The Carnaby Street Christmas lights went on at 6pm on Wednesday 4 November 2026, and this year the street is dressed for the 90s. The theme, Press Play on Christmas, came with music in the surrounding streets from 4.30pm and free sign-up for the evening through This is Soho, the neighbourhood site that carnaby.co.uk now redirects to.
Carnaby went first, and the rest of the West End follows within eight days. Regent Street lights up on Thursday 5 November, Oxford Street on Monday 9 November and Covent Garden, Seven Dials included, on Thursday 12 November, all within an easy walk of each other.
Below are the times each organiser has published, a walking route between the displays through W1F and W1D, and the stations and night services for the way home. Carnaby Street is pedestrianised, which is why it suits a slow look; our piece on how Carnaby Street went pedestrian covers that history.
When the Carnaby Street Christmas lights switch on
The Carnaby Street Christmas lights switched on at 6pm on Wednesday 4 November 2026. Shop offers ran from 4pm to 8pm, music started at 4.30pm and a Polaroid moment on the stage began at 7.15pm. The organisers describe the Press Play on Christmas theme as "inspired by the feel-good nostalgia of the 90s".
The playlist leans the same way. This is Soho promised 90s classics and Christmas hits in the streets around the switch-on show, and a Press Play on Christmas photobooth in Kingly Court, the 3-floor courtyard between Carnaby Street, Beak Street and Kingly Street. The event page named no performers ahead of the night.
The charity partner is Choose Love, which runs a festive pop-up at 15 Carnaby Street from 4 November to 24 December. Every purchase there pays for items such as hot meals, winter coats and medical kits for refugees and displaced people. That pop-up is the only end date the organisers have printed. No date for the lights coming down has been published.
Some offers on the night needed the free switch-on ticket, among them 10% off at Cubitts and 20% off frames at MOSCOT between 4pm and 7pm. In Kingly Court, Dishoom ran a festive pop-up outside its restaurant. Most offers ended at 8pm.
Secret London, reporting the announcement on 26 October, says the 2026 Carnaby Street Christmas lights run neon-style colours along the street. Little more was described ahead of the switch-on.
The frame they hang from is known. In 2024 Shaftesbury Capital, which owns much of Carnaby, and the design studio Sculptivate installed a scheme called Into the Light, with more than 60,000 programmable LEDs, star installations at the Carnaby gateways and light curtains on the Kingly Court balconies, Retail Destination reported in October 2024. Those structures were built to last at least 5 years and be adapted each year.
Regent Street, Oxford Street and Covent Garden dates
The Regent Street Christmas lights return on Thursday 5 November 2026, with Regent Street closed to vehicles from 5pm to 9pm. The Oxford Street Christmas lights follow on Monday 9 November, with a Harry Potter theme and an event from 4.30pm. The Covent Garden Christmas lights come last, on Thursday 12 November, and also cover Seven Dials.
Regent Street has hung its Spirit of Christmas lights since 2016. Its announcement of 1 October promises "a new twist for 2026" without saying what it is, and says the entertainment and in-store events on the night extend into St James's.
Oxford Street's switch-on starts at 4.30pm on Monday 9 November, according to Oxford Street's own event page, which said on 4 November that full details would follow that Thursday. Time Out reported on 3 November that Harry Potter designs will hang alongside the usual star lights, timed with a Harry Potter flagship store opening on Oxford Street on 4 November and an HBO series that premieres on Christmas Day.
Covent Garden calls its season The Theatre of Christmas. From Thursday 12 November it promises more than 300,000 lights, the gold bells, mirror balls and baubles on the Market Building, and a British-grown tree on the West Piazza, on Covent Garden's event page. Time Out places Seven Dials and Neal's Yard inside the same scheme. Covent Garden has not published a start time.
Why the West End lights do not go on in one night
A common assumption is that the West End lights go on together. They do not.
In 2026 the switch-ons are spread across 12 days, from Leicester Square on Sunday 1 November to Covent Garden and Bond Street on Thursday 12 November, according to Time Out's list of switch-on dates, published on 4 November.
That changes a Soho walk. On 4 November, Carnaby Street is lit while Regent Street, one block west, is not. On 5 November both are on, and Regent Street is shut to vehicles between 5pm and 9pm, so crossing it is simpler than usual. Oxford Street stays dark until the evening of the 9th, and the Seven Dials end of the walk waits until the 12th.
