Things to Do in London in January: The Parade, the End of Christmas, Darts, Snooker and the Art Fair

New Year’s Day opens with the Parade, and Winter Wonderland and the Christmas trails close on the 3rd. The darts finish, the snooker moves into Alexandra Palace, and the art fair and the first West End openings of the year follow. Sunset is before 4.50pm all month.

💡 The Short Version: The London New Year’s Day Parade is on Friday 1 January, 1pm to 4.30pm, and it is free to watch standing. Winter Wonderland, Christmas at Kew and the PDC World Darts Championship all end on Sunday 3 January, Somerset House’s rink on 10 January. MimeLondon (the successor to the London International Mime Festival) opens at the Barbican on 12 January, the Masters snooker is at Alexandra Palace on 10 to 17 January London Art Fair is at the Business Design Centre on 19 to 24 January, and Winter Lights lights up Canary Wharf free from 19 to 30 January. Official London Theatre’s New Year Sale launches on 5 January. The Bayeux Tapestry is sold out to 31 March, and the National Gallery is closed on 1 January.

New Year’s Day

The London New Year’s Day Parade — Friday 1 January

The Parade runs 1pm to 4.30pm along Piccadilly, Regent Street, St James’s, Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, and the general public watches free-standing. The organiser expects more than 8,500 performers, from marching bands and cheerleaders to stunt riders and samba dancers, and 600,000 spectators along a 2.2-mile route. Ticket holders arrive from noon. Covered grandstand seats and VIP seats in the finale arena are sold through Ticketmasterad, and a new Fun Zone at Waterloo Place has first-come fold-out chairs, space for your own blanket and toilets. Route and timing are on the London Parade site; the fireworks the night before are in our New Year’s Eve guide.

⚠️ The National Gallery is closed on 1 January, and the King’s Cross Winter Market is shut that day.

Check your train before you travel: the Paddington, Liverpool Street and Charing Cross works below run through the first weekend.

The Bayeux Tapestry: sold out to March 2027

British Museum, Room 30 · to 11 July 2027

You cannot buy a ticket for a January visit. Every ticket from 10 September 2026 to 31 March 2027 has sold out, and tickets for April to July 2027 are due for release in early 2027. Tickets are on the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry page. The room is open Sunday to Wednesday 10am to 6pm and Thursday to Saturday 10am to 9pm. The rest of the museum is in our British Museum guide.

The last of Christmas

Most of the festive attractions run to the first weekend, so plan them for 1 to 3 January.

Winter Wonderland — to Sunday 3 January

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland closes on Sunday 3 January with a Family Fun Day. It is open every day to then, with a timed ticket, and it closes at 10pm. On 28 December to 1 January the gates open at 11am; on the 2nd and 3rd they open at 10am. The Winter Wonderland guide has the gates and prices.

Light trails, rinks and markets

Every rink, price and children’s rule is in our ice skating guide, and the rest of the Christmas run is in Christmas in London.

Festivals and fairs

Winter Lights, Canary Wharf — 19 to 30 January

Canary Wharf’s free light-art trail runs from Tuesday 19 to Saturday 30 January, 5pm to 10pm every evening, with no booking. Temporary light installations and sculptures are spread among the docks, squares and towers, alongside the estate’s permanent artworks. The 2027 theme is RE(IMAGINE), and the artist line-up is announced in January. Stewards hand out paper maps on the night. Weekends are the busiest; a weekday evening is quieter. The Canary Wharf guide has where to eat before or after.

Winter Lights, Canary Wharf.

London Art Fair — 19 to 24 January

London Art Fair is on at the Business Design Centre in Islington from Tuesday 19 to Sunday 24 January, in its 39th edition. Galleries from around the world sell modern and contemporary work straight from their stands, with live performances, installations and talks. Tuesday 19th is the preview evening, 5pm to 9pm, with complimentary drinks (£42.75 in advance, £47 on the door). Public days are Wednesday 20th 11am to 9pm, Thursday to Saturday 11am to 7pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm. A day ticket is £27.75 in advance including the £4.25 booking fee, or £28 on the door; the Wednesday Late session, 5pm to 9pm, is £21.25 in advance. Large bags and rucksacks are not allowed, and there is a cloakroom. Tickets are on the fair’s site. Our Islington guide covers the area.

