What's on in London during February, 2009. Highlights from London's ticketed events; Heritage & Pageantry, Performing Arts, Fairs and Fine Art Exhibitions, London Fashion Week and sporting events. Compiled by Burlington Bertie, OfftoLondon's Man About Town.

Tea Dances at Paul Hamlyn Hall

London Fashion week Experience
Date: 4 8 March, 2009.
Venue: Natural History Museum, SW7. Tel: 0870 112 9088; and various venues.
Further info and Tickets: 43.50. Email Georgina@single-market.co.uk
London Transport: Nearest Tube: South Kensington.
Description: Treat your Valentine to the most stylish London Fashion Weekend experience with a Valentine Gift Package. This includes entrance to the event, best seats at the Catwalk, an Official Limited Edition Shopper Guide and 30 minutes of personalised style advice from a team of professional stylists. While your Valentine settles in with a complimentary glass of wine she will hear about the latest trends from London Fashion Week, the colours that suit and the styles for each shape so that she can experience the confidence of shopping with all of the latest fashion knowledge enabling her to compile the perfect Spring/Summer wardrobe with the able help of your credit card!

Hampton Court Palace
Venue: Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, KT8, 9AU. Tel: + 44 (0)844 482 7799.
Date: Daily, 10am-4.30pm until end February, (winter opening times).
Tickets: £13.30, (concessions and online discount) until end Feb, 2009. Prices may change.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: Richmond.
Description: Must see sights include Henry VIII's Great Hall and Tudor kitchens, the Maze and the celebrated Gardens. In depth description
Wheelchair Accessibility: Yes. The ground floor of the Palace is wheelchair accessible and there are limited facilities for viewing the upper floors with the use of an elevator. Adapted Toilets: Yes. See Palace Disabled Access for full details and help.

Buckingham Palace State Rooms
Venue: Buckingham Palace, Westminster, SW1A 1AA.
Access: 1 February, 11, 12, 13 April, 2009, (special guided tour with champagne);
Tickets: £65 with champagne. Take advantage of special online discounts and advance booking.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: Victoria Rail Terminal; Hyde Park Corner; Green Park.
Description: An expert guide takes you on an Exclusive Guided Tour, while the Palace is unoccupied and The Queen is in residence at Sandringham. This gives you a very special insight into the history and use of the State Rooms, and the many works of art on display. The tour lasts approximately 2 hours. Each tour is limited to 30 members, so early booking is essential. 2009 General public admission dates: 1 August - 27 September; 9.45am - 6pm. £16.50.

Kensington Palace
Venue: Kensington Gardens, W8 4PX. Tel: 0870 751 5170.
Date: Daily, 10am-5pm, (winter opening times).
Tickets: £12.30, (concessions and online discount) until end February, 2009. Prices may change.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: High Street, Kensington.
Description:. As well as the fascinating exhibition of Court Ceremonial dress which gives us a good idea of the splendour of the British Court, (compare this with the V&A Museum Exhibition The Magnificence of the Tsars), there is a great deal worth seeing, from the Cupola Room, where Queen Victoria was baptised, to the exquisite trompe d'oeuil ceiling executed by Palladian architect William Kent for George II, (1722). While the original State Rooms have been turned into a museum, this is still a working palace and Royal Residence, housing working members of the Royal Family. Princess Diana lived here after her divorce.
Wheelchair Accessibility: Yes.

Clarence House
Venue: St. James's Palace, SW1A 1BS, (entry from the Mall). Tel: 020 7766 7303.
Access: Summer opening. 10am-3pm, 5 August - 27 September 2009.
Tickets: £8, (concessions), Take advantage of special online discounts and advance booking.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: Green Park.
Description: Built by John Nash for the Duke of Clarence who became King William IV from 1830 until 1837 and used it as his palace, it was later the home of The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh following their marriage in 1947, and thereafter the London home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother from 1953 until 2002. It is now the official London residence of Charles Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.

