Every November, central London switches on, and one evening’s walk links the best of it, from a street lit by angels to the theatre where fairy lights were born. It’s also the walk that gave me back a bit of Christmas magic I hadn’t realised I’d lost.
It all started in 1954, the first Christmas after rationing, when one street decided the city needed cheering up, and now the whole West End glows from Covent Garden to Marylebone. I grew up in London and it’s a city that’s very dear to my heart, particularly at this time of year. I love London at the best of times, but when it comes to Christmas, it really puts on a show.
So I set out to walk all of the best Christmas lights in London in one evening: nine sets of lights across five kilometres, from the giant gold bells of Covent Garden to the cosy, leafy lights of Marylebone Village. One display has around 93,000 lights, one is the reason fairy lights exist at all, and one has gone full nineties. This is the route I walked, in order, with the stories behind each street and everything you need to follow it yourself. Use the map to plan your own.
London’s Christmas lights walk at a glance
- The route: Covent Garden, the Strand, St Martin’s Lane, Leicester Square, Regent Street (with Hamleys), Carnaby Street, Oxford Street, Bond Street and Marylebone Village
- Distance: about 5km, all flat
- Time: allow two to three hours with stops, or longer if you break for dinner
- When to start: at Covent Garden around 4pm, as the sky turns dark blue
- When the lights are on: from early November until early January, from dusk until late evening
- Start: Covent Garden or Leicester Square Tube. Finish: Bond Street or Baker Street Tube
Top Tip
Go on a weekday if you can. Saturdays in December are packed, especially on Oxford Street and Regent Street, and a weekday evening in November or early December gives you the lights with room to look up.
Map
Here’s my London Christmas lights walk on a map, with every stop numbered in order. Open it on your phone and follow along as you go.
1. Covent Garden
I started with a bang in Covent Garden, where there are trees and lights and even spinning little disco balls. The Market Building is the showstopper: giant gold bells with red bows, mirror balls and enormous red baubles hang from the glass roof, and under them it feels like Christmas in its truest form. If you only see one display in London, make it this one.
The piazza was laid out by Inigo Jones in the 1630s, and for 300 years after that it was the heart of London’s fruit and vegetable market. Today there are always buskers in and around Covent Garden, and when I arrived, one had the whole crowd singing along underneath the bells. They weren’t necessarily Christmas songs, but with the disco balls spinning, it was fantastic. There’s nothing more Christmassy than seeing people sharing joy and being happy.
This is the heart of theatreland, so it’s very apt that the market has a forest of Christmas trees dedicated to different West End shows. I spotted trees for Six, My Neighbour Totoro, Mamma Mia!, Legally Blonde and Hadestown, a reminder that while this area is all about Christmas at this time of year, it’s about the theatre too. The 50ft Norwegian spruce in the piazza and the Christmas market (open until 2 January) round it off. Truly, I could have stayed in Covent Garden all evening: there’s something mesmerising about those disco ball lights and bells.
If you have a few extra minutes, wander north to Seven Dials and Neal’s Yard, which are lit as part of the Covent Garden display, with a canopy of fairy lights strung around the sundial column.
Getting There
Covent Garden Tube (Piccadilly line) is a two-minute walk away, but its lifts get very busy in the evenings; Leicester Square (Northern and Piccadilly lines) is five minutes’ walk. Covent Garden Christmas market is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 9pm and on Sundays from midday.
2. The Strand and the Savoy
From the piazza, walk down Southampton Street to the Strand, about five minutes. It’s not that often that I pay attention to the Christmas lights on the Strand, but they’re very cute: rows of glowing fairies flying above both sides of the street. They aren’t a random choice, either. There’s a reason the fairies sit above the Strand, and it’s just off it, at the Savoy.
The Savoy Theatre was the first public building in the world lit entirely by electric light. And in 1882, Joseph Swan made the world’s first fairy lights there, to light up the fairies on stage in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe. More than 140 years later, the fairies are back on the Strand, with over 96,000 LEDs running along the Strand and down Villiers Street.
The Strand is a good reminder that London is a functioning city. People are just busy going about their day, and it’s so easy to put your head down and rush from A to B without realising the scale of what’s around you. Look up here.
3. St Martin’s Lane
Walk west along the Strand to Trafalgar Square (where the Norwegian Christmas tree, a gift from Oslo every year since 1947, goes up in early December), then turn up St Martin’s Lane. The lights here are very Christmassy: they spell out St Martin’s Lane between giant Christmas crackers, and every lamp post has its own little pair of theatrical masks.
