Halloween in London With Kids 2026: Where to Trick or Treat in London

The Kensington, Chelsea, Belgravia & Notting Hill Edition

Halloween in London has changed enormously over the past few years. What once felt like a relatively small occasion, celebrated by a handful of families, has become a genuine event in some of London’s residential neighbourhoods.

If you are wondering where to trick or treat in London with kids, West London is particularly good. Around Kensington and Chelsea, some of the capital’s most beautiful streets are transformed for the evening, with pumpkins lining steps, enormous spiders crawling across stucco façades, skeletons hanging from balconies and entire entrances disappearing beneath elaborate Halloween installations.

We have watched it grow considerably over the past five years. There is undoubtedly a strong American influence, particularly in neighbourhoods with sizeable American communities, but Halloween has spread far beyond that. More families participate each year, the decorations have become increasingly ambitious and, in some areas, it now feels like a proper neighbourhood celebration.

For us, it has become an annual tradition. We meet friends from school, the children arrive dressed up, and we spend the evening walking through Kensington and Chelsea together. There is something rather lovely about children encountering streets they know in a completely different guise.

This guide isn't intended to identify individual participating houses, those change each year. Instead, these are the best areas to trick or treat in London based on our experience, alongside a few other neighbourhoods worth knowing about.

Where to Trick or Treat in London With Kids

The first thing to understand about trick or treating in London is that it can be extremely localised. One road can be spectacular, while the next is almost completely dark. Even within Kensington and Chelsea, there isn't one continuous Halloween route. The easiest approach is to choose a neighbourhood and then follow the pumpkins, decorations and other families.

And when London does Halloween properly, the effort can be extraordinary.

Some of the grandest houses have professional-looking installations covering their entrances and façades. We've seen houses where people are stationed outside specifically to hand out sweets and chocolates to the seemingly endless procession of children.

There is usually plenty to go around. The atmosphere has changed as Halloween has grown, too. The most famous streets now attract children from other parts of London as well as those living nearby. It can become extremely busy.

Personally, I think it is nicest when it retains its neighbourhood feel: children bumping into school friends, parents seeing friends and people they know and local families walking the same streets together.

Trick or Treat in Chelsea: The Boltons and Chelsea Green

If you want to trick or treat in Chelsea, The Boltons is one of the key areas to know.

The Boltons and surrounding residential streets have exactly the kind of architecture that makes Halloween in this part of London so atmospheric. Grand Victorian houses sit around the distinctive oval gardens, with large entrances, steps and front gardens that can be transformed with remarkably elaborate displays.

This is where Halloween can become quite theatrical. Pumpkins are only the beginning. Expect enormous spiders, cobwebs, skeletons and installations that sometimes appear to have taken over an entire house.

The surrounding streets are worth exploring rather than treating The Boltons as a single destination. The Little Boltons and Tregunter Road are part of the same wider pocket and can be incorporated into a walk depending on where the activity is concentrated that year.

Further east, Chelsea Green and the streets around Markham Street provide a slightly different experience.

Chelsea Green feels more intimate and village-like, while the streets running away from the King's Road contain plenty of beautiful period houses. Old Church Street and the surrounding residential roads are also worth exploring.

Chelsea isn't one enormous Halloween party. It is much more about finding pockets where residents have embraced it, which is part of the fun.

Halloween in Kensington: Holland Park and the Streets Around Kensington High Street

Kensington is another of our favourite areas for Halloween in London with kids, particularly around Holland Park.

The streets bordering the park are some of the most atmospheric. Ilchester Place, Abbotsbury Road and Melbury Road are worth exploring, with large houses, leafy surroundings and the sort of entrances that lend themselves spectacularly well to Halloween decorations.

Around Kensington High Street, I would also look towards Phillimore Gardens, Upper Phillimore Gardens, Argyll Road and Campden Hill Road, rather than remaining on the busy high street itself. This is where Kensington begins to feel completely different.

The traffic and shops disappear surprisingly quickly and you find yourself among wide residential streets, garden squares and some of the area's most beautiful houses.

There can also be participating houses south of Kensington High Street, so I wouldn't treat the high street as a hard boundary. Halloween here tends to appear in pockets: sometimes an entire section of a road embraces it; elsewhere there might be one extraordinary house sitting among several completely undecorated ones.

Part of the pleasure is discovering them.

Holland Park itself is also part of Kensington's Halloween celebrations. In 2026, the neighbourhood has organised seasonal activities around Halloween, so families spending the afternoon in the area can combine those with the residential celebrations later in the day.

Family-Friendly Halloween in Belgravia

Belgravia isn't technically part of Kensington and Chelsea, but geographically and culturally it makes complete sense to include it.

If I were planning Halloween there, I would begin around Elizabeth Street before moving towards Eaton Square and Chester Square.

Belgravia is particularly beautiful at this time of year. Its white stucco terraces and grand entrances provide an extraordinary backdrop for Halloween decorations, especially once it becomes dark.

It can also feel slightly more polished than some of the other neighbourhoods. A beautifully decorated entrance against a row of immaculate white houses is quintessentially Belgravia until you notice the enormous skeleton climbing up the front.

