ListingsUpdated Mon 26 Oct
Seasonal events in London
The annual fixtures: Halloween, Bonfire Night, the Christmas markets and lights, New Year, Pride, Carnival. Each has its own guide, rewritten every year with confirmed dates.
Showing free. Clear
Friday
25 December-
Seasonal Free
Christmas Day walk in St James’s Park
There are no trains and no buses on Christmas Day, so the centre belongs to whoever walked. The park is open, the pelicans are in, and Horse Guards is empty enough to photograph.
Saturday
26 December-
Seasonal Free
Boxing Day on Oxford Street
The sales open early and the crowd is at its worst between eleven and three. Go at nine or leave it to the 27th, when the same prices are still there and the street is walkable.
Friday
1 January-
Seasonal Free
New Year’s Day Parade
Ten thousand performers from Piccadilly down to Parliament Square, free to watch from the pavement. Grandstand seats are ticketed; standing anywhere along the route is not.
Tuesday
19 January-
Seasonal Free
Winter Lights at Canary Wharf
Until 30 Jan
Two weeks of commissioned light installations across the estate, free and outdoors, in the part of January when there is otherwise nothing at all. Quietest on a weeknight.
Sunday
7 February-
Food and drink Free
Chinese New Year in Chinatown
The largest celebration outside Asia: lion dances through Gerrard Street, the parade up to Trafalgar Square and stages on the square itself. Free, and packed from midday.
-
Seasonal Free
Chinese New Year parade and stage, Trafalgar Square
The parade leaves Charing Cross Road around midday and the square runs performances into the afternoon. Best watched from the north terrace rather than in the crowd.
Sunday
11 April-
Seasonal Free
The Boat Race
Four and a quarter miles from Putney to Mortlake, free from either bank, and over in about twenty minutes. Hammersmith Bridge and Furnivall Gardens are the good spots.
Saturday
24 April-
Seasonal Free
London Marathon
Until 25 Apr
Free to watch anywhere along twenty six miles. Cutty Sark at mile six and Tower Bridge at twelve are the loudest; the Mall is ticketed grandstands and a wall of people.
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Seasonal Free
Watching the marathon at Tower Bridge
Until 25 Apr
Mile twelve, and the best half mile of the course to stand on. Get there by half nine: the bridge closes to traffic and the north side fills first.
Sunday
25 April-
Seasonal Free
London Marathon
Free to watch anywhere along twenty six miles. Cutty Sark at mile six and Tower Bridge at twelve are the loudest; the Mall is ticketed grandstands and a wall of people.
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Seasonal Free
Watching the marathon at Tower Bridge
Mile twelve, and the best half mile of the course to stand on. Get there by half nine: the bridge closes to traffic and the north side fills first.
Friday
2 July-
Seasonal Free
Pride weekend in Soho
Until 4 Jul
Old Compton Street closes and the whole of Soho becomes the afterparty, which for many people is the actual event. Free, outdoors, and it goes very late on the Saturday.
Saturday
3 July-
Seasonal Free
Pride weekend in Soho
Until 4 Jul
Old Compton Street closes and the whole of Soho becomes the afterparty, which for many people is the actual event. Free, outdoors, and it goes very late on the Saturday.
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Seasonal Free
Pride in London parade
A million people, from Hyde Park Corner down Piccadilly to Whitehall. Free from the pavement, and the stages in Soho and Trafalgar Square run into the evening after it passes.
Sunday
4 July-
Seasonal Free
Pride weekend in Soho
Old Compton Street closes and the whole of Soho becomes the afterparty, which for many people is the actual event. Free, outdoors, and it goes very late on the Saturday.
Sunday
29 August-
Seasonal Free
Notting Hill Carnival: Children’s Day
The Sunday is the family day and the one to bring anyone under ten to. Same route, same sound systems, a fraction of the crush. Free, and the buses stop running near it early.