The Royal Mews
Venue: Buckingham Palace, Westminster, SW1A 1AA, London. Entrance in Buckingham Palace Road.
Access: Summer opening. 11am-4pm, 28 March - 31 October, 2009.
Tickets: £7.50, (concessions), Take advantage of special online discounts and advance booking.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: Victoria Station.
Description: The Mews houses the Queen's horses in what are undoubtedly one of the finest working stables in existence. Also on view are the Monarch's State Coach and other official vehicles

Kew Palace
Venue: Kew Gardens.
Access: Summer opening. 10 April.
Tickets: £5, (concessions). London Transport: Nearest Tube: Kew Gardens.
Description: The country palace of George III, (d.1820) and his Queen Charlotte, Kew Palace has recently been meticulously refurbished under Royal patronage and is a masterpiece of Georgian taste, decor and furnishings.

Palace of Westminster
Access: Open to overseas visitors during the Parliamentary summer recess in August and September, 2009. Exact dates to be announced. Guided tours daily, Monday to Saturday inclusive.
Venue: Westminster, London SW1A 1AA.
Tickets: Online only.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: Westminster.
Description: This is an unrivalled opportunity to see the Victorian Neo-Gothic magnificence of the Palace of Westminster with its debating Chambers of the 'House of Commons' and 'House of Lords'. Fascinating guided tour.

Sadlers Wells: Tango por Dos
Date: 29 January - 23 February, 2008.
Venue: Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street, WC2. Holborn.
Tickets: £15-£38. Online booking, in person at Box Office, or Tel: +44 (0)844 412 4300.
London Transport: Nearest Tubes: Holborn; Temple.
Description: Buenos Aires Tango, Argentina's top tango company returns with a brand new show direct from Buenos Aires. This year the award-winning company celebrates its 20th Anniversary under the direction of Miguel Angel Zotto. A superb company of dancers, musicians and singers join together to celebrate one of the most striking and hottest dance forms of the moment. Featuring highlights from past shows, this is a display of the Tango at its fiery seductive best. Through a combination of immaculately executed footwork and live music, the audience is whisked through the exotic history of tango - from the smoky backrooms of Argentinean clubs, to the glitz and glamour of the 1920s, to the international sensation it has become today. See also What's On.

Royal Opera House: February Programme
Date: Thoughout the month, 2009.
Venue: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, WC2. Tel: 020 7304 4000
Tickets: £6-£15. Book online.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: Covent Garden.
Description: A month of varied Ballet and Dance, Opera and lectures. Ballet Highlights: La Bayadere, The Seven Deadly Sins/Carmen/DGV. See this: video clip. Bryn Terfel returns to ROH in an intense new production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, (six perfs between 23 Feb and 10 March).

Encore online
Venues: 37 West End and City theatres
Date: Ongoing.
Tickets: Book online with Offtolondon for all seats. Book ahead to avoid disappointment. Description: Your online guide to London's vibrant winter season theatre programme of plays, musicals, pantos and variety.

London Stitch & Creative Crafts Show
Date: 26 - 28 February, 2009. 10.30am-7.30pm, Thurs. Otherwise 10am-5pm .
Venue: ExCel, London. E16 1XL.
London Transport: Check ExCel Online for road, rail and river access details.
Tickets: Buy online for advance discounted tickets, (£6.50), or £9.50 at the door. Concessions.
Description: Over one hundred leading exhibitors display their latest products to see, try and buy. This show covers all aspects of quality stitchcraft including cross stitch, sewing, card making, embroidery, knitting, patchwork, quilting, scrapbooking, ribboncraft, papercraft, stamping, beading, painting, dressmaking, tapestry, decoupage, crochet and many more popular stitch and creative crafts. A great programme of workshops is offered as well as talks from experts. Pick up insider tips and advice, participate in unique make and take workshops, watch exciting demonstrations, enter fantastic competitions and enjoy viewing impressive displays from prestigious craft guilds and societies. Watch this video from the Create and Craft Club
Burlington Bertie's Accommodation Choice: Custom House Hotel, 283 Victoria Dock Road, Custom House, E16 3BY, offers nearby 3-Star comfort right opposite ExCel and the DLR station. London city Airport is just 2 km away. Park at the hotel for a small fee. Hotel facilities include three restaurants. Excellent convenience accommodation for ExCel fairs and exhibitions. Early booking recommended.

