London takes Halloween seriously. By the time the clocks are thinking about going back, the city's scare mazes, immersive horror shows and ghost walks are all in full swing, and half our customers ask us for Halloween-week recommendations before they book their tour. We're not a horror events company — we run tutored beer tastings in the Bermondsey railway arches, and have done since 2014 — so this is a deliberately honest, hedged guide: the types of Halloween events actually worth knowing about, how to pick between them, and why a dim railway arch full of good beer is its own kind of atmospheric evening if queuing for jump scares isn't your idea of fun. If you're after the wider genre this sits in, our roundup of London's best immersive experiences covers the format year-round, not just in October.
What's actually on for Halloween in London
"Halloween events London" covers a lot of ground, from one-night pop-ups in a pub back room to month-long scare mazes with a production budget. Rather than naming specific attractions and their prices — which change year to year and are best checked on the official site closer to the date — it's more useful to know the broad categories, so you can match the format to who you're actually going with.
Scare attractions and haunted houses
The big-ticket option: purpose-built mazes and walk-throughs with actors, sets, fog and jump scares, usually running as a seasonal takeover of an existing venue (a former warehouse, an underground space, sometimes a theme park doing its own Halloween programme). These tend to carry firm age guidance — often 15 or 18 and up — because of physical contact from actors, strobe lighting and genuine scares rather than gentle spookiness, so check the age rating before booking for a mixed group. Expect timed entry slots, queues on the busiest nights, and prices that climb the closer you get to 31 October itself.
Immersive horror experiences
A step up in production value from a straightforward maze: immersive horror shows put you inside a scripted story with actors who interact directly with small groups, sometimes over an hour or more rather than a five-minute walk-through. These are usually the priciest and most limited-capacity option, booking up fastest in the final two weeks of October, and are worth it if you want genuine theatre rather than a corridor of scares. They sit in the same broader category as the immersive art and dining experiences we cover in our immersive experiences hub — Halloween is really just this format's biggest month of the year.
Spooky walks and ghost tours
The gentler end of the spectrum: guided walking tours through London's older streets, telling the city's genuine history of plague pits, public executions and reputedly haunted buildings, usually without any actors jumping out. These are a good pick for a mixed-age group, a first date, or anyone who wants atmosphere without an adrenaline spike, and they're generally cheaper and easier to book last-minute than a big scare attraction. Several run year-round and simply lean into the season around Halloween with themed commentary and evening timings.
Horror film screenings and themed cinema nights
Independent cinemas and a handful of pop-up outdoor screens run horror double-bills and classic-film nights through October — a low-effort, low-cost way to mark the season if you'd rather sit still than be chased through a warehouse. Some venues pair a screening with a themed bar menu or a short live element beforehand, so it's worth checking the listing rather than assuming it's a plain film showing.
Family-friendly and daytime options
Not everything is built to scare. Pumpkin patches, daytime trick-or-treat trails and family-pitched "not-so-scary" mazes run alongside the adults-only attractions, usually earlier in the day or on weekend afternoons, with lighter effects and no actor contact. If you're planning around younger children, these daytime slots are generally the safer bet than assuming a headline scare attraction has a family-friendly version.
How much do Halloween events in London cost?
We're deliberately not quoting specific figures here, because pricing swings hugely by attraction, ticket tier and how close you book to 31 October — and last year's prices are a poor guide to this year's. As a rough shape: a spooky walk or ghost tour tends to sit at the cheaper end, film screenings are usually standard cinema pricing with a small seasonal premium, and the big scare mazes and immersive horror shows cost the most, especially for prime Friday or Saturday evening slots in the final fortnight of October. Group and family tickets are often available and can work out cheaper per head than booking separately, so check each venue's own site for current pricing rather than budgeting from memory.
Booking ahead: what actually matters
- Weekend evenings near 31 October sell out first and cost the most — book several weeks ahead if your group has a fixed date in mind.
- Age guidance varies a lot between attractions, so read it properly rather than assuming — some scare mazes are genuinely not for under-18s.
- Prices and exact dates change year to year — always check the specific venue's official site rather than relying on last year's listing.
- Weeknight slots are usually easier to get and cheaper than a Friday or Saturday close to Halloween.
The grown-up alternative: dark railway arches instead of a scare maze
Here's our honest pitch, and the reason we wrote this in the first place. If jump scares, queuing and 18+ waivers aren't your group's idea of a good night, the Bermondsey railway arches do a completely different kind of atmospheric evening entirely by accident — dim brick tunnels, steam off the fermentation tanks, and the smell of hops rather than fog machines. Our Bermondsey Beer Tasting Tour (£49pp, 2-3.5 hours, four taprooms, beer included at every stop, meeting at Southwark Brewing Co, 46 Druid Street) runs every week of the year, autumn included, and gives a small group something to actually talk about between stops rather than just recovering from the last scare. For more of this after-dark-but-not-scary genre generally, our roundup of unusual things to do in London covers other offbeat evenings that don't rely on jump scares for atmosphere.
Planning a Halloween group outing or work social
Big scare attractions can be a mismatch for a work social or a mixed-age friend group — not everyone wants to be genuinely frightened on a Tuesday evening. We take private groups of 6 up to 60 or more on any of our tours, including the Cheese, Meat & Beer Tour (£65pp, Saturdays 12-2:30pm) if you'd rather pair the evening with food, and it's an easy way to give a group something to do together through October without anyone dropping out because they don't like being chased. See private and group tours for details, and if you're gifting a Halloween-season night out, vouchers are bought directly on our gift vouchers page, delivered instantly by email and never expiring.
Make a full evening of it
If you are going to a scare attraction or an immersive horror show, it's worth building the rest of the evening around it rather than turning up cold. Bermondsey's own local guide to things to do in the area covers Maltby Street Market and Bermondsey Street's galleries for an afternoon that pairs neatly with an evening event elsewhere in the city, and if you end up wanting the beer-and-atmosphere version of Halloween instead of the scares, that's exactly what we're set up for on any date through October.
Skip the scare queue — taste beer in the railway arches instead →