Old pages cause a second problem. The 2024 coverage of Into the Light, still prominent in search results, dates the Carnaby Street Christmas lights to 7 November. That was the 2024 date. The 2026 date is 4 November, and the theme is Press Play on Christmas. Bookmarks to carnaby.co.uk now land on This is Soho, where the Christmas pages sit under a Christmas in Soho section.
Some displays are already on. St Martin's Lane, on the Covent Garden side of Charing Cross Road, was lit at 4.45pm on 3 November, and Leicester Square has been lit since 1 November and stays that way until 6 January, Time Out reports. Carnaby, Regent Street, Oxford Street and Covent Garden have not yet published a date for taking the lights down.
A walking route between the lights from Oxford Circus
Start at 5pm at Oxford Circus, from 12 November.
The route takes all 4 displays in map order, north-west to south-east. On 12 November the sun sets in London at 4.16pm and civil twilight ends at 4.52pm, so the lights read properly from about 5pm. By 1 December sunset is at 3.55pm.
- 5pm, Oxford Circus. Look east along Oxford Street for the Harry Potter designs, then walk south down Regent Street under the Spirit of Christmas.
- Great Marlborough Street. Turn left, east, off Regent Street, past the Tudor-style building of Liberty London, which This is Soho includes in its 2026 gifting picks.
- Carnaby Street. Turn right into Carnaby Street at its northern end and walk its length under the Carnaby Street Christmas lights.
- Kingly Court. Go in at the entrance next to Dr Martens on Carnaby Street and leave by the Beak Street entrance next to GRIND. Our Kingly Court piece covers the restaurants on its 3 floors.
- Brewer Street and Old Compton Street. Walk east through Soho to Charing Cross Road.
- Seven Dials. Cross Charing Cross Road and take Earlham Street to Seven Dials, lit as part of the Covent Garden scheme.
- St Martin's Lane and the Piazza. Take Monmouth Street south into St Martin's Lane, then New Row east to the Piazza and the tree on the West Piazza.
Before 12 November, shorten it. Between 5 and 8 November the walk is Regent Street and Carnaby Street only, ending at Beak Street, where Piccadilly Circus is the nearest station. From 9 November, start on Oxford Street. The Carnaby Street Christmas lights stay on nightly after the 4th, so a later weekday evening avoids the switch-on event altogether.
Stations, late-night shopping and the way home
- Cost and entry. Seeing the Carnaby Street Christmas lights, like the other displays, is free entry. The Carnaby switch-on uses a free sign-up, which unlocks some shop offers; no age limit is listed. Bars on the route serve alcohol to over-18s only, so carry photo ID.
- Stations. Oxford Circus (Bakerloo, Central, Victoria) for Oxford Street, the top of Regent Street and Great Marlborough Street. Piccadilly Circus (Bakerloo, Piccadilly) for the bottom of Regent Street and the Beak Street end of Carnaby. Tottenham Court Road (Central, Northern, Elizabeth) for eastern Oxford Street. Leicester Square (Northern, Piccadilly) and Covent Garden (Piccadilly) for Seven Dials and the Piazza.
- Accessibility. Tottenham Court Road has step-free access through its Oxford Street and Dean Street entrances, according to TfL's step-free Tube guide; Oxford Circus has stepped access only. Carnaby Street is level and car-free. Kingly Court spreads over 3 floors around an open courtyard, and This is Soho does not publish lift details, so ask a restaurant before booking an upper floor.
- Late-night shopping. Carnaby, Regent Street and Oxford Street have not yet announced any late-night shopping dates. On the Carnaby switch-on night, Percival is listed as open until 8pm. We will add dates when the streets publish them.
- Getting home. The Night Tube runs on Friday and Saturday nights on the Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria and Windrush lines, per TfL. On other nights, check the last train before the evening runs late.
End at the Covent Garden Piazza after 12 November, or under the Carnaby Street Christmas lights at the Beak Street end before then. Both are in the City of Westminster and both are short walks from a station on the Night Tube network.
From Beak Street, Piccadilly Circus is the closest station, on the Piccadilly line, which runs all night on Fridays and Saturdays. From the Piazza or St Martin's Lane, Leicester Square serves the Northern and Piccadilly lines, both on the Night Tube. Oxford Circus, on the Central and Victoria lines, is the closest station to the top of Regent Street and the north of Soho W1F. Midweek, the last train is the deadline, so check it on TfL before setting out.