The Ally Pally Motorcycle Show
Date: 27 February - 1 March, 2009. 10am-5pm.
Venue: Alexandra Palace, Wood Green, N22 7AY.
London Transport: Wood Green.
Tickets: £12. (Concessions). Buy online., or £15 at the door.
Description: Back where it belongs! Andrew Greenwood's much loved Motorcycle show returns to Alexandra Palace.

Byzantium 330 - 1453
Venue: Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W.1.
Date: Until 22 March, 2009. 10am-6pm. Ongoing.
Tickets: £12, (Concessions). Book Online or pay at the door. Various.
London transport: Nearest Tube: Piccadilly, Green Park.
Description: A thrilling and epic exhibition of over 300 objects including icons, detached wall paintings, micro-mosaics, ivories, enamels plus gold and silver metalwork. Mounted in collaboration between the Royal Academy of Arts and the Benaki Museum in Athens, this exhibition highlights the splendours of the Byzantine Empire over 1000 years of its history that began with the founding of Constantinople in 330 AD by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great and ended with the capture of the city by the Ottoman forces of Mehmed II in 1453.
Wheelchair accessibility: Yes. Adapted Toilets: Yes.

The Magnificence of the Tsars
Venue Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL. Tel: 020 7942 2000
Date: Until 29 March 2009.
Tickets £5, (Concessions). Timed entry. Book online.
London Transport Nearest Tube. South Kensington.
Description Temporary Exhibition. This exhibition illustrates Russia's relationship with her past and with Europe through two centuries of men's court dress. Curated and mounted by the Moscow Kremlin Museums together with the Armoury Chamber, they form Russia's oldest national treasury, founded in 1806. Their collections include the dress and regalia worn by the emperors and the Russian court from the 1720s to 1917. This sumptuous exhibition of over 100 garments focuses on men's dress, particularly the coronation dress of the emperor and other participants in ceremonies at court and explores the influences and crossovers between military uniform, court dress, European fashion and traditional Russian dress, showing the power and majesty of masculine uniform at its richest and finest.
Wheelchair Accessibility: Yes. Adapted Toilets: Yes.

Sherlock Holmes Museum
Venue 221b Baker Street, NW1 6XE. Tel: 020 7935 8866.
Tickets Adult £6, Child £4. Daily 9:30a.m. - 6:00p.m. Discount Group admissions for 10 + persons. Advance booking telephone: 020 7738 1269, Online or email: info@sherlock-holmes.co.uk
London Transport Nearest Tube. Baker Street. Nos 13 and 139 buses run between Baker Street and Trafalgar Square. The trams and horse drawn hansom cabs of Holmes's day are regrettably a thing of the past.
Description Permanent Exhibition. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson lived at 221b Baker Street, (built 1815), between 1881-1904, according to Holmes's biographer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The famous 1st floor study, where the world's most illustrious detective played the violin while pondering and solving those mystifying cases before the use of fingerprints or DNA made detection so much easier, is still faithfully maintained as it was kept in those late Victorian and Edwardian days of gaslight, horse drawn Hansom cabs and London fogs. Nothing has changed. The rooms are exactly as described by Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes's possessions are in their usual places: his deerstalker, magnifying glass, calabash pipe, violin, chemistry equipment, notebook, Persian slippers and disguises, soda water gazogene on the sideboard. Dr Watson's hand-written notes made at the time of the famous case of the Hounds of the Baskervilles may be perused and visitors will be interested to admire a waxwork in the likeness of the infamous Moriarty. Strongly recommended to all admirers of Holmes.
Wheelchair Accessibility: No.

