The Time Out London blog team

It’s now much less than two months until Christmas. And while we’ve only just got past Halloween and Bonfire Night London is fully preparing for the festive season. Pantomimes are being announced, ice rinks are open for bookings and choirs across the capital are warming up their vocals ahead of some magical carol concerts. But Christmas doesn’t truly start in London until its thousands of glimmering Yuletide lights are set aglow. Now, the switch-on date of one of the city’s most iconic Christmas light displays has been revealed, as Covent Garden has confirmed when its lights will dazzle for 2025.  RECOMMENDED: Time Out’s guide to Christmas in London 2025.  More than 300,000 lights will dazzle across the Piazza, Seven Dials, Neal’s Yard and surrounding streets. The shining golden bells lining the roof of the Market Building will be back, as will the sparkling 55ft British-grown Christmas tree.  Covent Garden is also bringing back its Christmas-themed cocktail bar Miracle at Henrietta Experimental for the occasion. Stationed at 10 Henrietta Street, it’ll be double the size of last year’s bar, with cocktails like the Christmapolitan and Snowball Old Fashioned on offer. It opens for business on November 10 and is available to book right now.  Covent Garden Christmas lights switch-on date You can watch Covent Garden’s Christmas lights come to life on Wednesday, November 12. ICYMI: the exact date that Winter Wonderland will return to London’s Hyde Park for Christmas 2025.  Get...

In London, the battle between beloved local destinations – be them shopping centres, nightclubs or cinemas – and developers never stops. The latest popular spot to face demolition in the face of developments is ‘hidden gem’ Gabriel's Wharf on the South Bank. Home to a dozen independent businesses, Gabriel’s Wharf opened to shoppers in 1988. Business owners on the site have now been told that they must move out in a year's time as the site is going to be demolished. Current indie businesses in the wharf include jewellery makers, clothing designers, pottery makers, art galleries and a variety of food artisans.  However, Gabriel Wharf is expected to close before Christmas 2026, as Coin Street, the social enterprise responsible for redeveloping the area in the early 1980s, wants to regenerate the site into a new ‘meanwhile use’ space while they decide more permanent plans for the future. There are also plans to build a nursing home on the site within the next 10-15 years.  Current traders have been told they must cease trading by September 27, 2026.  Photograph: Elena Rostunova / Shutterstock.com Gabriel's Wharf Tenants Association is due to meet Coin Street and Florence Eshalomi, the MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, on Thursday (November 13) to discuss the issue. Liz Mathews, who co-owns Potters’ Yard, a pottery studio, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the traders asked for an extension to trade until the end of 2026 so they could have ‘two more...

Scrooges beware, because it’s that time of year again. Norway is getting ready to send Britain a massive fir tree to be put up in Trafalgar Square for Christmas, as per the annual tradition.  Every year, our friends in Oslo cut down a huge spruce to send across the pond as a Christmas gift. The tree is felled in a ceremony just outside the Norwegian capital, with the tradition dating back to the end of World War II as Norway thanked Britain for its support during the war.  Now the exact date and time the tree will be switched on in central London has been announced, people. Get ready to feel all the festive feels.  RECOMMENDED: The best Christmas lights displays in London. What date will the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree turn on? The fir usually arrives in London at around the start of December, after it’s chopped down in Norway in late November. Now we know the official date its lights are going to be switched on in the square. The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree will light up on December 4 in a festive ceremony. Festivities will kick off at 5pm, with the illumination taking place at 6pm sharp. Throughout the very jolly evening you’ll hear carols sung by the choir of the nearby St Martin-in-the-Fields, and live music played by the Regent Hall Band of the Salvation Army. A poem to the tree will be written and read by local children, and there will also be a performance by the Band of His Majesty’s Royal Marines Collingwood. RECOMMENDED: London’s loveliest Christmas tree...