Culture Whisper's most romantic places in London this winter 2017
Snuggle up with our guide to the most romantic dates London has to offer for the new year
"Nice arch"... and other things not to say on a first date- unless you're at the Magic Lantern Festival, Chiswick House
Most people aren't ready for January, let alone ready for love. But with Culture Whisper's guide to the most charming and unusual places to go on a date in London, you'll have a head start on Valentines day. While its cold and blue, heat things up with our guide to winter romance.
Laternal Flame: Chiswick House
London's second ever magic lantern display comes just in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the rooster, but it's also conveniently open around Valentines Day. Set at Chiswick House, Chiswick, wrap up warm and explore the grounds, which have been transformed from formal gardens by 'lanterns' in all shapes and sizes. The theme this year is The Silk Road- and this bright walk takes you around the world- starting with a glowing Houses of Parliament, through a menagerie of animals, past parading dragons and terracotta warriors, and into darkness. There's an ice rink and an ice bar, too. Your date won't have seen anything like it before- unless they're prone to particularly trippy dreams.
Open from 19 January until 26 February
Buy tickets here
Lover's Leap: Giselle
Image courtesy Patrick Baldwin/ London Coliseum
Giselle gets the classic ballet production it deserves with a great cast to boot- Bolshoi first ballerina, British dancer Xander Parish comes back to his homeland to star. A peasant girl falls for a Duke in disguise, only to discover he's promised to someone else. Ex-dancer, choreographer Mary Skeaping made her 1971 version as historically accurate as they come. Tragic, beautiful and heartfelt- just what true romance is made of.
11 January - 22 January
Buy tickets here
Make me blush: Flaming June at Leighton House
We love Leighton House Museum, a townhouse studio and 'private palace of art', once owned by Victorian painter Frederick Lord Leighton. It's perfectly preserved in all its aesthetic and Orientalist glory- there's an entirely tiled entrance hall in peacock blue, Leighton's studio upstairs and all the collected objects and curios that he found particularly beautiful. Aesthetes, visit this year, as his masterpiece, the controversial Flaming June has been restored to the house until April only (ironically) from its permanent position in Ponce, Puerto Rico. One of the most romantic paintings ever created- take the most beautiful person in your life and you can discover it together.
Until 2 April
Read more here
Canal Knowledge: The London Shell Company
We loved the London Shell Company's dinner and cruise aboard its narrow boat, the periwinkle blue Prince Regent. It wasn't cheesy, it didn't rest on its laurels, it was just excellent food in one of the most romantic settings possible. Gliding in the canals around Paddington and Little Venice, you're served seafood carefully paired with wine. The boat slots under bridges and ducks below the business district. The food is excellent: "We couldn't decide whether the careful and theatrical dishes or the intriguing wine pairings from independent vineyards captured us most."
Valentines champagne cruises are on week ends for lunch and dinner on the 11, 12 and 17, 18 February
Click here to book
Cheesy romance: Fondue at Walluc
So, you're not going skiing together, but you still want to apres-ski. Cuddle up at one of London's best fondue restaurants and pick from classic cheese fondue spiked with kirsch, or raclette- a slab of reblochon sweating under a heat lamp, from which you can scrape melted pieces directly onto your plate. Meat fondue, or fondue bourguignonne, is a serving of raw cubes of beef, which you cook to perfection yourself in hot oil. Serving a good selection of cosy Alpine delicacies, try Walluc in Shoreditch, an intimate French restaurant, with a good wine list and bar.
40 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch
Best Old Street restaurants
LED me astray: Luminocity
Although London had so many rinks over the Christmas period that it started to resemble a massive curling championship, the Canary Wharf ice skating venue holds the title for being the biggest. Plus, it's weather proof, so no bad hair, and lit, not by fairy lights, but by eight kilometres of LED lights actually embedded under the floor. They shoot under your skates, changing colour and turning the rink into one of those cheesy disco floors. Almost. Beginners, take the earlier sessions. Ravers, go at night. Don't forget to hold hands.
Open from 2 January to 25 February
Buy tickets here
Wake me up before you cocoa: Chocolate masterclass
Making something together can bring you closer as a couple- as can licking chocolate off each other, memorising the tempering process together and eating the ingredients before they go in the recipe. There are loads of chocolate experts around London offering courses alongside their own creations. Melt, a top London chocolate store in Notting Hill, offers frequent, friendly adult courses through January and February. Or you could buy their bestselling sea salted caramel bonbons instead and say you made them.
£50 for 1.5 hours, including truffle and bonbon making
Click here to book
Come into the garden, Maud: Snowdrop day
"Beneath these ice-pure sepals lay/ A triplet of green-pencilled snow". Walter de la Mare compared the tri-petalled snowdrop to the Trinity. We see them as the heralds of the coming spring as they form fragile carpets over the snow. Venture out on the Chelsea Physic Garden's snowdrop days and be rewarded with the first signs of life in bleak midwinter with their special snowdrop season in late January. As well as wandering the grounds you can also take a photography course or painting workshop.
28 January - 3 February, 10am - 4pm
Click here to book
I love you, Hogwarts and all: Warner Brother's Studio Tour
The Valentines meal in the great hall might have sold out but you can still give your date that acceptance letter to Hogwarts and visit the Warner Brother's studios in Watford. See the Harry Potter sets decked out for Christmas until the end of January. This is a thorough, incredible tour with every detail of the films explored with the kind of loving attention you should be bestowing on your date. Paritcularly favourites of ours to spot on your way include the wands of all the cast, the biographies of all the performing animals and the suburbatory that is Number 4 Privet Drive.