Imperial War Museum: For Your Eyes Only
Venue: Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ. Tel: 0207 416 5320.
Date: Until 1 March 2009.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: Lambeth North; Elephant and Castle; Waterloo, (wheelchair accessible); Southwark, (wheelchair accessible). Carparks: Union Carparks/53 Southwark Street.
Tickets: £8.(Concessions). Book online. The rest of the museum is FREE.
Description: Temporary Exhibition. A celebration of the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth with a fascinating exhibition devoted to his James Bond, the 007 gizmos and gadgetry, and Fleming's own remarkable life and wartime experiences. A special book is available to accompany the exhibition.
Wheelchair Accessibility: Yes. Adapted Toilets: Yes, on all floors bar the 3rd and 4th. Accessible cafe on ground floor. The Museum has a number of manual, folding frame wheelchairs that can be borrowed for the duration of your visit. Check for full details.

Leighton House Museum and Art Gallery
Venue: 12 Holland Park Road, W14 8LZ.
Date: 11am-5.30 pm daily except Tuesdays, 2009.
Tickets: £3, (Concessions). Pay at door.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: Kensington; High Street, Kensington. Carparking: Olympia Hylton NCP.
Description: Permanent Exhibition. Victorian opulence in art and architecture shown at its best and most spectacular, (or worst and most decadent if your taste is for modern minimalist). The former studio-house of the great Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896), who designed and decorated it between 1864 and 1879, the house is one of the most extraordinary buildings of the nineteenth century. Filled with golden mosaics, gilded walls, elaborate paintwork, domed ceilings, trickling fountains, cool marble and peacock blue tiles. Leighton House also became home to the owner's extensive collection of Victorian paintings, 81 of which are exhibited here together with a fine collection of ceramics and lustreware. Over 1000 Islamic tiles adorn the Arab Hall, reflecting the influence the East had on Lord Leighton following his travels. It forms the centrepiece and focal point of the house. The Arab Hall, Dining Hall or Studio are available to hire for receptions and functions.
Wheelchair accessibility: No.

British Museum: Babylon, Myth and Reality
Date: Until 15 March, 2009. 10am-5pm daily.
Venue: British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG. Tel: 020 7323 8299.
Tickets: £8 (Concessions). Buy online, (strongly recommended); Box Office 020 7323 8181, or queue at the door.
London transport: Nearest Tube. Tottenham Court Road; Russell Square.
Description:. The myth of Babylon has haunted the European imagination for two millennia. The Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens, Belshazzar's Feast and the Fall of Babylon have inspired artists, writers, poets, philosophers and film makers. See here the 'real' Babylon - an imperial capital, a great centre of science, art and commerce. Drawing on the combined holdings of the British Museum London, the musée du Louvre and the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, and the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, this special exhibition explores the continuing dialogue between the Babylon of our imagination and the historic evidence for one of the great cities of antiquity at the moment of its climax and eclipse. Choose from a number of videos of this special exhibition.
Wheelchair Accessibility: Yes. Adapted Toilets: Yes.
See also Shophound Alexia's FREE London.

