The best Halloween events in London for ghost stories, films and scares

As usual, beloved central London repertory cinema The Prince Charles will be showing more frightening films than Dracula has had bloody dinners during its month-long season of spooky cinema this October. The wildly eclectic programme features more than 80 titles this year, encompassing everything from horror classics and recent hits to niche B movies, all-night marathons and, of course, its famous Sing-A-Long-A Rocky Horror Picture Show (Oct 30 and 31). 

Following a successful debut in 2024, the producers of Kew Gardens’ beloved Christmas trail have seemingly made a fixture of their Halloween trail through the iconic botanical gardens. It’s a light trail, basically, but a souped up one: we’re promised eerie illuminated trees, ghoulish installations, fire performers and more, with a troupe of actors on hand to stoke up our horrors (in a family friendly way, of course).

Thorpe Park is delivering the terrifying goods once again this Halloween with its infamous Fright Nights late openings. Dare to walk through the park’s gates after dark and you’ll be faced with horrifying mazes and bloodcurdling rides to shriek your way through. New for 2026, there’s Tenement, a fully immersive, pitch-black scare maze in which guests only have a faulty handheld light to help them through the darkness. Elsewhere, assassins will try to trap you inside the ‘Survival Games’ labyrinth and a crew of creatures will be watching over you as you try to escape the underground nightclub ‘DeadBeat’. Hop on the park’s Saw-themed ride with swinging pendulum blades, the Ghost Train or the Zombie-filled The Walking Dead rollercoaster. If all of that’s not enough to scare you shitless, there’s always the notorious 236ft-high Hyperia, plummeting you into a dark abyss at 80mph. 

It’s only when you’re waiting on an empty platform at 2am, post-night out that you realise how eerie the Underground is. Parts of the network have existed for more than 160-years and have survived two world wars, so you bet it has plenty of ghost stories to tell. For Halloween this year, the London Transport Museum will take brave souls beneath Clapham South station. You’ll venture down to its dark deep-level shelter, navigating its deserted tunnels, exploring its dimly-lit passageways and listening to tales of its wartime past and true staff accounts of uncanny experiences from across the tube network. There’ll be lighting and immersive sound effects providing extra spooks. Tickets go on sale on September 23. 

London’s newest – and cultiest – picturehouse, Clerkenwell’s Nickel Cinema is celebrating its first ever Halloween in style this October. A thoroughly DIY affair, the grindhouse cinema specialises is the perfect place to catch some niche horror picks. You won’t find Hocus Pocus and Ghostbusters on the programme here; instead, expect slashers, sexploitation films, Italian murder mystery, German industrial cinema and B movies galore, all leading up to an all-day marathon on October 31. Beginning at 2pm on Halloween, the two-day Nickel Cinema Psychotronic Halloween Movie Mash will feature eight horror movies from around the world (which will all remain a secret until showtime) and an exclusive poster sale. Costumes are very much encouraged!

If you're in the mood for a truly, ludicrously spooky bevvy this Halloween, then this pop-up from the team behind Christmas bar Miracle could be for you. The cocktail line-up includes chocolate-laced absinthe brew ‘Widow’s Whisper’, the mezcal-based ‘Clown Pear-anoia’ and ‘What Lies Beneath’, which includes rum and sweetcorn milk. And there'll also be loads of creepy atmosphere, thanks to elaborate scenery and costumed hosts dedicated to making sure you have a spooky time. 

The the Barbican is giving Londoners a rare chance to explore the deep, dark history of the rooms usually kept away from the public. Over 75 minutes, the brand new ghost tours map out nearly 2,000 years of subterranean secrets, exploring Roman ruins and plague pits and dissecting chilling ghost sightings whispered by the staff who’ve worked the night shift. The restricted backrooms of the Pit theatre and Library Stack Rooms house hundreds of books dating back to the 18th century, and the space is reputedly so active with supernatural phenomena that some staff members refuse to go down there alone. 

Hounslow adventure park Hobbledown Heath has had an autumnal makeover complete with a huge pumpkin patch. Great squashes have taken over an expansive meadow on the River Crane, right beside the Hounslow Heath nature reserve. Grab a wheelbarrow and wend your way through the rows of brightly-coloured gourds and take your favourites with you. Book a combined ticket and you can make your pumpkin-picking sesh into a full day out, by sticking around to enjoy Hobbledown’s ultimate adventure playground and zoo, too. Or click through for more places to select a gorgeous gourd this October.

It’s the perfect time of year to explore the grand, gloomy corridors and courtyards of Henry VIII’s haunted palace. Last year, Hampton Court’s Halloween celebrations escaped the walls of Henry VIII’s palace and moved outside, and October half-term 2026 will be similar, as its Wilderness area (as it’s now dubbed) returns, offering ‘a bewitching autumnal trail filled with pumpkins, scarecrows, and seasonal surprises’. Look out for various ghosts wandering the halls (actors, but still might be scary to youngsters) plus a 15-minute storytelling session in William III’s apartments every 45 minutes, sharing ‘The Return of Boo in Wren’s Revenge’.