Ah, Halloween.
The kids get dressed up for sweeties, the grownups get dressed up for Instagram, and pets get dressed up because they don’t have a choice.
But it’s London’s venues we’re interested in here – the ones who get dressed up by brushing away the cobwebs so that they can add spooky decor like, um, cobwebs. Because it’s at those places that the very best Halloween events are taking place, and we have the pick of the lot right here…
London Month of the Dead | Parties, lectures, concerts, and more. Spooky ones.
The city’s most morbidly fascinating festival has been resurrected for the 10th year in a row by the folks at Antique Beat. This time around, you’ll find everything from a Halloween cabaret show with a three course dinner (and a New Orelans-style jazz band), to a talk on the birth of modern forensics at a Soho members’ club, and a candlelit concert in a cemetery chapel…
Details: 3rd October – 2nd November | Across London
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Mr Fogg’s Victorian Murder Mystery | Could the butler BE more suspicious??
A murder mystery at Mr Fogg’s? It doesn’t take a detective to figure out that it’ll probably be quite fun. After the poor sap who plays the victim is forcibly shoved off this mortal coil, you’ll have an hour to interrogate the various suspects, all while getting unhelpfully drunk on the cocktails they keep playing you with. There are two mysteries to do – expect twists in both of them, and an appropriately Halloween-y theme.
Details: Saturdays (& a few Sundays) in October & November | Mr. Fogg’s Residence, 15 Bruton Lane, W1J 6JD | £60pp
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Ghost Tours at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane | “The world’s most haunted theatre”
Not only can you eat super-gross eyeballs and gravestones (made by Lily Vanilli) at the Theatre Royal’s new afternoon tea, but this Halloween they’ll also take you on a ghost tour of the theatre itself which, they assure you, may well make you eject that afternoon tea in quite an undignified fashion.
Details: 13th- 31st October | Theatre Royal, Catherine St, WC2B 5JF | £18.50
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Halloween Ceilidh by Nest Collective | Dance until you drop
There’s nothing more terrifying than being forced to dance when you don’t know the moves. And you’ll be flirting with that horrifying prospect at the Nest Collective’s Halloween Ceilidh, set in the stunning hall of Grand Junction, where you’ll be given a crash-course in strip the willow, dosie-do, and other ceilidh classics moments before you hit the dancefloor…
Details: 25th October | Grand Junction, Rowington Cl, W2 5TF | £15
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Midnight Apothecary Halloween Spooktacular | Spooky rooftop cocktails & blue fire
Apothecaries already sound kind of spooky. Midnight Apothecaries, doubly so. And for this Halloween special, the botanical cocktail gardeners on the roof of the Brunel Museum will be throwing incredibly carved pumpkin lanterns, cobwebs, firepits, toasted marshmallows & s’mores kits, ghoulish cocktails, and “strange blue fire” into the mix.
Details: 25th & 26th October | The Brunel Museum Rooftop Garden, Railway Avenue, SE16 4LF | £8+
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Chelsea Physic Gardens | Ghost stories, moonlit tours & more
This ancient apothecaries’ garden has been growing herbs and plants for mystical brews since 1673, so it’s fair to say there’s probably a few ghosts knocking about in there. And this Halloween, they have events ranging from moonlit garden tours, to perfume making workshops, and an evening of ghost stories.
Details: 25th – 31st October | Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, London SW3 4HS
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The Grand’s Halloween Party | Probably the biggest party in south London
The Clapham Grand doesn’t know how to do low-key, and they’re not even trying here – expect another raucous night of DJs, drag acts, gogo-dancers, ballon drops, confetti cannons, themed cocktails, and a buttload of fellow revellers in costume.
Details: 26th October | The Clapham Grand | £21+
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Warehouse of Horrors | Party at Britain’s biggest beer hall
Big Penny Social, which is Britain’s biggest beer hall, is throwing their “biggest Halloween party ever”, and frankly if we keep saying the word ‘big’ it’s going to lose all meaning. But ret assured, this ought to be a large, enormous, and ample event. Expect circus performers, live music, games, and beer.
