London has two kinds of ice rink: pop-up outdoor ones that run from mid-November to early January, and permanent indoor ones open all year. The seasonal rinks are prettier and dearer; the indoor rinks cost about £12 a session and never sell out. For Christmas dates at Somerset House, tickets go on sale in late September and the December evenings go first.
Below are the 2026/27 dates and prices we could confirm on the venues' own pages in September 2026, what a family of four actually pays at each, and which rink suits which kind of skater. If you are planning a whole December trip, our guide to Christmas in London covers the rest of the season.
The 2026/27 season in short
- Skate at Somerset House
- 11 November 2026 – 10 January 2027. Adults £13–£28.50, children from £11, plus a £1.50 booking fee per ticket. Tickets on sale from 10am on Friday 25 September 2026
- Hampton Court Palace ice rink
- 20 November 2026 – 3 January 2027, excluding Christmas Day. First session 10am, last session 8pm. Separate ticket; palace admission not included
- Hyde Park Winter Wonderland
- 19 November 2026 – 3 January 2027. The rink is inside a site that needs its own timed entry ticket
- Open all year
- Alexandra Palace, Queens in Bayswater, and Lee Valley Ice Centre in Leyton
Skate at Somerset House: book on 25 September or wait
The rink in the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court is the one most people picture: a square of ice enclosed on four sides by an eighteenth-century courtyard, with a very large Christmas tree in the middle. It runs from 11 November 2026 to 10 January 2027.
Prices are banded: adults £13 to £28.50 and children from £11, with a £1.50 transaction fee per ticket. That range is the whole story. A Tuesday morning in mid-November is at the bottom of it; a Saturday evening in the fortnight before Christmas is at the top. A family of two adults and two children could pay under £50 at the quiet end and well over £100 at the busy one.
General sale opened at 10am on Friday 25 September 2026, with a pre-sale for people signed up to the venue's mailing list. Weekend evening slots in December go within days. If those are what you want, sign up for the pre-sale before late September; if you can skate on a weekday morning, you will still find space in the new year.
Somerset House also runs evening sessions with a DJ, which are a different product: later, louder, adult-leaning and sold separately. Our guide to Somerset House covers the building the rest of the year, including the Courtauld Gallery inside it.
The cheapest way to skate at Somerset House is a weekday morning in November. Same rink, same courtyard, same tree, less than half the peak price, and you can actually move on the ice. The photographs are better too, because there are fewer people in them.
Photo: Eagleash · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Hampton Court Palace: the outdoor rink with the best backdrop
Historic Royal Palaces runs a rink at Hampton Court from 20 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, closed on Christmas Day, with the first session at 10am and the last at 8pm. The ticket is separate and does not include palace admission, so if you want to see inside Hampton Court Palace as well, that is a second purchase. HRP members save ten per cent or more with a code from their newsletter.
Two things make this the pick for families. First, the setting genuinely beats Somerset House: you are skating in front of a Tudor palace rather than inside a Georgian courtyard. Second, the rink offers reduced-capacity sessions from 10am every day, with static lighting and softer music instead of the usual disco treatment. HRP says these suit disabled guests and parents with young children, and they are the single most useful thing any London rink offers. If your child finds flashing lights and loud music difficult, book the 10am.
The cost is travel. Hampton Court is in zone 6, about 35 minutes by train from Waterloo, so this is a half-day rather than an hour squeezed into a shopping trip.
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland: the biggest, and the most complicated
Winter Wonderland runs from 19 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 and contains what the organisers describe as the UK's largest open-air rink, built around the Victorian bandstand in Hyde Park.
The complication is the two-stage ticketing. You need a timed entry ticket for the site itself, and then a separate ticket for the rink. Entry is £1 off-peak from Monday to Thursday in November, and on-the-day prices for everything are higher than booking ahead. The organisers also sell packages: an "Arctic Adventure" bundle including skating, the ice sculpture exhibition and the ice slide starts at £44.50 for an adult and covers site entry.
Work out which you need before you get to the checkout, because buying the wrong combination is the commonest mistake here. Our guide to Winter Wonderland has the full picture, and London in December covers the surrounding weeks.
We could not confirm an ice rink at the Tower of London for 2026/27. Historic Royal Palaces lists one seasonal rink across its sites, and it is at Hampton Court. Several older articles still describe a rink in the Tower's moat. Check hrp.org.uk before you plan an evening around it.
The rinks that are open all year
Permanent rinks are unglamorous, cheaper and far more reliable. Nobody photographs them, and they are the right answer for anyone who actually wants to skate rather than to be at a Christmas market with skates on.
| Rink | Adult | Child | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandra Palace, north London | £11.75 off-peak, £12.75 peak | £10.50 / £11.50 under 12; £7.75 / £8.75 under 5 | Over-65s pay the child rate. Spectators £2.50–£3.00. Skate aids £7.50 |
| Queens, Bayswater | From £11.75 off-peak, £13.75 peak | See venue | Monday and Tuesday sessions from £8.00; late sessions from £10.00. Indoor, open since 1930 |
| Lee Valley Ice Centre, Leyton | See venue | See venue | Two Olympic-size rinks under one roof, public sessions daily, gym and café on site |
Prices checked September 2026. A family of two adults and two under-12s at Alexandra Palace pays £48.50 at peak and £44.50 off-peak, which is a good deal less than a December evening at any of the seasonal rinks.