MimeLondon — 12 January onwards

MimeLondon is what became of the London International Mime Festival, which ended with its 47th edition in 2023. Its two directors now run a season of wordless, visual theatre with the Barbican, Sadler’s Wells, Southbank Centre and The Place, from 9 January to 6 February. The January dates are:

• Modo Grosso, TOUT/RIEN, Barbican Pit, 12 to 16 January. A London premiere in which Loïc Faure juggles chains, needles, wool, volcanic stones and sand to show time passing.
• Michael Zandl, FOOD, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, 13 to 17 January. A circus-theatre feast about consumption; it runs about 55 minutes and the age guidance is 8 and over.
• Gecko, KIN, Sadler’s Wells East, 20 to 23 January. A story of families fleeing and arriving.
• Ockham’s Razor, COLLABORATOR, The Place, 19 to 23 January. A trapeze duet by the company’s two artistic directors.
• Andrew Dawson, ABSENCE AND PRESENCE, Barbican Pit, 19 to 23 January, about loss and memory.
• Miet Warlop, INHALE DELIRIUM EXHALE, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, 23 and 24 January. A UK premiere that mixes dance-theatre, live art and fabric.
• Buster Keaton’s The General, Barbican Cinema 1, Sunday 31 January at 3pm, with live music by Haiku Salut.

Each show is booked through its own venue, linked from the MimeLondon site.

Irish Film Festival London — 27 to 31 January

The 15th Irish Film Festival London moves from November to January this time, running from Wednesday 27 to Sunday 31 January. The opening-night gala is at the Vue in Leicester Square on the 27th, and screenings then spread across London cinemas, with the Irish Film Awards at the Century Club in Soho on Monday 1 February. The programme comes from the organisers, Irish Film & TV UK.

Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show — 28 to 31 January

The holiday and travel show is at Olympia London from Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 January, with tour operators, tourist boards and travel talks under one roof. Tickets are on the show’s site.

Theatre

The New Year Sale

Official London Theatre’s New Year Sale launches on 5 January, with special offers, exclusive ticket prices and dining deals across West End shows. The Society of London Theatre runs it, and the New Year Sale page is where the offers appear. Our London theatre guide covers choosing a show.

Opening in January

• English National Ballet’s Romeo & Juliet, London Coliseum, 14 to 24 January. It runs 2 hours 55 minutes with two intervals and is for ages 10 and over; tickets are from £28. English National Ballet.
• Three and a Bit, Almeida Theatre, from Thursday 14 January to 13 March. Almeida.
• The Seagull, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, from 15 January to 10 April: Chekhov in the Globe’s candlelit indoor theatre. Shakespeare’s Globe.
• Purpose, Royal Court, 16 January to 27 February: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Pulitzer and Tony-winning play, directed by Phylicia Rashad. Royal Court.
• The Guilty, Harold Pinter Theatre, from 18 January to 3 April, with Russell Tovey, after a sold-out run at the Donmar. From £32.27 on Official London Theatre.
• Dirty Dancing, Prince Edward Theatre, 19 January to 24 April. Delfont Mackintosh.

Christmas shows ending

The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker ends at the Royal Opera House on Wednesday 13 January, and Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella ends at Sadler’s Wells on Sunday 17 January. English National Ballet’s Nutcracker at the London Coliseum finishes on Sunday 10 January, and A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong at Wyndham’s Theatre runs to 23 January. The London Palladium’s Cinderella pantomime runs to 10 January, and Cirque Alice at the Royal Festival Hall ends on 3 January. Dates, prices and age guidance for all of them are in our Christmas shows guide.

Other productions end in the first fortnight: Into the Woods at the Noël Coward Theatre and Jesus Christ Superstar at Theatre Royal Drury Lane both close on 9 January, and Beetlejuice at the Prince Edward Theatre closes on 2 January, with Dirty Dancing taking over the theatre.

Exhibitions

Closing in the first half of January

• Frida: The Making of an Icon, Tate Modern, to 3 January.
• Windrush Food Culture, National Maritime Museum, free, to 3 January.
• The Music is Black: A British Story, V&A East Museum, to 10 January, £22.50 on weekdays and £24.50 at weekends.
• Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific, V&A South Kensington, to 10 January, £17.
• LAIKA presents Wildwood: The Exhibition, Design Museum, to 10 January, with the free Mezzanine display.
• Justin Caguiat: Change Ringing, Serpentine South, free, to 10 January.
• Salman Toor: Someone Like You, the Courtauld Gallery, to 10 January.
• Ana Mendieta, Tate Modern, to 17 January. Zineb Sedira: When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks, in Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries, is free and ends the same day, as does the free V&A display Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things.