Hogwarts in the snow until 29 January
Click here to book
Laternal Flame: Chiswick House
London's second ever magic lantern display comes just in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the rooster, but it's also conveniently open around Valentines Day. Set at Chiswick House, Chiswick, wrap up warm and explore the grounds, which have been transformed from formal gardens by 'lanterns' in all shapes and sizes. The theme this year is The Silk Road- and this bright walk takes you around the world- starting with a glowing Houses of Parliament, through a menagerie of animals, past parading dragons and terracotta warriors, and into darkness. There's an ice rink and an ice bar, too. Your date won't have seen anything like it before- unless they're prone to particularly trippy dreams.
Open from 19 January until 26 February
Buy tickets here
Lover's Leap: Giselle
Image courtesy Patrick Baldwin/ London Coliseum
Giselle gets the classic ballet production it deserves with a great cast to boot- Bolshoi first ballerina, British dancer Xander Parish comes back to his homeland to star. A peasant girl falls for a Duke in disguise, only to discover he's promised to someone else. Ex-dancer, choreographer Mary Skeaping made her 1971 version as historically accurate as they come. Tragic, beautiful and heartfelt- just what true romance is made of.
11 January - 22 January
Buy tickets here
Make me blush: Flaming June at Leighton House
We love Leighton House Museum, a townhouse studio and 'private palace of art', once owned by Victorian painter Frederick Lord Leighton. It's perfectly preserved in all its aesthetic and Orientalist glory- there's an entirely tiled entrance hall in peacock blue, Leighton's studio upstairs and all the collected objects and curios that he found particularly beautiful. Aesthetes, visit this year, as his masterpiece, the controversial Flaming June has been restored to the house until April only (ironically) from its permanent position in Ponce, Puerto Rico. One of the most romantic paintings ever created- take the most beautiful person in your life and you can discover it together.
Until 2 April
Read more here
Canal Knowledge: The London Shell Company
We loved the London Shell Company's dinner and cruise aboard its narrow boat, the periwinkle blue Prince Regent. It wasn't cheesy, it didn't rest on its laurels, it was just excellent food in one of the most romantic settings possible. Gliding in the canals around Paddington and Little Venice, you're served seafood carefully paired with wine. The boat slots under bridges and ducks below the business district. The food is excellent: "We couldn't decide whether the careful and theatrical dishes or the intriguing wine pairings from independent vineyards captured us most."
Valentines champagne cruises are on week ends for lunch and dinner on the 11, 12 and 17, 18 February
Click here to book
Cheesy romance: Fondue at Walluc
So, you're not going skiing together, but you still want to apres-ski. Cuddle up at one of London's best fondue restaurants and pick from classic cheese fondue spiked with kirsch, or raclette- a slab of reblochon sweating under a heat lamp, from which you can scrape melted pieces directly onto your plate. Meat fondue, or fondue bourguignonne, is a serving of raw cubes of beef, which you cook to perfection yourself in hot oil. Serving a good selection of cosy Alpine delicacies, try Walluc in Shoreditch, an intimate French restaurant, with a good wine list and bar.
40 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch
Best Old Street restaurants
LED me astray: Luminocity
Although London had so many rinks over the Christmas period that it started to resemble a massive curling championship, the Canary Wharf ice skating venue holds the title for being the biggest. Plus, it's weather proof, so no bad hair, and lit, not by fairy lights, but by eight kilometres of LED lights actually embedded under the floor. They shoot under your skates, changing colour and turning the rink into one of those cheesy disco floors. Almost. Beginners, take the earlier sessions. Ravers, go at night. Don't forget to hold hands.
Open from 2 January to 25 February
Buy tickets here
Wake me up before you cocoa: Chocolate masterclass
Making something together can bring you closer as a couple- as can licking chocolate off each other, memorising the tempering process together and eating the ingredients before they go in the recipe. There are loads of chocolate experts around London offering courses alongside their own creations. Melt, a top London chocolate store in Notting Hill, offers frequent, friendly adult courses through January and February. Or you could buy their bestselling sea salted caramel bonbons instead and say you made them.
£50 for 1.5 hours, including truffle and bonbon making
Click here to book
Come into the garden, Maud: Snowdrop day
"Beneath these ice-pure sepals lay/ A triplet of green-pencilled snow". Walter de la Mare compared the tri-petalled snowdrop to the Trinity. We see them as the heralds of the coming spring as they form fragile carpets over the snow. Venture out on the Chelsea Physic Garden's snowdrop days and be rewarded with the first signs of life in bleak midwinter with their special snowdrop season in late January. As well as wandering the grounds you can also take a photography course or painting workshop.
28 January - 3 February, 10am - 4pm
Click here to book
I love you, Hogwarts and all: Warner Brother's Studio Tour
The Valentines meal in the great hall might have sold out but you can still give your date that acceptance letter to Hogwarts and visit the Warner Brother's studios in Watford. See the Harry Potter sets decked out for Christmas until the end of January. This is a thorough, incredible tour with every detail of the films explored with the kind of loving attention you should be bestowing on your date. Paritcularly favourites of ours to spot on your way include the wands of all the cast, the biographies of all the performing animals and the suburbatory that is Number 4 Privet Drive.
Hogwarts in the snow until 29 January
Click here to book