It’s very much theatre themed, which feels very apt. The cast of Into the Woods, playing at the Noël Coward Theatre, did the switch-on, and this short road is packed with some of the West End’s best shows: Rent is at the Duke of York’s, and English National Opera is at the London Coliseum, the biggest theatre in the West End. If you want to make a night of it, this is the street to book a show on.
Getting There
Leicester Square and Charing Cross Tube stations are both about three minutes’ walk away.
4. Leicester Square
Cut through Cranbourn Street to Leicester Square, about three minutes. In the heart of Leicester Square’s Christmas market, it truly feels like Christmas: if you’d told me it was Christmas Eve, I would absolutely have believed you, with the ice rink, the stalls and the lights all around.
I’d moved from the heart of theatreland on St Martin’s Lane to the heart of film land. This is where the film premieres happen (the last time I walked through, Steven Spielberg was here for the premiere of Disclosure Day), so it’s fitting that the Christmas lights in Leicester Square are stars.
By this point I’d been walking for a couple of hours, it was four degrees and I was getting a bit chilly, so I went for a very British Rekorderlig hot spiced cider from one of the market huts. There’s nothing like a hot mulled drink when you’re feeling really cold. It was lovely and spiced, and the perfect temperature, unlike the mulled wine I had at the fireworks the other day, which was so hot I scalded myself. Christmas in a cup. I’ll basically be drinking everything mulled from now until February. Just a word of warning: navigating the crowds around Leicester Square with a hot cider feels quite perilous.
Tickets
The Leicester Square Christmas market and Skate rink run from 31 October to 3 January, 10am to 10pm, closed on Christmas Day. Book skating slots ahead for evenings and weekends.
5. Regent Street
From Leicester Square, walk west to Piccadilly Circus and turn up Regent Street, about seven minutes. It’s not a Christmas lights in London guide without the big hitters, and if you think of Christmas lights in London, I’m going to guess this is the place you think of. The angels are some of my favourites. Every year I say that I’m just going to be passing by, and every year I find myself staring up at them.
This is really where Christmas lights in London began. In 1954, a newspaper complained that the city was looking a little bit drab, and so Regent Street brought in the lights. Apart from a few dark years in the 1970s, when money was tight, they’ve lit up the street every Christmas since, and now they’re synonymous with Christmas in London. The angels have been here since 2016, and it’s easy to see why they’re such a favourite: you know it’s Christmas when you can see them spread out across Regent Street, flashing and twinkling away in all their glory.
Not every year was a hit, though. In 1998, the lights were handed over to a well-known fizzy drink, which lit up Regent Street with the message “‘Tis the season to be Tango’d”. Let’s just say it did not go down well. Londoners were pretty displeased that one of the best-known spots for Christmas lights in London had been turned into nothing more than a tacky advert, and today it couldn’t be further from the beautiful angels stretched out across the road.
Getting There
Piccadilly Circus (Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines) is at the south end of Regent Street and Oxford Circus (Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines) at the north. Regent Street stays open to traffic, so cross at the lights.
6. Hamleys
About two thirds of the way up Regent Street, stop at Hamleys. If you’re a kid in London, Christmas means Hamleys. The shop itself dates back to 1760, when William Hamley opened a toy shop in Holborn, and it’s been on Regent Street since 1881, which makes it one of the oldest toy shops in the world. Even as an adult, it’s worth popping in for the decorations and the sheer joy of seven floors of toys.
7. Carnaby Street
On Regent Street it’s too easy to head straight for Oxford Street, but there’s a little spot tucked away just off it that’s always such a vibe. Just past Hamleys, turn right into Great Marlborough Street and you’re on Carnaby Street in two minutes. They always choose to do something really different with their lights here, which is why it’s such a joyful little spot.
This year, Carnaby has gone full 90s with its Christmas lights. The theme is Press Play on Christmas, and it’s a throwback to the time when Christmas shopping around here was a full day out. I actually remember those days, before online shopping, when you’d come down to Oxford Street, Carnaby Street and Regent Street to do your Christmas shopping with your family. It was so festive: you’d stop off for a hot chocolate and maybe get some chestnuts from one of the street sellers on the corner. I sound like a Victorian schoolchild, but it really was an all-day event. Carnaby genuinely always does something in complete contrast to Regent Street and Oxford Street, and it’s well worth the detour. It’s also where I broke for dinner, at Padella on Kingly Street, just behind Carnaby, and I set off again rested and relaxed.
Walk the length of the street and duck into Kingly Court, the three-storey courtyard of restaurants and bars just off it, then head back to Regent Street and north to Oxford Circus, about five minutes.