Closing at the end of January

• Renoir and Love, National Gallery, to 31 January: £20 off-peak (Sunday to Thursday) and £25 on Fridays and Saturdays, free for under-18s.
• Painting the French Riviera, Royal Academy, to 31 January: £24 to £26, with Friday and Saturday opening until 9pm. How the Côte d’Azur drew Monet, Braque and Derain.
• Korea, British Museum, to 31 January, in Room 35: adults £20, or £18 off-peak.
• Amar Kanwar, Serpentine North, free, to 31 January.
• PLATFORM: Simone Brewster, Design Museum, a free display, to 24 January.

Still running

Van Eyck: The Portraits at the National Gallery runs to 11 April, and Julio Le Parc: Light. Colour. Action. at Tate Modern to 3 May. Yinka Shonibare and Thomas Gainsborough: A Conversation, free at the National Gallery, runs to 7 February. The best museums guide lists the free ones, and exhibitions and conventions has the trade shows at ExCeL and Olympia.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich

The whole site, Flamsteed House and the Meridian Courtyard included, is closed for the First Light refurbishment. Royal Museums Greenwich says the Meridian Courtyard reopens in summer 2027, with tickets going on sale in January. The National Maritime Museum, the Cutty Sark and the view from the hill stay open; see our Greenwich guide.

Sport

PDC World Darts Championship — to Sunday 3 January

The tournament ends on 3 January 2027 at Alexandra Palace, in the Great Hall for the first time. Tickets were allocated by ballot, which has closed. Evening doors open at 7pm. Details are on Alexandra Palace’s page.

Masters snooker — Alexandra Palace, 10 to 17 January

The Masters is invitation-only, for the world’s top 16 ranked players, in the West Hall, with doors at 11.30am and a crowd of just over 2,000. It has been at Alexandra Palace since 2012. Under-16s must be with an adult over 21. Tickets are on Alexandra Palace’s page.

FA Cup third round — Saturday 9 January

The third round proper is the weekend of Saturday 9 January, when the Premier League clubs enter. The ties are set by the draw once the second round, on 5 December, has been played.

Premier League in London

These are the home games of London’s six Premier League clubs, with the League’s listed kick-offs; broadcasters move some of them.

The route to a ticket is in our Premier League tickets guide.

Trains over the New Year

Network Rail’s engineering runs through the first weekend of the year.

• London Paddington: Great Western Railway trains cannot use the station until Monday 4 January. Long-distance services start and finish at Reading, and some divert to Euston. Work at Dolphin Junction near Slough affects Heathrow and Thames Valley trains until Sunday 3 January.
• Liverpool Street to Shenfield: no Greater Anglia trains run, and Elizabeth line services are affected, until Sunday 3 January.
• London Charing Cross: engineering work affects trains on 1 to 3 January.
• Redhill: the railway through the town is closed until the early hours of Monday 4 January.

National Rail’s Christmas and New Year page lists every route and its engineering works calendar shows the rest of the month. Our London Underground guide covers the lines.

Practical: January in London

Weather. The Met Office’s Heathrow average for the month (1991 to 2020) is a daily high of 8.4C, the lowest of any month, and a low of 2.7C, with 58.8mm of rain, 6.8 air-frost days and 59 hours of sunshine. Our London in the rain guide has the indoor fallbacks.

Daylight. Sunset is 4.01pm on 1 January, 4.20pm on the 15th and 4.47pm on the 31st, with sunrise moving from 8.05am to 7.40am. The day lengthens from 7 hours 56 minutes to 9 hours 7 minutes over the month.

Crowds. Schools are back by 4 January, and 1 January is the only bank holiday. The attractions that are open are quietest on weekdays after the first weekend.

Working out which month suits you best? Best time to visit London compares January against the rest of the year, and December’s guide covers the month before. With children, see London with children.

What’s on in January 2027

One evening pick a day, each at a different venue.

Looking ahead to February

Lunar New Year falls on Saturday 6 February 2027, so Chinatown’s celebrations are in February; our Soho and Chinatown walk is the place to start. MimeLondon’s last production, Plexus Polaire’s A Doll’s House, is at the Barbican Theatre from 3 to 6 February.