What Closes on Public Holidays

Published 20 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Only four days in the year really change a London trip: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Easter Sunday and New Year's Day. Christmas Day is the extreme one, with no Tube, no London bus and no National Rail train anywhere in the country. The other bank holidays feel like busy Sundays.

Our guide to bank holidays, Sunday trading and opening hours explains the rules behind all of this: which shops may open, for how long, and why. This page does the opposite job. It goes date by date and tells you what is running, what is shut and what you can still do, so you can put a real plan against a real day.

One warning before the detail. Transport operators publish their festive arrangements late, usually from the beginning of October for the railways and at the start of December for Transport for London. The patterns below are stable from year to year, but the exact timetable for December 2026 was not yet published when this page was written in September 2026. Check before you travel.

Christmas Day: the one day London stops

Transport for London's standard wording is that there is no service across most public transport on 25 December. In practice that means no Underground, no London bus, no Docklands Light Railway, no Overground, no tram and no Elizabeth line. National Rail is blunter still: there are no train services anywhere in Britain on Christmas Day.

Several things do keep running, and they are the reason the day is workable rather than impossible:

• Taxis and private hire. Black cabs and minicabs operate, at reduced numbers and higher demand. Black cab meters carry an extra charge at set times over Christmas and New Year. Book ahead if you have a flight; see our guide to cabs, minicabs and app-based cars.
• Santander Cycles and rental e-scooters. Available throughout the festive period, including on Christmas Day. With empty roads it is genuinely the best day of the year to cycle across central London; our cycling guide has the routes.
• Coaches. Victoria Coach Station stays open over the whole period, including 25 December.
• Dial-a-Ride, TfL's door-to-door service for people who cannot use public transport, also runs.

The roads are the quietest they will be all year. The central London Congestion Charge is suspended from Christmas Day through to New Year's Day inclusive, and the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnel charges are suspended on 25 December. The Ultra Low Emission Zone is the exception in reverse: it applies every day of the year except Christmas Day. Details of all three are in our guide to driving charges in London.

On the ground, large shops must stay closed by law, most restaurants and pubs are shut, museums are closed and the ticketed attractions are dark. Hotel restaurants open for guests, a handful of restaurants open with a fixed menu booked months ahead, and the parks are open and full of people walking off lunch. Our guide to Christmas in London covers what is actually on.

Christmas Eve: the early finish nobody expects

24 December is a normal working day in Britain, and the shops are among the busiest of the year until mid-afternoon. The catch is the evening. TfL services run but finish early, and National Rail warns that trains on many routes stop far earlier than the usual timetable. The guide to last departures from London is normally published in late November or early December.

Shops wind down in the same way. Liberty publishes Christmas Eve hours of 09:00 to 17:00, against 10:00 to 21:00 for the rest of its festive period, and that pattern is typical of the big West End stores. If you have a table booked or a show to see on 24 December, check how you are getting back before you go out.

Boxing Day: reduced trains, full shops

26 December is the reverse of Christmas Day. The shops reopen and the winter sales begin, so Oxford Street, Regent Street and the Westfield centres are heaving from early morning. Transport is the weak point.

On TfL's network, the Underground, buses and trams run a Sunday service, and parts of the network do not run at all. The Elizabeth line has had no Boxing Day service in recent years. On the national railway, most train operators run nothing at all on 26 December, with a very limited service from a small number of companies.

That combination catches out visitors planning a Boxing Day day trip. Oxford, Cambridge, Brighton and Windsor are all easy on an ordinary day and may be unreachable by train on 26 December. Football fixtures are traditionally played on Boxing Day, which adds to the pressure on whatever does run.

The quiet week between Christmas and New Year

27 to 30 December is one of the best stretches of the year to be a visitor. The museums have reopened, the pantomimes are in full swing, the Christmas lights are still up and a large part of the working population is at home. Hotel rates are usually lower than in the week before Christmas.

Engineering work is the trade-off. Network Rail and TfL concentrate major repairs into this period precisely because it is quiet, so whole Tube branches and rail lines close for days at a time. For December 2026, Network Rail has already flagged major work at Birmingham New Street from 24 to 28 December, which affects journeys running through it. Check any long-distance trip before you buy the ticket.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

31 December runs on its own rules. TfL normally runs services all night, apart from planned closures, and National Rail adds special late trains on a number of London routes after midnight. Central London stations get extremely busy and some are closed at short notice to control crowding.

From roughly midday, road closures around the Thames start and central bus routes go on diversion. Some bridges close to pedestrians as well, and Santander Cycle docking stations inside the closure area go out of use. The fireworks are ticketed, and TfL's advice is not to travel to the Victoria Embankment area at all without a ticket; our guide to New Year's Eve in London explains how the tickets and the viewing areas work.

New Year's Day itself is a bank holiday. Transport runs to a Sunday or amended timetable, shops open on their usual Sunday or bank holiday hours, and the London New Year's Day Parade closes roads through the West End for much of the morning. Hamleys, to take one example, publishes bank holiday hours of 12:00 to 18:00 all year round, the same as its Sundays.