8. Oxford Street
If Regent Street is the first place you think of for Christmas lights in London, Oxford Street is surely the second. This year the theme is Harry Potter. The star lights that have hung here for a few years now are interspersed with huge banners for the four Hogwarts houses, each surrounded by floating candles: Gryffindor was right behind me, with Slytherin over on the other side of Oxford Circus. It’s a fitting theme, too: the world’s largest Harry Potter store opened on Oxford Street just before the lights went up, and the new HBO series of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone premieres on Christmas Day.
It’s so nice to be able to walk along Oxford Street and really enjoy the lights at leisure, because a whole section of it, almost a kilometre between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street, is now pedestrianised. It’s really lovely to walk across what used to be the road, with loads of space, and the lights are huge, crisscrossing all the way along the street. More than anywhere else on this walk, this is where you get the scale of London’s Christmas lights.
Then, walking west, I spotted John Lewis, and it’s just so magical. The lights cascade down the front of the store, it’s all Lego-themed this year, with a giant Lego Santa and his sack of presents, and it is just the cutest.
When I was a kid, my mum used to bring me and my sisters up to Oxford Street to see the lights every year. I used to get so excited, and walking around with my sisters and my mum was just so magical. As an adult, I’ve struggled to recapture what it felt like to see the lights twinkling, but this walk did that. I’m not one to get emotional or too deep in my feelings, but I feel like this walk helped me recapture something I didn’t even know I’d lost until it came back.
Oxford Street followed Regent Street with its own lights in 1959, so they’ve been here for a very long time in one guise or another. Where Regent Street has gone with its angels, Oxford Street’s lights have tended to be a bit more commercial in recent years, and there’s usually a celebrity switch-on.
Getting There
Oxford Circus is at the east end of this stretch and Bond Street (Central, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines, step-free on the Elizabeth line) at the west. John Lewis is between the two, near Holles Street.
9. Bond Street
Cross Oxford Street opposite Bond Street station and walk into New Bond Street for around 93,000 lights. The theme is the Crown Jewels, with jewel-like shapes and sparkling strings hanging across the street, which is about as close as I’m getting to the actual jewels.
The street was named after Sir Thomas Bond, who developed it in the 1680s, and it has been one of the most salubrious streets in London ever since. Even though it’s just off Oxford Street, it’s always a little bit quieter than Oxford Street and Regent Street. Not much, but a little. Walk down as far as Brook Street, then double back to Oxford Street.
10. Marylebone Village
I’d seen so much wonder and amazement by this point, but there was one more special place to finish the walk, just around the corner, and it’s a fitting last stop, because the most famous Christmas story ever written was written nearby. Cross Oxford Street, walk up James Street and Marylebone Lane, and you’ll come out on Marylebone High Street, about 12 minutes from Bond Street.
The lights here are cosier than anywhere else on the route, with curling garlands of golden leaves strung over the high street, made from recycled plastic bottles. Charles Dickens lived on Devonshire Terrace, just south of here, and in 1843 he wrote A Christmas Carol there. That same year, the first commercial Christmas card went on sale in London, so it was a very good year for Christmas.
More than 70 years after one street switched on its first lights, this is still the most joyful walk in London. Finish with a browse in Daunt Books, the Edwardian bookshop on the high street, or a warming drink in one of the high street’s pubs, then head home from Bond Street or Baker Street.
Do
Rather see the lights from the top deck? This Christmas lights open-top bus tour with a live guide takes 90 minutes, covering Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly, Bond Street and the Trafalgar Square tree, with departures every half hour from the London Eye and Green Park.
Handy tips for seeing London’s Christmas lights
When to go
The displays switch on through the first half of November and stay up until early January: Leicester Square’s lights until 6 January and Marylebone’s until 5 January. Most are lit from around 4pm until late evening (Marylebone switches off at 11pm). Sunset is around 4pm from mid-November, so start at Covent Garden as it gets dark and you’ll catch the blue sky behind the bells. Weekday evenings are far calmer than weekends, and the Saturdays before Christmas are the busiest of the year.
What to wear
Comfortable shoes, gloves and a hat. It was four degrees when I walked this route, and you’ll be standing still and looking up a lot. My London packing list has the rest.
Getting around and getting home
The whole route is walkable and flat, and the pedestrianised stretch of Oxford Street makes the second half much easier going. Covent Garden station is the busiest on the route, so start from Leicester Square if you prefer. On Friday and Saturday nights the Night Tube runs on the Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines; otherwise, check last trains on the TfL website. My London travel tips cover contactless fares and more.
Where to stay
To walk out of your hotel and into the lights, stay in Covent Garden, Soho or Marylebone. My guide to where to stay in London goes area by area.
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