Christmas in Soho 2026 runs on 3 different clocks. On Christmas Eve, Thursday 24 December, the bars on Old Compton Street and Wardour Street trade until 10pm or 11pm. Christmas Day, Friday 25 December, is the hard stop. The same bars are shut and TfL runs no Tube or TfL buses, while two hotel restaurants serve set lunches from £150 a head. Then on Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December, the bars reopen at noon or 1pm and the latest door closes at 2am.
Every hour here comes from the venues' own pages or from TfL, read on 9 November 2026. Several places people expect to find open have published nothing yet for these dates. We name them below rather than guess.
Soho sits in W1D and W1F, in the City of Westminster, on the western side of the West End. If you are coming for the lights first, our Carnaby Street Christmas lights walking route covers the displays that went on from 4 November.
What opens for Christmas in Soho on 24, 25 and 26 December
Christmas in Soho 2026 means LGBTQ+ bars open until 10pm or 11pm on Christmas Eve and shut on Christmas Day, then open again on Boxing Day until as late as 2am. On Christmas Day itself, Ham Yard and Refuel at The Soho Hotel serve set lunches, at £170 and £150 a head, between noon and 8pm.
Only 3 bars have published every date. The two Old Compton Street bars and the Duke of Wellington on Wardour Street each list day-by-day hours for December 2026 on their own sites, and each shows 25 December as closed. All describe themselves as bars for the LGBTQ+ community. Stonegate Group runs the lot, which is why their Christmas pages share a layout.
Venue | Thu 24 Dec | Fri 25 Dec | Sat 26 Dec |
|---|---|---|---|
Comptons, 51 to 53 Old Compton Street | 12pm to 11pm | Closed | 12pm to 2am |
Admiral Duncan, 54 Old Compton Street | 1pm to 11pm | Closed | 1pm to 1am |
Duke of Wellington, 77 Wardour Street | 11am to 10pm | Closed | 12pm to midnight |
Refuel at The Soho Hotel, 4 Richmond Mews | 5pm to 10.45pm, £95 sharing menu | 12pm to 8pm, £150 | Not published |
Ham Yard Restaurant, 1 Ham Yard | Group menus only | 12pm to 8pm, £170 | Not published |
Hours in the table were read on the venues' own pages on 9 November 2026. We found no step-free access or accessible toilet details on the pages we read for these 5 venues. The Duke of Wellington's site links to an accessibility page, and for the rest it is worth asking when you book.
The short version of Christmas in Soho this year is simple. On Christmas Day 2026 Soho's Stonegate LGBTQ+ bars close while two hotel restaurants serve lunch from £150 a head.
Where to have Christmas Day lunch in Soho
Two Soho restaurants had published a full Christmas Day lunch with a price by 9 November 2026. Ham Yard Restaurant charges £170 a head and Refuel at The Soho Hotel £150, both seating from noon to 8pm on Friday 25 December. Beefbar at Dear Jackie, in The Broadwick Soho, has published dishes but no price.
At Ham Yard Restaurant & Bar, off Great Windmill Street, the £170 opens with a glass of Déhu Tradition Extra Brut Champagne and canapés. Turkey heads the mains on the published menu, alongside beef Wellington, salmon coulibiac, wild sea bass and a Puy lentil nut roast marked vegan and gluten free.
Refuel's £150 runs to turkey, Aubrey Allen sirloin with Yorkshire pudding, a brill Wellington or a vegetarian tarte Tatin. Mulled wine and mince pies finish it.
Read the foot of both menus. Each adds a discretionary 13.5% charge, so Ham Yard comes to £192.95 a head before any drink after the first glass, and Refuel to £170.25.
The third option is on Broadwick Street. Beefbar at Dear Jackie starts its Christmas Day lunch with Billecart-Salmon Champagne, then sends out king crab taquitos, scallops, a 45-day dry-cured ribeye ham, lobster, a Wagyu roast and roast turkey. The Broadwick Soho gives no price or seating times, so ask for both when you book. The hotel also sells a Christmas stay with that lunch and a 2pm check-out on the 26th.
For a work or friends' Christmas party before the day itself, both Firmdale restaurants publish group set menus that stop on 24 December. Ham Yard lists festive group dining at £60, £75 or £85 a head for 7 to 10 people from 23 November. Refuel lists £65 and £75 menus for 7 to 20 people over the same dates. Neither page mentions a minimum spend. Ask whether the 13.5% charge on their Christmas Day menus applies to groups too.
