Covent Garden Christmas Lights Switch-On

Covent Garden holds its annual lights switch-on on Thursday 12 November 2026. It is one of London’s most elaborate: more than 300,000 lights across the neighbourhood, the return of the much-loved gold bells, mirror balls and giant baubles hanging in the Market Building, and a British-grown Christmas tree on the West Piazza.

What makes it worth seeing

Covent Garden’s decorations are built around the historic Market Building, and the scale of them — baubles the size of small cars hanging from the iron roof — is the reason people come. The tree on the West Piazza, in front of St Paul’s Church, is one of the best-known in London. Once the lights are on they stay on through the season, so the switch-on is the start rather than the only chance.

Getting there

Covent Garden tube station is a minute’s walk, but it is small and uses lifts, and it gets very crowded; on busy evenings it is often quicker to walk from Leicester Square, Holborn or Charing Cross. The Piazza is pedestrianised.

When to visit

The switch-on evening and the weekends that follow are extremely busy. For the lights without the crush, a weekday morning or late evening is best, when you can actually stand under the baubles and look up.

Make an evening of it

The Royal Opera House, the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane are all around the Piazza, and the Apple Market inside the Market Building has independent craft stalls. The Carnaby and Regent Street lights are a fifteen-minute walk west.

Switch-on crowds build well before the countdown, so arrive early if you want to see the stage, and dress for standing still outdoors after dark — see our guide to what to wear.

Worth knowing

Covent Garden is at its most crowded on Saturday afternoons from mid-November until Christmas. If you want photographs of the baubles and the tree without a crowd in them, early on a weekday morning is the time — the decorations are lit and the Piazza is almost empty.