Tate Britain: Van Dyck and Britain
Date: 10am-5.40pm.
Venue: Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG. Tel: 020 7887 8888
Tickets: £12.20. (Concessions), Online booking or at the door. Other parts of the Tate have free entry.
London transport: Nearest Tube: Embankment. Also Riverbus between Tate Britain and Tate Modern via Westminster.
Description:. Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) was the greatest painter in seventeenth-century Britain. Though trained in Flanders, he had a huge impact on British cultural life as the principal painter at King Charles I's ostensibly elegant court, where his impact was similar to that of Hans Holbein at the court of Henry VIII. This visually sumptuous exhibition brings together some of the finest and most magnificent paintings that van Dyck produced during his years in Britain. It also reveals his continuing visual legacy through portraits by artists from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, including Sir Joshua Reynolds and John Singer Sargent. Featuring loans from The Royal Collection and The National Trust, this exhibition explores the context of van Dyck's key English works, examining his innovative approach to painting the British elite. It also looks at his use of costume and his luscious, sparkling depiction of the rich fabrics of the period, and how his art was itself influenced by more local British painting.
Wheelchair Accessibility: Yes. Adapted Toilets: Yes. See also the Tate's special programme for disabled visitors.
See also Shophound Alexia's FREE London.

London Ghost Walks
Venue: Departs from Bank or Blackfriars Underground station.. EC. Tel: 020 8530 8443
Date: Tues/Fri/Sats. 7pm-9pm. Check website for 2009 date confirmation.
Tickets: £7. Online Booking
London Transport: Aldgate East, (District, Hammersmith and City Lines).
Description: Alleyways and Shadows; Ghosts, Ghouls and Graveyards; the titles of these walks, painstakingly researched by author and historian Richard Jones, perfectly conjure the haunting atmosphere of these deliciously spooky tours that venture beyond the busy main roads and twist their eerie way through forgotten medieval and Victorian London. Let Richard Jones lead you to places where the disembodied voices from London's eerie past may just whisper in your ear, as their icy fingers lightly stroke the back of your neck.

The Shakespeare City Walk
Venue: Starts from Blackfriars Tube Station, Exit 8. (Circle and District Line).
Date: Mondays and Fridays, 11am. Ends 7 December, 2007. Tel: 020 7625 5155 before date for confirmation. Recommences 3 January, 2008.
Tickets: £6.(Concessions). Book online or pay guide at start.
London Transport: Nearest Tube. Blackfriars.
Description: Thespian Declan McHugh leads you on a 90 minute walk through the City of London, uncovering often little-known monuments and locations with connections to Shakespeare's life, his friends, his loves and his work, while declaiming the Bard's poetry and prose in true Woolfitt style.

Jack The Ripper's Sinister London
Venue: Selected departure points by coach.
Date: Fridays, Sundays. from 6.40pm
Tickets: From $50.13 per person. Pay online.
Description:Tread in the footsteps of the infamous Jack The Ripper down the dark, narrow, gas-lit alleyways immortalized in such films as "From Hell". Led by one of the renowned London Blue Badge Guides, you will visit four murder sights. Your "Ripperologist" will run through some of the suspects who sparked a Victorian Whodunit that will leave you as gripped as its victims. Approx. 4 hours.

London Eye. Millenium Wheel
Date: Daily.
Venue: Westminster Bridge Road, (Riverside Building County Hall), SE1 7PB. Tel: 0870 990 8883
Tickets: £15. (Concessions). Book online.
London Transport: Nearest Tube: Westminster.
Description: Opened at the beginning of 2000 to celebrate the Millennium, this huge 450-foot British Airways Ferris wheel on the South Bank of the Thames overlooking Westminster gives a fabulous bird's eye view of Royal and Civic London, with spectacular views stretching for 25 miles on a clear day to include views of Windsor Castle. Up to 25 people can fit in each of the wheel's "capsules." The wheel turns surprisingly slowly, taking 30 minutes to go round, so you will have plenty of time to spot landmarks, take photos, propose to your beloved, get married and celebrate the occasion with champagne! Combine your London Eye experience with a Thames River cruise. Online booking discount, (champagne supplied)!

Choose your Hotel OfftoLondon provides expert advice and secure booking facilities for your overnight, 'City Break' or long term London accommodation requirements; from de-luxe 5-star hotels to comfortable backpacker's hostels.

Burlington Bertie's Highlights Memo
Book online NOW for RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Public Days 22-24 May, 2009 to ensure your tickets.