Things to Do in London in November: Fireworks, Remembrance, Jazz and the Lights Going On

In this guide

November has three beats. The first fortnight is fireworks and ceremony. Ten days of jazz sit in the middle. The Christmas lights, rinks and markets switch on in stages from the 5th. The clocks went back on 25 October, and the sun sets before 4.40pm all month.

💡 The Short Version: Bonfire Night is Thursday 5 November, but the big displays are on Saturday 7th. Remembrance Sunday is the 8th, Armistice Day the 11th and the Lord Mayor’s Show Saturday 14th. The EFG London Jazz Festival runs 13 to 22 November. Regent Street’s lights go on on 5 November, Winter Wonderland opens on 19 November and the London Museum opens free in Smithfield on 28 November. The Bayeux Tapestry is sold out until January; general booking for 1 January to 31 March 2027 opens on 21 October.

The Bayeux Tapestry: sold out until January

British Museum, Room 30 · to 11 July 2027

You cannot buy a ticket for a November visit. Every ticket for 10 September to 31 December 2026 is gone, including the members’ priority allocation, which is also fully booked for the first three months of 2027.

General booking for 1 January to 31 March 2027 opens on 21 October 2026, and April to July 2027 opens in early 2027. Tickets are on the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry page. Adults pay £33 (£36.50 with the £3.50 donation), or £27 off-peak. A £25 slot runs on term-time weekdays from 3.30pm to 4.20pm. Students, 16 to 18s and jobseekers pay £25, and under-16s go free with an adult, up to four per adult.

Bookings are capped at 10 tickets, each ticket can only be used by the person who booked it, and the museum may check ID. The Tapestry room is open Sunday to Wednesday 10am to 6pm and Thursday to Saturday 10am to 9pm, later than the rest of the museum, and the visit takes about 40 minutes. A free audio guide is in the British Museum Audio app; bring your own headphones.

Two talks fall in November: Harald Hardrada: the other ‘Harold’, an online lecture on 5 November (£6), and The women of the Bayeux Tapestry on 20 November (£50). The rest of the museum is in our British Museum guide.

The first fortnight: fireworks and ceremony

London to Brighton Veteran Car Run — Hyde Park, Sunday 1 November

The RM Sotheby’s run for cars built before 1905 leaves Hyde Park for Madeira Drive in Brighton, 60 miles away. It is free to watch, and the cars arrive in the Hyde Park paddock from 6am, so the start is at dawn. The Royal Automobile Club’s free St James’s Motoring Spectacle on Pall Mall runs the day before, Saturday 31 October, 10am to 3pm.

Bonfire Night — Thursday 5 November, with the big night on Saturday 7th

5 November is a Thursday, so most displays move to the weekend. Alexandra Palace runs on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November, with an earlier, family-focused display on the Sunday. Battersea Park runs on the same two days. Coram’s Fields in Bloomsbury has a free display on the 5th, for children and the adults with them. Sunset on the 5th is at 4.28pm.

Every display, which ones sell out and the free viewpoints are in our Bonfire Night guide.

Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day

Remembrance Sunday is the second Sunday in November, which is 8 November in 2026. The National Service of Remembrance is held at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, and the Royal British Legion’s Cenotaph Parade follows: about 10,000 veterans march down Whitehall past the Cenotaph. Our Westminster walk passes it. The same Sunday has England v Australia at Twickenham at 3.10pm.

Armistice Day is Wednesday 11 November, with a Two Minute Silence at 11am.

The Lord Mayor’s Show — City of London, Saturday 14 November

The procession is free, with more than 7,000 people in 2025 and a length of over three miles. It sets off from Mansion House at 11am and goes to the Royal Courts of Justice by St Paul’s, Cheapside and Fleet Street. The new Lord Mayor, Alderman Bronek Masojada, takes office in the Silent Ceremony the day before.

The organiser’s timetable puts the head of the procession at the Royal Courts by 11.26am. The return leg starts from Temple Place at 1.10pm and comes back along the Embankment and Queen Victoria Street, with the Lord Mayor home at Mansion House at about 2.30pm.

For the full noise, stand between Bank and St Paul’s from 11am; for room, take the Embankment after 1.15pm. The organiser’s advice is to get off at Mansion House, Cannon Street or Blackfriars rather than Bank or St Paul’s. Almost the whole City is closed to traffic, and every bus route that normally crosses it turns back or goes round. There are no fireworks: the Thames display that once ended the day has been dropped.

After the Show you are in the middle of a car-free City with an hour or two of daylight left; our City of London walk fills it.

Diwali — Sunday 8 November

Diwali itself falls on Sunday 8 November. The Mayor of London’s free Diwali on the Square in Trafalgar Square was on 25 October, so it is not a November event. The free Diwali day at the National Maritime Museum is on Saturday 7 November, 10.30am to 5pm: dance and music, rangoli workshops, a lantern parade and, new in 2026, the Diwali Bazaar. Our Greenwich guide has the rest of the day.

