London

With Christmas now less than a month away, the Festive season is in full swing in London. Lights are going up, ice rinks are appearing and loads of special events are going on all over the Capital.

We've gathered together seven of the best Christmassy things happening in London over the next month to get you in the mood.

It's not often that you get on the Tube and stumble across some of the best footballers in the world. However, that's exactly what happened for some lucky Londoners yesterday after the German football team decided to take the unorthodox method of travel.

Germany are in London to prepare for a friendly match against England at Wembley tonight and have taken the opportunity to explore the famous Underground system.

Today, November 5th is Bonfire Night, which means there are stunning fireworks displays across London this evening and over the weekend. We've gathered together some of the very best from every corner of the capital for you to take your pick.

To find your closest display, us this brilliant map to see what's on.

Central London

Lord Mayor's Show

Where? River Thames, SE1
When? Saturday 9th - 5pm
How Much? Free

The huge Lord Mayor's show will be winding its way through the centre of London on Saturday and will end in one of the biggest firework displays in the Capital. Set off from barges on the Thames between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges, more than half a million people are expected to watch from the banks.

Europe's biggest street festival took place in west London over the weekend, as more than a million people joined the party at Notting Hill Carnival. 

Usually the revellers will try to keep their distance from the huge numbers of police, but this year, amongst all the normal stories of arrests, a more feel-good video has emerged of police officers having a dance off with members of the public.

Notting Hill Carnival is an annual street party in its 49th year celebrating Caribbean culture, food, music and dance. Due to the huge numbers of people, the party atmosphere and the large amounts of alcohol and drugs knocking around, there were 6,000 police at each day of the event.

Although there were 279 arrests over the two days, there was no real violence and a police statement read that the festival "went very well" and crime was down on previous years. Along side this, an officer called PC Armstrong posted a link on Twitter to the video below with the caption: 'good community relations in my opinion'.

London Pride was an amazing and colorful experience. Pride's theme of this year was dedicated to ‘Love (and Marriage)' to celebrate the positive steps towards equal marriage in the UK, as well as in various countries around the world. More than fifty events have been taking place throughout June and July as part of the Pride in London festival.

My role as volunteer involved insuring the parade ran smoothly, to enchant the audience and give information out to those who asked. Volunteers were given a t-shirt & a badge, and we were divided into groups of 5 or 6 people with a senior steward leading each one.

The parade started at 1.00pm and went along Oxford Street to Oxford Circus, moved down Regent Street and along Pall Mall, then to Trafalgar Square and finally ended in Whitehall at around 4.00pm. Over 150 groups had registered to take part in the parade, and many organizations joined the event as well.

After the parade, people than moved to Trafalgar Square where there was a big stage and different artists were performing. Soho soon became full of people having food and drinks. The after party took place in many venues around London and it was a great time to meet new people and celebrate Pride together.