revealed on the night of the event.

In one interview released for The Guardian on the 5th July 2012 Fabien Riggall argued that “the traditional way of film distribution just isn't working any more”.

What do you think about this? Do you really think that the traditional cinema is almost dead? And what do you think the cinema of the future could be?

S.

London Diary – October

 
Jay Jopling has opened up a third White Cube gallery in Bermondsey Street, Southwark and it's our hot pick for art in October. The first exhibition runs until 26 November in the South Galleries of the 1.7 acre space and it's entitled Structure and Absence – a study of contemporary abstraction.

Don't miss the Autumn Cheese and Wine Festival this weekend at Southbank Centre Square for tastings, talks and events. We can't resist, and we're sure you won't be able to either.

Both these events are really close to all our Southwark apartments so you won't have to fight the underground crowds.