Elizabeth Street also makes a practical starting or finishing point because there are places to eat and stop before or after trick or treating. As elsewhere, I would follow the houses that are clearly participating rather than assuming every home with an impressive entrance is inviting children to knock.

Where to Trick or Treat in Notting Hill

Notting Hill deserves much more than a passing mention in a guide to trick or treating in London. The architecture creates a completely different backdrop from Chelsea and Belgravia. Colourful terraces sit alongside grand white stucco houses, with steps, railings, basement entrances and front gardens that provide plenty of scope for elaborate decorations.

Elgin Crescent is one of the streets particularly associated with Halloween decorations, while Lansdowne Crescent, Clarendon Road, Arundel Gardens and the streets around Westbourne Grove are also worth exploring.

Notting Hill has embraced the increasingly theatrical side of Halloween particularly enthusiastically. Decorations can extend far beyond a pumpkin on the doorstep, with giant spiders, skeletons, webs and installations stretching across entire façades.

That also means some streets can become extremely popular.

If you are visiting with younger children, I would start earlier and be prepared to change direction if one road becomes overwhelmingly busy. There are enough residential streets here that you don't need to follow the largest crowd. The nicest experience is often found a street or two away, where children can actually approach the houses and enjoy the evening rather than simply queue.

Halloween in St John’s Wood: Another London Neighbourhood to Know

If you are looking beyond West London, St John's Wood is another neighbourhood frequently associated with Halloween and trick or treating.

The area's sizeable American community has helped establish a particularly strong Halloween tradition, and residential streets around Hamilton Terrace and the wider St John's Wood area are often mentioned among London's Halloween destinations.

We don't usually spend Halloween there, so I wouldn't pretend to give the same first-hand street-by-street advice as I can for Kensington and Chelsea. But it is certainly one I would consider if you live in North West London and want the same neighbourhood-led style of Halloween rather than a ticketed event.

Why Halloween in London Has Become Such an Occasion

One of the most interesting things for me has been watching Halloween change over approximately the past five years.

The American influence is obvious. American families have long taken Halloween much more seriously than most British families did, and areas of London with international communities were among those where the tradition became particularly visible.

But everybody else seems to have cottoned on. Each year there seem to be more pumpkins, more children, more houses participating and increasingly ambitious decorations. And some of the displays are incredible.

London's architecture helps. A huge spider stretched across the façade of a Victorian house or a line of illuminated pumpkins running up the steps of a white stucco terrace is quite different from decorating a more ordinary suburban house. The buildings themselves become part of the theatre.

Some households clearly spend considerable time and money creating their displays. At some of the houses we've visited, people have even been brought in to distribute sweets and chocolates to children.

It is incredibly generous, particularly when you consider just how many children can appear during the course of the evening. Halloween now feels like a real celebratory occasion in these neighbourhoods.

What Time Should You Trick or Treat in London?

With younger children, I would start at around 5.30pm, when it is becoming dark but before the busiest part of the evening. Between roughly 5.30pm and 7pm works particularly well for primary-school-aged children. Older children naturally tend to stay out later.

Halloween falls on a Saturday in 2026, so I would expect the most popular streets to feel particularly lively. The etiquette is fairly intuitive. Pumpkins, decorations, lights and a stream of children approaching a house are all fairly obvious indications that the household is participating.

A dark house with no decorations is best left alone. And because these remain people's homes, even on Halloween, children should be encouraged to be polite, take a reasonable amount and move on so the next group can have their turn.

More Family Things to Do in London

If you’re planning the rest of the school holiday, see my guide to the Best Things to Do in London With Kids This October Half Term 2026 by Age, or explore my Things to Do in South Kensington With Kids guide for ideas throughout the year.

As autumn turns towards the festive season, you can also start planning with my Best Christmas Activities in London With Kids 2026 guide, while Christmas in Chelsea covers some of the best festive things to see and do locally.

Is Trick or Treating in London Worth Travelling Across the City For?

This is where I would add one caveat.

Some of these neighbourhoods have become sufficiently well known that families now travel from other parts of London specifically to visit them. There is nothing wrong with that, and the decorations are certainly impressive enough to attract visitors.

But I think Halloween is at its best when it still feels local. Part of what we enjoy is meeting friends from school every year. The children dress up, we walk around together and inevitably bump into other people we know. Over time, it has become one of those small traditions they expect to repeat each autumn.

So if you have a neighbourhood closer to home where Halloween is well established, I wouldn't necessarily cross London simply to find a supposedly better street. But if you live around Kensington and Chelsea or want to experience Halloween in London with kids in an area where residents genuinely embrace it: Holland Park, Chelsea, Kensington, Belgravia and Notting Hill are all excellent places to start.

Pick one area rather than trying to do all of them. Arrive before the biggest crowds. Follow the pumpkins. And prepare your children for the fact that in some parts of London, a plastic pumpkin and a packet of supermarket sweets really aren't going to cut it anymore.

Shanti

The Kensington Diary