EFG London Jazz Festival — 13 to 22 November

Ten days across more than 80 venues, from the Royal Festival Hall to clubs in Dalston and Chelsea. The Opening Gala is at the Royal Festival Hall on 13 November, and both John Coltrane and Miles Davis were born in 1926, which is why the programme has a Coltrane 100 night at the Barbican the same evening. Nineteen concerts are free. Tickets start at £5, and most shows are sold by the venues, so there is no single on-sale date.

The organiser’s own listings are at efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk. Prices, the free rooms and how to get into a sold-out show are in our London Jazz Festival guide.

Christmas arrives in stages

The lights

Carnaby Street’s lights go on on Wednesday 4 November, and Regent Street’s on Thursday 5th. Regent Street’s Spirit of Christmas angels return for a tenth year, with new details for 2026, and the street is closed to traffic from 5pm to 9pm that evening. Covent Garden’s switch-on is Thursday 12 November. The Christmas lights walk links them all in one evening, about 5km. Start at about 4.30pm.

Rinks, markets and Winter Wonderland

Glide at Battersea Power Station opens first, on Friday 6 November. Somerset House follows on Wednesday 11th, with adults at £13 to £28.50 and children at £11 to £15, plus £1.50 a ticket. The other rinks open from the 18th. Our ice skating guide has every rink and what it costs.

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland opens on Thursday 19 November and runs to 3 January 2027. Entry is £1 at off-peak sessions, Monday to Thursday through November, with no booking fees, and everything inside is charged separately. Our Winter Wonderland guide has the gates and prices. Chelsea Winter Village & Illuminations, a light trail at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, runs from 25 November to 28 December. Christmas at Kew is on from 13 November.

The chalet markets are in the Christmas markets guide. Three ticketed shopping fairs fall in the month: the Spirit of Christmas Fair at Olympia (2 to 8 November), Good Housekeeping Live with the Country Living Christmas Market at the Business Design Centre (11 to 14 November) and the Ideal Christmas Show at Olympia (26 to 29 November).

For children

Wundrful World of Christmas runs on selected days from 13 November to 24 December at Immerse LDN on ExCeL’s waterfront, a short walk from Custom House. It is a timed walk-through of about 50 minutes for children aged 3 to 8, ending with Santa. Adults pay £29.90 off-peak and £34.90 at peak, children £24.90 and £29.90, and every child needs a ticket, babies included. More shows are in our Christmas shows guide, and the full picture is in Christmas in London.

Sport: England at Twickenham and Wembley

Rugby tickets are from £79 for Australia and from £51 for Japan; the New Zealand game is sold out. Getting there is in our Twickenham guide and our Wembley guide.

New in November: the London Museum at Smithfield

The Museum of London’s new home, now called the London Museum, opens its permanent galleries on Saturday 28 November in Smithfield’s Victorian General Market, EC1A 9AG, and they are free. Three spaces run from the present to the Roman city. Real Time tells the story of present-day London from the city’s data. Our Time has 13 large installations, including the Lord Mayor’s Coach and Syd’s Coffee Stall. Past Time is set at Roman street level. Across the three spaces are the Cheapside Hoard of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery, Roman writing tablets and Paul Simonon’s smashed bass guitar.

A six-metre window in the underground galleries looks onto the live Thameslink line, so passengers see into the museum and visitors see the trains. The first spotlight exhibition, London Tastes, led by Ruby Tandoh and Jonathan Nunn, runs from November to August 2027. The museum’s temporary exhibition space, in the Poultry Market next door, opens in 2028.

Exhibitions

Opening in November

• Winston Taylor Photo Portrait Prize 2026, National Portrait Gallery, from 5 November to 17 January 2027. £10 Monday to Thursday and £12 Friday to Sunday.
• Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury, Tate Britain, 12 November to 11 April 2027. More than 300 works, including the artists’ studio moved from Charleston, their Sussex home. £20, free for Tate Members, £5 for 16 to 25s.
• BEYOND THE STREETS, Saatchi Gallery, 11 November to 5 May 2027. Over 100 international street-culture artists in more than ten rooms; tickets from £15.
• Peggy Guggenheim in London, Royal Academy, 21 November to 14 March 2027. It revisits the Cork Street gallery she opened in 1938, which staged the first UK solo show of Kandinsky. £17.
• Nan Goldin: You Never Did Anything Wrong, Hayward Gallery, 24 November to 14 March 2027.

Closing in November

• Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, V&A South Kensington, and Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends, Young V&A, both close 15 November. Schiaparelli is £28 on weekdays and £30 at weekends; Inside Aardman is £12.50.
• Day, a free display at the Royal Academy, and Art Now: Mohammed Z Rahman at Tate Britain close 8 November.
• Declaring Independence: USA 250 at the British Museum closes on 29 November, free.

Still running through the month: Korea at the British Museum and Renoir and Love at the National Gallery, both to 31 January 2027, and Frida: The Making of an Icon at Tate Modern to 3 January. For the museums that need no booking, see best museums in London.