A Christmas Eve evening in Soho, hour by hour
Christmas Eve 2026 is a Thursday, and for Christmas in Soho it is the one long evening of the 3 days. The published hours set its order for you.
Afternoon, Carnaby Street. The Choose Love pop-up at 15 Carnaby Street trades until 24 December, according to the neighbourhood site This is Soho, as a charity shop whose sales support refugees and displaced people. Its hours for the 24th are not on that page, so go before dark.
5pm, Richmond Mews. Refuel at The Soho Hotel, off Dean Street, starts its Christmas Eve sharing menu at £95 a head, with mulled wine and a seafood platter before sea bass en croûte or osso buco. The menu runs until 10.45pm.
From 9pm, Old Compton Street. The order in which doors close matters if you plan to move between bars, because the Duke of Wellington on Wardour Street shuts first, at 10pm, while Comptons at 51 to 53 Old Compton Street and the Admiral Duncan at number 54 both close at 11pm. Arrive by 9pm to see more than one.
Leave time for the Tube. In 2025, TfL's festive travel release said Christmas Eve services would finish early, and on 9 November TfL had not yet published its 2026 Christmas Eve times.
Old Compton Street bars on Boxing Day compared
Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, the last of the 3 days of Christmas in Soho covered here, and the bars split clearly.
Comptons opens at noon and stays open until 2am, the latest of the three. The Admiral Duncan opens an hour later and closes at 1am. On Wardour Street, the Duke of Wellington opens at noon and closes at midnight.
The difference shows after midnight, when only the two Old Compton Street bars are still serving. To finish before midnight, the Duke of Wellington is the one that fits, and it is also the earliest of the three to open on Christmas Eve, at 11am.
Two other LGBTQ+ venues had posted nothing for the holiday. Freedom Bar on Wardour Street lists its regular week, 4pm to 3am on most nights and from 2pm on Saturdays, and its own social feed describes the bar as over 21s. The Yard Bar on Rupert Street has a Christmas page about its fairy lights and trees, with no dates for 24 to 26 December. Treat both as unconfirmed for those dates.
The Stonegate bars publish no age policy on their opening-hours pages, so carry photo ID.
The Christmas Day lists that leave Soho out
Christmas in Soho barely registers on the big lists of where to eat on Christmas Day in London. Time Out's list of restaurants open on Christmas Day, updated on 5 November 2026, names 14 places from Mayfair to Whitechapel. None is in Soho. Hot Dinners' 2026 list, dated 28 September, adds Bob Bob Ricard in Soho, saying its normal menu is served all day on the 25th.
That Bob Bob Ricard line needs testing against the restaurant. On 9 November 2026 the Soho page of Bob Bob Ricard on Upper James Street was still promoting New Year's Eve with the words welcome 2026, which is last season's party, and said nothing about 25 December 2026. Until the restaurant confirms, a Christmas Day table there rests on a press listing. Ask for the confirmation in writing when you book.
Bar Italia on Frith Street is the other assumption to check. Its site says open daily from 7am to 4am, gives no separate Christmas hours, and sends Christmas party enquiries to its sister restaurant, Little Italy, at 21 Frith Street. Ring before counting on a Christmas Day coffee there.
Getting home from Soho over Christmas 2026
Soho and the rest of the West End have no Tube on Christmas Day 2026.
TfL's 2026 Christmas travel page lists taxis, private hire, Santander Cycles, coaches and some buses run by other operators as the only transport on Friday 25 December. No TfL buses run.
Driving on the 25th: the Congestion Charge is suspended from Christmas Day to Friday 1 January 2027 inclusive, and ULEZ does not operate on Christmas Day.
Christmas Eve and Boxing Day: TfL says it will publish details soon. In 2025, parts of the network, including the Elizabeth line, did not run on Boxing Day.
Night Tube: TfL runs it on Friday and Saturday nights on the Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria and Windrush lines. On 9 November it had not said whether that includes the night of Saturday 26 December.
Stations: Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road are nearest Old Compton Street. For Ham Yard use Piccadilly Circus, and Oxford Circus for Broadwick Street.
Plan each night around its last door. On Christmas Eve that is 11pm on Old Compton Street, so walk to Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road while the early-finishing service is still running.
Christmas Day needs a cab home booked with the lunch, since black cabs and private hire are the only door-to-door option anywhere in the City of Westminster that day. On Boxing Day the last door is Comptons at 2am, so settle the ride home before the last round, and keep the bar's number in your phone in case its hours move before the week itself. Christmas in Soho this year rewards anyone who checks the date against the door.
