Seasonal
The 6 Best Things to Do in London in November
November is when London stops pretending it's still autumn and leans into the dark. The clocks have gone back, the light turns gold by half three, and the city answers with fireworks, civic pageantry and the first proper fires of the year. Here are six ways to spend it well, from the season's best game to a heath walk that earns its pint.
In short: our top picks are Alexandra Palace Fireworks & Drone Festival, The Lord Mayor's Show and EFG London Jazz Festival. 6 places in total, chosen on merit, with the full reasoning below.
There’s a particular grace to London in November that the summer crowds never see. The plane trees on the squares go copper and then bare, the river runs cold and quick, and by mid-afternoon the streetlights are already on. It can be a bleak month if you let it. The trick is not to fight the dark but to use it, because this is the city at its most theatrical: gunpowder over the rooftops on the fifth, the Lord Mayor’s gilded coach rattling through the City, jazz spilling out of the South Bank well past closing. Indoors, the kitchens turn to game and the good pubs light their fires. What follows is not a list of one-off dates that will be stale by next year. These are the things that come round every November, the fixtures you can plan a month around and the pleasures that are simply better when it’s dark and cold outside. Pack a proper coat and don’t bother with an umbrella you mind losing.
| Place | Area |
|---|---|
| Alexandra Palace Fireworks & Drone Festival | Muswell Hill, North London |
| The Lord Mayor's Show | City of London |
| EFG London Jazz Festival | Southbank Centre and venues across London |
| Rules | Covent Garden |
| The Holly Bush | Hampstead |
| Hampstead Heath and Kenwood House | Hampstead |
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Editor’s choice
Alexandra Palace Fireworks & Drone Festival
Why we pick itLondon does Bonfire Night better than almost anywhere, and Ally Pally does it best of all, with the whole city laid out below the terrace as the sky goes up. There's a German beer hall, an ice rink and a funfair to fill the hours before the main display, so it never feels like a damp twenty minutes in a field. Go early, claim the view south, and let the cold be part of the fun.
Annual Bonfire Night display and winter festival
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The Lord Mayor's Show
Why we pick itEight hundred years old and still going, the Show fills the City with a three-mile parade of carriages, marching bands and the Lord Mayor's gold state coach on the second Saturday of November. It's free to watch from the kerb and finishes with fireworks over the Thames between Blackfriars and Waterloo at dusk. Find a spot near St Paul's, take a flask, and watch London do pomp the way only London can.
Centuries-old City procession and river pageant
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EFG London Jazz Festival
Why we pick itFor ten days every November the city turns into one long, generous gig, with hundreds of performances from world names to discoveries you'll be smug about later. The Southbank Centre is the heart of it, but the festival reaches clubs, churches and front rooms all over town, and plenty of it is free. A late set in a warm room while it's filthy out is one of the better arguments for the month.
Ten-day citywide jazz festival
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Rules
Why we pick itLondon's oldest restaurant, open since 1798, and November is exactly when you want to be in it. Game season is in full swing, and Rules sources its grouse, partridge and venison from its own estate in the High Pennines, so the kitchen knows precisely what it's doing. Sit under the antlers and the oil paintings, order something that was on a moor last week, and have a Negroni in the upstairs bar first.
Historic British game restaurant
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The Holly Bush
Why we pick itTucked up a flight of steps off Heath Street, the Holly Bush is the platonic ideal of a winter pub: low beams, wood panelling, a warren of small rooms and a proper fire that's been warming walkers off the heath since the 1700s. Come in from the cold, find a corner, and settle in with a pint and the Sunday roast. It feels untouched by the century, which is the whole point.
Eighteenth-century pub with real fires
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Hampstead Heath and Kenwood House
Why we pick itThe heath is at its best in November, when the woods between the ponds and Kenwood turn gold and amber and the crowds thin out. Walk up to Parliament Hill for the view back over the city, then carry on to Kenwood House, which is free to enter and hangs a Rembrandt and a Vermeer as if it were nothing. Time it so you finish at the Holly Bush as the light goes.
Free autumn heath walk and house with art
Before you book
The clocks go back in late October, so by November sunset is around half past four and falling fast. Dress for it: layers, a real coat, shoes you can walk in. Bonfire Night lands on the fifth whatever the day of the week, but most of the big organised displays cluster on the nearest weekend, so book ahead because the good ones sell out. The Lord Mayor’s Show is always the second Saturday and is free to watch from the street, though the better vantage points fill early. For the heath and the pubs, a weekday afternoon beats a Saturday if you can manage it. And keep an eye on the Tube: November weekends often bring engineering works, so check before you set out.
Common questions
What are the top picks in this guide?
Alexandra Palace Fireworks & Drone Festival is our editor's choice: London does Bonfire Night better than almost anywhere, and Ally Pally does it best of all, with the whole city laid out below the terrace as the sky goes up. There's a German beer hall, an ice rink and a funfair to fill the hours before the main display, so it never feels like a damp twenty minutes in a field. Go early, claim the view south, and let the cold be part of the fun. Alexandra Palace Fireworks & Drone Festival, The Lord Mayor's Show and EFG London Jazz Festival lead the guide, with 6 places in total, all chosen on merit.
How does Lamplit London choose its recommendations?
Every place is chosen on merit, after first-hand visits where possible, with no pay-for-placement. Read our full method at https://www.lamplitlondon.com/how-we-choose/.
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