Session lengths, and why they matter more than the price
This is the detail that decides whether an hour on ice feels generous or rushed, and almost nobody checks it.
At Alexandra Palace, term-time weekday sessions last two hours, except the final session of the day which is 90 minutes; weekend and school-holiday sessions are 90 minutes. Seasonal outdoor rinks typically sell 45 or 50-minute slots. That is a real difference: two hours is a morning out, 45 minutes is about twenty minutes of skating once you have queued for boots and tightened them twice.
Arrive 15 minutes before your slot wherever you go. The clock usually starts at the session time, not when you get onto the ice.
With small children, and with nervous adults
- Skate aids. Most rinks hire out plastic seals or penguins to push. At Alexandra Palace they cost £7.50, the seal is for children of five and under being pushed by an adult skater, and the penguin is for ages three to seven up to 1.2 metres tall. Since spring 2026 they can no longer be booked online there and are first come, first served at the rink, so arrive early.
- Spectator tickets. If an adult wants to stand at the barrier inside the rink area rather than skate, several rinks charge for it: £2.50 to £3.00 at Alexandra Palace. Budget for it.
- Relaxed sessions. Hampton Court's 10am reduced-capacity sessions, with softer music and static lighting, are the best option in London for a child who finds noise and flashing lights hard.
- Gloves are not optional. Everyone falls, hands go down first, and the ice is cold and sharp. Our list of what to pack for London covers the rest; for a rink, add thin waterproof gloves and warm socks that come above the boot line.
- Lessons. The indoor rinks run learn-to-skate courses from around age five, which is a far better use of a first visit than forty-five minutes clinging to a barrier.
Our guides to London with kids and London in the school holidays cover the surrounding day.
Which one should you choose?
Go seasonal if
- You are in London in December and want the occasion more than the skating
- You can book in advance, ideally in the pre-sale
- You want photographs of a courtyard or a palace
- A weekday morning works for you, which halves the price
Go indoor if
- You want two hours on ice rather than forty-five minutes
- You are travelling outside the eight-week season
- You are taking children who need space and time
- You decided this morning and want to skate this afternoon
Getting there and booking
Somerset House is on the Strand between Temple and Covent Garden, Winter Wonderland is beside Hyde Park Corner, Alexandra Palace is reached from Wood Green or Alexandra Palace station, Queens is in Bayswater near Queensway, and Lee Valley Ice Centre is on Lea Bridge Road in Leyton. Our guide to the Underground covers the routes.
Book online everywhere. Alexandra Palace and Queens sell tickets at the door too, card only at the former, but online is cheaper at both. For accessibility, ask the individual rink directly rather than relying on a general page; our overview of accessible London covers the journey.
For the other seasonal outdoor activity that people book too late, see London in November. If the weather defeats you entirely, an escape room is indoors and warm, and in summer the lidos and swimming ponds are the opposite end of the same idea. The full list is under family days and experiences.
Frequently asked questions
When do London's Christmas ice rinks open in 2026?
Skate at Somerset House runs from 11 November 2026 to 10 January 2027. The Hampton Court Palace rink runs from 20 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, excluding Christmas Day. Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, which contains the largest open-air rink, runs from 19 November 2026 to 3 January 2027.
How much does ice skating cost in London?
Seasonal outdoor rinks are the dearest: Somerset House charges £13 to £28.50 for adults and from £11 for children, plus £1.50 a ticket. Permanent indoor rinks are cheaper, at £11.75 to £12.75 for an adult at Alexandra Palace and from £8 at certain sessions at Queens in Bayswater (September 2026).
When do Somerset House skate tickets go on sale?
General sale for the 2026/27 season opened at 10am on Friday 25 September 2026, with earlier access for people subscribed to the venue's mailing list. December weekend evenings sell out first, so sign up for the pre-sale if those are the slots you want.
Is there an ice rink at the Tower of London?
We could not confirm one for the 2026/27 season. Historic Royal Palaces lists a single seasonal rink across its sites, at Hampton Court Palace. Older guides still describe a rink in the Tower's moat, so check the official site before planning around it.
Can you skate in London outside the Christmas season?
Yes. Alexandra Palace, Queens in Bayswater and Lee Valley Ice Centre in Leyton are indoor rinks open all year with daily public sessions. They are cheaper than the seasonal rinks, the sessions are longer, and they rarely sell out.
Sources
- Somerset House - Skate at Somerset House, dates and prices (checked September 2026)
- Historic Royal Palaces - Hampton Court Palace ice rink (checked September 2026)
- Alexandra Palace - Ice rink prices and opening times (checked September 2026)
- Queens - ice skating sessions and prices (checked September 2026)
- Hyde Park Winter Wonderland - the Ice Rink and entry tickets (checked September 2026)
- Lee Valley Ice Centre - public skating (checked September 2026)