Ice Skating In London: Rinks, Prices And Booking For 2026

London's outdoor rinks are one of the few Christmas traditions that have genuinely thinned out. A decade ago the city had half a dozen seasonal rinks; for 2026 the list of headline outdoor options is down to three, and the most famous one of all, the rink at the Natural History Museum, has closed permanently with no 2026 season, its gardens redeveloped for urban wildlife. That is useful planning knowledge, because plenty of older round-ups still list it, and visitors still search for it.

What remains is a strong trio. Winter Wonderland runs the UK's largest open-air rink inside its Hyde Park funfair from 19 November 2026 to 3 January 2027. Somerset House fills its Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court from 11 November 2026 to 10 January 2027, the most photogenic setting of the three. Hampton Court Palace lays a rink against the Tudor facade from 20 November 2026 to 3 January 2027. Alexandra Palace keeps a year-round rink with festive touches in winter, and the small JW3 rink in Finchley Road is one of the very few things open on Christmas Day itself.

This guide from Christmas In London covers what each rink costs, how the booking systems work, what has closed, and how to build a full evening around a session, since a 45-minute skate rarely justifies a trip on its own.

Where Can You Go Ice Skating In London For 2026?

Three headline outdoor rinks operate in London for the 2026 season: Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park (19 November to 3 January, closed Christmas Day), Somerset House (11 November to 10 January) and Hampton Court Palace (20 November to 3 January, closed Christmas Day). Alexandra Palace runs year-round with festive winter touches, and the JW3 rink in Finchley Road is open on Christmas Day. The Natural History Museum rink has closed permanently.

Start with the setting, because it shapes the whole evening. Somerset House is the classic choice: the grand neoclassical courtyard, a rink framed by the facade, and a Christmas tree as the centrepiece. Entry to the courtyard is free for non-skaters, which makes it one of the few rinks where a mixed group can genuinely share the outing, skaters on the ice and spectators at the edge with a drink.

Winter Wonderland's rink is a different animal. It sits around the Victoria bandstand inside the Hyde Park event, billed as the UK's largest open-air rink, and it is one attraction among 150-plus rides, shows and attractions. You cannot just turn up and skate: entry to Winter Wonderland itself requires a pre-booked date and a one-hour arrival slot, and the rink is a separate ticket on top.

Hampton Court Palace is the day-out option. The rink was expanded by eight metres for 2026, with an 18,000-fairy-light canopy and a central Christmas tree returning, and organisers expect up to 100,000 skaters across the season. It is a 35-minute train ride from central London, so it earns its place as the anchor of a palace visit rather than a spontaneous stop.

Alexandra Palace, on the hill above north London, is the pragmatic pick. The rink operates year-round with festive enhancements in winter, a tree and music, and it does not sell out weeks ahead the way the seasonal rinks do. JW3 in Finchley Road is small and community-run, but it holds a rare distinction: it is open on Christmas Day, when almost nothing else in the city is.

Two closures are worth knowing so you do not plan around them. The Natural History Museum rink has closed for good, and Ice Rink Canary Wharf will not operate for the 2026 winter season. If a round-up you are reading lists either, it is out of date.

How Much Do Ice Skating Tickets Cost In London?

Somerset House charges adults £13 to £28.50 and children £11 to £15, plus a £1.50 per-ticket fee, with dynamic pricing by date and time. Winter Wonderland's rink costs £12.65 to £19.25 for an adult in advance, on top of event entry at Off-Peak £1.00, Standard £5.50 or Peak £8.25, booking fee included. Hampton Court Palace publishes its dates only, so check the live price on the listing.

Price is where the three rinks diverge most, and where the booking model matters. Somerset House uses dynamic pricing: the same adult session is £13 on a quiet weekday and £28.50 on a prime Saturday night, so the date you pick does most of the work on the bill. Children pay £11 to £15, and under-12s must be accompanied, one adult per five children. Family tickets save 10 percent.

Winter Wonderland separates its costs into layers, and this is the part visitors get wrong. Event entry is booked by date and one-hour arrival slot: Off-Peak GBP 1.00, Standard GBP 5.50, Peak GBP 8.25, booking fee included, and off-peak pricing applies every Monday to Thursday in November. The ice rink is a separate ticket, with 45-minute sessions priced in advance at £12.65 off-peak, £17.05 standard and £19.25 peak for adults. Rides, attractions and the rink all cost extra, so a family skate there is entry plus rink plus anything else the children spot on the way in.

