The London region will be saying goodbye to 2021 and ringing in the new year this weekend, and with those celebrations come plenty of closures in the city for the first day of 2022.
Here’s a list of what’s open and closed in London on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022.
What’s open:
- All Rexall stores (with reduced hours).
- These Shoppers Drug Mart stores: 510 Hamilton Rd., 1225 Wonderland Rd. N (Sherwood Forest Mall), 1224 Commissioners Rd. W (Byron).
- Some bars and restaurants may be open on New Year’s Day. (Check ahead.)
- Movie threatres, including Silvercity London, Westmount Cinemas and VIP, Imagine Cinemas Citi Plaza, Hyland Cinema.
- London Transit is operating on a Sunday/holiday schedule.
- The city’s COVID-19 assessment centre and its mass vaccination clinics. (Information on assessment centre hours can be found here, while information on vaccination clinic hours can be found here. Information on pop-up clinics and more can be found on the Middlesex-London Health Unit website.)
What’s closed:
- Most convenience stores, bars, and restaurants.
- Shopping malls, such as CF Masonville Place, Westmount Shopping Centre, White Oaks Mall.
- All Beer Store locations.
- All Beer Store and LCBO locations and the Labatt Retail Store. (On New Year’s Eve: Beer Stores will close at 6 p.m., select LBCO stores will operate on extended hours, and the Labatt store will be open until 5 p.m.)
- All London Public Library branches. (All locations, excluding Glanworth, will be open from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.)
- City hall and a number of other city services are closed until Jan. 4, 2022. A full list of closures and reduced hours can be found on the city’s website.
- Canada Post offices.
- ServiceOntario offices.
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What is and isn’t happening for New Year’s:
Some small New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day events are taking place. A list can be found on the Tourism London website.
The city is scrapping a New Year’s Eve celebration in Victoria Park for the second year in a row over concerns about the highly contagious Omicron variant, which has been driving an explosion of COVID-19 cases across the province.
In a tweet last week, the city said the decision to axe an in-person celebration was “difficult but necessary,” and came in response to the variant and increased pandemic restrictions.
“We had hoped to be able to once again offer an in-person celebration in Victoria Park,” the city tweeted.
“In the interest of public health and safety and to do our part to limit the spread of COVID-19, we are not able to do this. We know that this will be disappointing news for many. Our hope is that we will be able to meet in person again in 2022.”
The colourful lights in Victoria Park will turn off Jan. 1.
On another holiday note…
With Christmas now in the rear-view mirror, the city is reminding residents that, like last year, there will be no special curbside collection of Christmas trees and other winter greenery this year.
The curbside pickup option was scrapped at the start of 2020 as a cost-saving measure.
Those looking to dispose of their tree are asked to drop them off at one of the city’s EnviroDepots, and that all Christmas accoutrements be removed before dropping the tree off.
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