Theatre

Opening: Julius Caesar at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 6 November (to 14 February), Pride, a new musical moving to the Bridge Theatre from the National, on 12 November (to 8 May, from £30), Nine Night at the Kiln on the 12th (to 2 January), One Day – The Musical at the Garrick on 17 November (to 14 March, from £33) and Pinocchio at Shakespeare’s Globe on 28 November (to 3 January).

Closing: Kimberly Akimbo at Hampstead Theatre ends on 7 November, and the theatre lists it as selling fast. For the Christmas shows and pantos, see our Christmas shows guide, and for everything else the London theatre guide.

Also in November

Thanksgiving is Thursday 26 November. The Red Lion in Barnes, a Fuller’s pub, has served an American Thanksgiving dinner for more than 20 years, with a lunchtime sitting and two in the evening on the day.

Three awards nights fall in the month: the Booker Prize winner is announced on Monday 9 November, the Royal Variety Performance is on Friday 20th and the Fashion Awards are on Monday 30th. The details are in our awards ceremonies guide.

What’s on in November 2026

One evening pick a day: music, comedy, theatre, classical and dance, each at a different venue.

Practical: November in London

Weather. The Met Office’s Heathrow average for the month (1991 to 2020) is a daily high of 11.5C and a low of 5.3C, with 66.6mm of rain, the most of any month there, and 68 hours of sunshine. Waterproofs and a warm layer matter more than an umbrella you can lose; our London in the rain guide has the indoor fallbacks.

Daylight. Sunset is 4.35pm on 1 November, 4.14pm on the 14th and 3.57pm on the 30th, with sunrise moving from 6.52am to 7.40am. Anything outdoors that needs light, such as a park, a viewpoint or a river walk, belongs before 3pm by the end of the month.

Crowds. No school holiday and no bank holiday, so museums are quieter than in October’s half term. The pressure comes from events: Saturday 7th, Saturday 14th and the Winter Wonderland opening from the 19th.

Working out which month suits you best? Best time to visit London compares November against the rest of the year, and October’s guide covers the month before.

Looking ahead to December

The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is lit on 3 December, and the British Museum’s free Bayeux Late: reimagining the Bayeux Tapestry is on 4 December. For the rest of the Christmas run see Christmas in London, and for New Year, New Year’s Eve in London.

Common questions

What is on in London in November 2026?

The first fortnight is fireworks and ceremony: the Veteran Car Run on Sunday 1 November, Bonfire Night on Thursday 5th with the big displays on Saturday 7th, Remembrance Sunday on the 8th, Armistice Day on the 11th and the Lord Mayor's Show on Saturday 14th. The EFG London Jazz Festival runs 13 to 22 November. Christmas arrives in stages, from Regent Street's lights on the 5th to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland on the 19th, and the new London Museum opens in Smithfield on 28 November.

Can you still get tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry in November 2026?

Not for a November visit. Every ticket for 10 September to 31 December 2026 has sold out, and so has the members' priority allocation. General booking for visits from 1 January to 31 March 2027 opens on 21 October 2026, and April to July 2027 opens in early 2027. Adult tickets are £33, with off-peak at £27 and a term-time weekday slot from 3.30pm at £25.

When is Bonfire Night in London in 2026, and when are the fireworks?

Bonfire Night is Thursday 5 November, but most of the displays are on Saturday 7th, with a second wave on Sunday 8th. Alexandra Palace and Battersea Park both run on the Saturday and Sunday. Only a handful run on the 5th itself, and the one free display, at Coram's Fields, is for children and the adults with them. Our Bonfire Night guide lists every display.

When is the Lord Mayor's Show in 2026, and are there fireworks?

Saturday 14 November, setting off from Mansion House at 11am and going to the Royal Courts of Justice by St Paul's and Fleet Street, with the return leg along the Embankment from about 1.10pm. It is free to watch. The Thames fireworks that used to close the day no longer run, and the organiser's timetable finishes with the Lord Mayor back at Mansion House in the afternoon.

When do London's Christmas lights go on in 2026?

Carnaby Street on Wednesday 4 November, Regent Street on Thursday 5th, with the street closed to traffic from 5pm to 9pm, and Covent Garden on Thursday 12th. Hyde Park Winter Wonderland opens on 19 November and Somerset House's ice rink on the 11th. The Trafalgar Square tree is lit on 3 December.

When does it get dark in London in November?

Sunset is at 4.35pm on 1 November, 4.28pm on Bonfire Night, 4.14pm on the 14th and 3.57pm on the 30th. The clocks went back on 25 October, so the whole month is on GMT. Heathrow's 1991 to 2020 average for the month is a high of 11.5C, a low of 5.3C, 66.6mm of rain and 68 hours of sunshine.

Is Diwali in November in 2026?

Diwali itself falls on Sunday 8 November. The Mayor of London's free Diwali on the Square in Trafalgar Square was earlier, on Sunday 25 October. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich holds its free Diwali day on Saturday 7 November, 10.30am to 5pm, with a lantern parade and a new Diwali Bazaar.