Hampton Court Palace is the one to check live. The rink runs 20 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 excluding Christmas Day, with sessions typically from 10:00 to 20:00 daily, but the price belongs on the operator's own page rather than in a round-up. Skate hire is included in the ticket, and relaxed, reduced-capacity sessions run daily from 10:00 with static lighting and softer music.

The official Somerset House page lists the full price bands and session times, and the Winter Wonderland tickets guide sets out entry pricing and the free-entry unlock: spend £25 or more on attractions, rides, games, packages or food and drink in one pre-booked online transaction and event entry is free. That last rule is the cheapest route into Hyde Park for a family that plans to skate anyway.

Skating is the cheapest hour of most London Christmas plans, which is worth saying plainly. A Somerset House off-peak adult session costs less than a West End mulled wine and mince pie stop, and the Somerset House site confirms courtyard entry is free for anyone not skating.

Which Rink Should You Choose For Your Skate?

Choose Somerset House for the classic London scene and the widest date choice, Winter Wonderland if the visit is really about the full funfair, and Hampton Court Palace for a half-day trip with a palace beside the ice. Alexandra Palace suits a budget or last-minute session, and JW3 is the only rink open on Christmas Day.

The honest comparison is about what surrounds the ice. Somerset House wins on atmosphere per pound: the courtyard, the tree, the Skate Lates evenings with DJs from Wednesday to Friday from 12 November, and a new K-Pop party on 23 November with the Korean Cultural Centre UK. Non-skaters pay nothing to stand at the edge, which no other headline rink offers.

Winter Wonderland wins on volume. If the group wants a rink, a fairground, a bar and a circus show in one visit, the rink there is the cheapest component of a much bigger evening. The 2026 season brings a Peter Pan-themed Magical Ice Kingdom with over 500 tonnes of ice and snow sculptures, a K-Pop fusion circus in Show Town, and the UK's largest open-air rink under the bandstand canopy. The trade-off is time-slot discipline: you book a date and an arrival hour, and slots sell out in peak periods.

Hampton Court Palace wins on the day out. The rink sits against the palace, the Festive Fayre runs on 4 to 6 and 11 to 13 December, and the Winter Palace installations inside the palace run from 28 November to 3 January, included in palace admission with pre-booking. Skating there is the excuse; the palace is the event.

For a Christmas Day plan the choice is narrow. Almost everything closes: the rinks above, Winter Wonderland, the museums, the London Eye (open on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day). The Royal Parks stay open and free, Thames Christmas Day cruises sail, and JW3's rink runs, which makes it a genuine option for a family that wants to do something physical before Christmas lunch. Our guide to what is open on Christmas Day covers the rest of the day.

How Do You Book A Rink Session And What Should You Know?

Every headline rink uses timed sessions and advance booking: Somerset House sells dated slots with dynamic pricing, Winter Wonderland requires a pre-booked date and one-hour arrival slot for entry plus a separate rink session, and Hampton Court sells timed sessions with skate hire included. Book early for December weekends and prime evening slots, which are the first to go.

The mechanics differ enough to matter. Somerset House general tickets went on sale in late September, with a pre-sale for newsletter subscribers, and the pricing moves with demand: a midweek daytime slot in late November sits near the bottom of the band, a Saturday evening in mid-December near the top. The rink offers reduced-capacity relaxed sessions and dedicated wheelchair sessions, and the official Somerset House pages carry the full timetable and FAQs.

At Winter Wonderland, booking is two-step. First, entry: a specific date and a one-hour arrival slot between 10am and 8pm, with advance prices until 23:59 the day before your visit; on-site purchase is possible but slots sell out and cost more. Second, the rink: a 45-minute session booked as an attraction. The event's tickets guide notes that booking fees are now included in displayed prices, and a rescheduling tool exists for booked visits, which softens the commitment considerably.

Hampton Court sessions run typically from 10:00 to 20:00 daily, excluding Christmas Day, with relaxed sessions daily from 10:00. Tickets include skate hire, and the rink's own site carries live availability. The palace expects heavy demand, up to 100,000 skaters across the season, so December weekends need lead time.

One practical note on timing: London's December sunset falls around 15:50 to 16:00, so a 4pm or 5pm session is already a night skate under the lights. That is the session most people want, which is exactly why it sells first. A morning session at Somerset House or Hampton Court is often half the price and still photogenic, just in daylight.

What Can You Pair With A Skating Session?

A skate lasts 45 minutes to an hour, so the strongest plans pair it with a lights walk or a guided tour in the same evening: Somerset House sits minutes from Covent Garden's 300,000-light display, Winter Wonderland pairs with any Hyde Park and West End route, and a lights bus tour covers the decorated streets while you rest your ankles.