Details: 26th October | Big Penny Social, E17 6AL | £12
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The Candlelight Club Halloween Party | Vintage debauchery in a secret location
The Candlelight Club is ordinarily completely candlelit. Hence the name. Only on the Halloween weekend, those candles will be housed in pumpkins, there will be fortune telling, spooky burlesque, creepy live music, witchy DJs, and more to join them…
Details: 26th October | A secret location | £30+
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Day Of The Dead Halloween Party at Sky Garden | Beats & treats on the 35th floor
Sky Garden has one of the best views in the city, and this Halloween it’s going to be impressing a couple of the other senses too, thanks to a live band, spooky cocktails, and a ‘best costume’ comp. Although, to match the 35th-floor location, the price is quite high too, with £65 for the cheapest ticket (which gets you entry and a cocktail). But the party goes on all night, and there’s a DJ once that band winds down…
Details: 27th October | The Fenchurch Building (The Walkie-Talkie), Sky Garden Walk, EC3M 8AF | £65+
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Trills & Thrills at The Piano Works | Spooky bangers with a full live band
The Piano Works will be observing the hallowed Halloween theme with a weekend of parties in which their live band will be playing only appropriately ghoulish songs – we’re talking Murder On The Dancefloor, Thriller, Psycho Killer, you name it. Helping loosen the limbs they’ve got themed cocktails, and they’re heavily encouraging costumes too…
Details: 27th & 28th October | The Piano Works, 113-117 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3BX
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Séance: Conversations in the Dark | At The Last Tuesday Society
The ever macabre Last Tuesday Society always has something good going on at this time of year, and they have’t disappointed. On the 28th they’re holding a séance, and the man leading it is magician Christopher Howell, who’ll be using every trick up his sleeve to scare the bejesus out of you. Thus, “the show is not recommended for those of nervous disposition.”
Details: 28th October | The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare Street, E8 4RP | £21.50+
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Fright Nights at the Rivoli Ballroom | Classic flicks in a classic space
The time-warped ’50s Rivoli Ballroom is going to put on a programme of fright entertainment over the spooky season with half a dozen films, from The Shining, to The Lost Boys, to a sing-a-long Rocky Horror, with a selection of ghoulish snacks to feed your blood/popcorn lust.
Details: 28th October-2nd November | The Rivoli Ballroom, 350 Brockley Road, Crofton Park, SE4 2BY | £10+
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Dalston Pumpkin Light Up Nights | Quality Carving in the Woods
Want to see a pack o’lanterns? Well, Dalston Curve Garden‘s annual pumpkin carving shindig makes its return over halloween, furnishing the entirety of its woodland home with twinkling gourds carved by the local community. Very Insta-friendly.
Details: 28th October – 2nd November | Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, 13 Dalston Lane, Dalston, E8 3DF | Free
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Funhouse Of Horrors | A party with a view to die for
The Bussey Building’s rooftop bar is rolling out its second rooftop Halloween party this year, and the theme they’ve decided to go for is ‘fun’. What does that mean? Apparently dog tarot card reading, silly ouija boards, and free shots for anyone who gets there before 7.30pm.
Details: 28th October | Block B Rooftop, 133 Copeland Road, SE15 4SL | £5-£10
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Henny’s Pumpkin Pageant | BYOP
henny’s wine bar is running a ‘bring your own pumpkin’ carving pageant this Halloween. If you bring in your own orange squash, they’ll give you a free glass of wine to go with it while you carve it into a suitably spooky design. The winner gets a comp bottle of wine. Not too shabby…
Details: 29th October | henny’s, 195C Balham High Street, SW12 9BE | Free
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Halloween at The Natural History Museum | Silent disco & spooky tours
The Natural History Museum is already full of skeletons, so it makes for a pretty decent Halloween venue when you think about it. This year, you can party to their silent disco, take a tour of their “all-time strangest specimens”, and see a giant squid preserved in alcohol (before doing something similar to your liver). And as a bonus? All tickets include entry to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Details: 31st October | The Natural History Museum | £40
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Halloween at Rooftop Film Club | The original cult classic
That’s right, as the culmination of Rooftop Film Club’s entire year, they’re showing Halloween on Halloween. And in the lead up, you can expect other cult classics (Scream, Hocus Pocus, etc.) as well as the latest kind-of-creepy-ish The Substance, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Joker: Foile A Deux.
Details: 31st October | Bussey Building, Peckham | £15+
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Jack the Ripper Tours by The Discount Suit Company | See where it all happened
This Halloween, the people at Discount Suit Company aim to ply you with alcohol, then take you down the backstreets of Whitechapel & Spitalfields, with absolutely no ulterior motive at all… just a tour of the sites frequented by the world’s most notorious serial killer.
Details: 31st October (6.30pm & 8.30pm) | 29 Wentworth Street, E1 7TB | £25 (incl. welcome cocktail)
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Covent Garden’s Pumpkin Market | Basically just a whole s**tload of pumpkins
In the market for some autumnal decor? Then you’re in the right place, because Covent Garden is putting on quite the spectacle in their 19th century market hall, cramming 200+ squashes, pumpkins and gourds onto their stands…
Details: End of October | Covent Garden Market, WC2 | Free entry
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Want to do something less spooky? Here’s everything else going on in October…