Halloween events in London 2026

Halloween in London is no longer one night. The season now runs for about two and a half weeks, from the middle of October to the first Sunday in November, and the things worth doing sell out long before the 31st. In 2026 Halloween itself falls on a Saturday, which means the club nights run properly late and the Night Tube is running when you want to go home.

There are four kinds of Halloween event in this city and they suit completely different evenings. Knowing which one you are booking saves a lot of disappointment.

The after-dark trails

The big ticketed walks through gardens and palaces, lit and staffed with actors. Halloween at Kew runs from Friday 16 October to Sunday 1 November, with timed slots from six in the evening until the clocks go back on 25 October and from four after that, the last entries around half past eight, and three grades of session: daylight for small children, twilight, and moonlight after half past seven for the people who want to be scared. Adults start at twenty-three pounds and children at seventeen, cheaper off peak. Hampton Court is a different proposition and worth understanding before you book: its Halloween runs 24 October to 1 November, it is daytime rather than after dark, and it is included in normal palace admission with no separate ticket, so there is nothing to sell out. These are the ones that sell out. Kew put its tickets on sale in May and the Friday and Saturday evenings go first, so by September a weekend slot means taking what is left rather than choosing. Midweek is still open and is a better evening anyway, because the trail is not walked shoulder to shoulder.

They are more atmospheric than frightening. Take the earliest slot you can stand, because the queues at the entrance build through the evening and the trails run to a timed entry that does not always hold. Check the last train home before you book anything at Kew or Hampton Court; both are a long way out and the return journey is the part people forget.

The daytime family things

The Tower of London runs costumed interpretation and family trails from 24 October to 1 November, included in normal admission and finished by late afternoon. This is the option for children who would hate a scare event, and it costs nothing extra if you were visiting anyway.

The genuinely unsettling ones

Cemetery tours by lantern, the ghost walks that start in a pub, and the small theatre pieces that put twenty people in a dark room. These are cheaper, harder to find, and much better than the big trails if you actually want to be frightened. The lantern tour at Highgate Cemetery is the one to try for, and it is also the hardest to get: these things sell out quietly because they hold twelve people at a time rather than four hundred. The London Dungeon is the opposite proposition, open all season and never full, and it is played for laughs rather than for fear.

The club nights

Saturday 31 October is the night, and because it falls on a weekend in 2026 every club in the city will run a Halloween line-up. Most sell on the door as well as in advance. The Night Tube covers the Central, Victoria, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines on a Saturday, and the Windrush line on the Overground runs too, so getting home is a solved problem this year.

What it costs, and what does not cost anything

The ticketed trails are the expensive part of the season. The free part is better than people expect: the cemetery open days, several museum late openings, and most of the walking tours that start outside a pub. Free does not always mean unbooked, though. The free museum lates release timed tickets a week or two ahead and they go the same day, so put a reminder in your phone rather than turning up hopefully.

Our rule for this page

Every listing below has been checked against the venue’s own published page for this year, and carries a link to it so you can check it yourself. Halloween is the worst season for recycled dates: a great deal of what you will find elsewhere is last year’s page with the year changed. Where a date is the usual annual pattern rather than something the venue has announced, the listing says so. Everything here comes off the moment it ends.