This is where the evening becomes an evening. Somerset House's courtyard is a short walk from Covent Garden, where the "Theatre of Christmas" switch-on on Thursday 12 November 2026 starts a seven-week celebration with over 300,000 lights. A late-afternoon skate followed by the walk through Covent Garden and down to the Southbank Centre Winter Market, free to walk in and open daily 11am to 10pm, closed 25 and 31 December, is the single best-value festive evening in the city: one paid session and two free light shows.

For a guided version, the Lights and Bites Routemaster Bus runs 1.5 hours through the decorated West End with food tastings along the route, rated 4.1 from 185 reviews and from $60 per person, with free cancellation per the listing. It is a natural post-skate choice from Somerset House, since both start in the same streets. Our London Christmas lights where to see them guide maps the displays if you prefer to walk self-guided.

The Markets Walk, Mulled Wine Included covers similar ground with a warming drink built in: 1 hour 30 minutes, rated 5 from 72 reviews, from $61 per person, free cancellation per the listing. If the skate is the romantic centrepiece and the walk is the warm-up, that mulled wine at the end earns its place.

If legs are tired after the rink, the bus option does the distance for you. The Live Guide, 1.5-Hour Ride is the workhorse of the lights season, rated 4 from 5,439 reviews and from $33 per person, with free cancellation per the listing. It is the cheapest guided way to see the West End displays on the same night as a Hyde Park skate.

Two quieter alternatives suit a smaller evening. The Silent-Disco Walk With Music, 1 hour 45 minutes, rated 4.9 from 118 reviews and from $52 per person, moves through the lights with Christmas music in your ears rather than a guide's voice, a strange and effective pairing with the silence of a rink. The Vintage Double-Decker Lights Ride, rated 4 from 135 reviews and from $43 per person, runs 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours 10 minutes, and the vintage bus suits anyone who wants the tour itself to feel period. Both carry free cancellation per their listings.

What Should You Wear And When Should You Go?

Dress for December temperatures of roughly 8 to 10 C by day and 3 to 5 C by evening, in layers you can shed, with gloves for the ice and a waterproof layer for the roughly 50 to 60 mm of rain the month typically brings. Go off-peak in late November or early December for the cheapest sessions, and book December weekends and prime evenings well ahead.

The rink part of the outfit is simple: gloves are the one item worth carrying, most rinks ask for them or strongly prefer them, and a hat keeps the cold off between sessions. Thick socks matter more than most people expect, rental skates are stiff and a double layer prevents blisters. Everything else is standard London winter layering, which our how to dress for London in December post covers in detail, including why a waterproof outer layer beats an umbrella on a crowded rinkside.

Timing is the bigger lever. Late November and the first week of December give you the full lights, the rinks at their quietest and the lowest prices: Somerset House's off-peak band and Winter Wonderland's £1.00 off-peak entry both apply in that window, with off-peak entry pricing every Monday to Thursday in November. From around 11 December to 2 January, expect peak pricing, peak crowds and the first slots to vanish.

The calendar has three trap dates. Christmas Day closes every headline rink, though JW3 stays open and the Royal Parks stay free. Boxing Day runs a reduced Sunday-style transport pattern, last year's pattern with no Elizabeth line, so check with TfL in December. And the final day of Winter Wonderland, 3 January 2027, is designated a Family Fun Day, which makes it either perfect or the busiest slot of the season depending on your tolerance for children on sugar.

Which Days Of The Season Are Best Value For Skating?

The best-value skating window is Monday to Thursday in late November: Winter Wonderland entry is £1.00 off-peak every Monday to Thursday in November, Somerset House dynamic pricing sits at the bottom of its £13 to £28.50 band on weekday afternoons, and the lights are already on, with Regent Street lit from 5 November and Covent Garden from 12 November.

The economics are worth spelling out, because the same skate varies by a factor of two or more across the season. A weekday afternoon session in late November at Somerset House sits near £13. The same session on a December Saturday evening approaches £28.50. The ice is identical; the date is not.

The lights calendar helps here. Regent Street switches on Thursday 5 November 2026 with a traffic-free event from 5pm to 9pm, and Carnaby Street follows on Wednesday 4 November. Covent Garden's switch-on lands Thursday 12 November. So from mid-November you have the full display with pre-peak prices and pre-peak queues, the combination that disappears by the second week of December.

One last structural note: the JW3 and Alexandra Palace options keep different calendars from the seasonal three, and Alexandra Palace in particular absorbs overflow well when Somerset House and Winter Wonderland slots are gone. It is the rink to check on a whim.

Common Questions About Ice Skating In London