Easter: four days that behave differently from each other

Easter is the most misunderstood weekend of the British year, because the four days follow four different rules.

In 2026 the same sequence runs from Friday 3 April to Monday 6 April, with Easter Sunday on 5 April. Easter Sunday is the only day other than Christmas Day when large shops in England are required to close, and it is not itself a bank holiday. Small shops, cafés, restaurants and markets are unaffected, so the day is perfectly usable if you are not shopping.

Easter is also the point in the calendar when the whole of Britain travels. Long-distance trains, motorways and the airports are at their busiest, and the Easter weekend is a standard slot for large-scale rail engineering work.

May, Spring and August: the bank holidays that change almost nothing

The early May holiday, the late May Spring holiday and the August holiday are all Mondays, and for a visitor they are simply busy days. Banks, offices, schools and some GP surgeries close. Museums, galleries, attractions, shops, restaurants and transport all operate, usually to weekend hours.

Two practical effects are worth planning for. Attractions with timed entry sell out earlier than on a normal Monday, so book. And ceremonies that follow a weekday calendar may not happen: check the schedule for Changing the Guard rather than assuming.

The August bank holiday weekend is Notting Hill Carnival weekend, which closes a large part of west London and changes bus routes and Tube station arrangements across the area. The London Cable Car, at the other end of the city, runs its Sunday timetable on bank holidays and closes only on Christmas Day.

Banks, post, doctors and pharmacies on a holiday

Bank branches close on every bank holiday, and on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day they close for the substitute day as well. Cash machines keep working, card payments are unaffected, and currency exchange desks at the airports and main stations generally open. Our page on money, cards and contactless in London covers how little cash you actually need.

Post offices and letter deliveries stop on bank holidays. Parcel lockers and courier collection points inside supermarkets usually stay open, because the shop is open.

Health services matter more. GP surgeries close on bank holidays and over the Christmas period. Pharmacies keep a rota so that some are open, and the NHS pharmacy finder shows which. NHS 111 runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year, including Christmas Day, and can direct you to an urgent treatment centre or an open pharmacy. A&E and 999 never close. Our guides to healthcare for visitors and emergency numbers explain which to use when.

How to check a specific date before you book

1. Confirm the date itself on the official bank holiday list, because substitute days move when Christmas falls at a weekend.
2. Check the attraction's own website, not a third-party listing. Christmas closures are published months ahead; bank holiday hours often are not.
3. Check TfL and National Rail separately. They publish at different times and their closures do not match.
4. Book restaurants for 24 to 26 December in autumn, not in December. The places that open sell out early.
5. Treat Boxing Day as a shopping day, not a travel day, and the days after it as the time for trips out of London.

If your trip lands in the last two weeks of December, our month guide to London in December sets out the events calendar, and Christmas shopping in London covers the markets and late-night openings.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Tube run on Christmas Day in London?

No. There is no Underground service on 25 December, and no London bus, tram, DLR, Overground or Elizabeth line service either. National Rail runs no trains anywhere in Britain that day. Taxis, minicabs, Santander Cycles and coaches from Victoria Coach Station do operate.

What is open in London on Boxing Day?

Shops, the winter sales, most museums and attractions, restaurants and pubs. Transport is the limitation: the Underground, buses and trams run a Sunday service with parts of the network closed, and most national rail operators run no service at all on 26 December.

Are shops open on Easter Sunday in London?

Large shops, meaning those with a sales area over 280 square metres, must stay closed all day on Easter Sunday. Smaller shops, convenience stores, cafés, restaurants and markets can open as normal. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both ordinary trading days.

Do I need to change my plans for a May or August bank holiday?

Not much. Banks, offices and some doctors' surgeries close, but shops, museums, restaurants and transport all run, generally to weekend hours. Book timed-entry attractions in advance, because they fill faster than on an ordinary weekday, and check ceremony schedules.

When are the 2027 bank holidays in England?

Friday 1 January, Friday 26 March (Good Friday), Monday 29 March (Easter Monday), Monday 3 May, Monday 31 May, Monday 30 August, Monday 27 December (substitute for Christmas Day) and Tuesday 28 December (substitute for Boxing Day). Easter Sunday, 28 March 2027, is not a bank holiday but large shops must close.

Sources

• GOV.UK - UK bank holidays (checked September 2026)
• National Rail - Christmas and New Year 2026/27 travel summary (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Services over Christmas and New Year (checked September 2026)
• legislation.gov.uk - Sunday Trading Act 1994, Schedule 1 (checked September 2026)
• legislation.gov.uk - Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004, section 1 (checked September 2026)
• Liberty - Store information and festive opening hours (checked September 2026)
• The Crown Estate, Regent Street - Hamleys opening hours (checked September 2026)
• NHS - Find a pharmacy (checked September 2026)