The parade that fills central London every 1 January is now called simply the London Parade, and the 2027 edition runs from 13:00 to 16:30 on Friday 1 January, taking in Piccadilly, then Regent Street St James's, Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square and finally Whitehall. Watching from the pavement is free. Only the grandstands and the seated enclosures are ticketed.
It began in 1987 and has grown into one of the largest New Year's Day events anywhere: marching bands, cheerleading squads, dance troupes, vintage vehicles, giant inflatables and floats built by London's boroughs, all moving slowly through the middle of Westminster while several hundred thousand people watch from the kerb.
If you are in London for New Year, this is the thing to do on the first afternoon of the year, particularly if the night before was spent at the fireworks. Our guide to New Year's Eve fireworks in London covers the night, and this page covers the day after.
London Parade 2027 at a glance
- Date
- Friday 1 January 2027, a bank holiday in England and Wales
- Time
- 13:00 to 16:30. Ticket holders admitted to their enclosures from noon
- Route
- Piccadilly, then Regent Street St James's, Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall
- Length
- About 2.2 miles of route
- Cost
- Free to watch standing. Grandstand, VIP and Fun Zone tickets are sold separately
- Tickets
- Went on sale on 1 July 2026, through Ticketmaster
The name changed, and searching for the old one wastes time
For most of its life the event was called London's New Year's Day Parade, shortened by everyone including its own organisers to LNYDP. It has been rebranded as the London Parade, and its website is now londonparade.com. The old lnydp.com address still resolves, but every page on it now leads back to the new site.
This matters because a great deal of third-party information about the parade still uses the old name and, worse, old timings. The 2025 parade began at 12:30; the 2027 one begins at 13:00. Take your start time from the organiser's own location and timing page rather than from a listing site, and check it again in the week before you go.
Photo: Parade Watcher · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
The route, landmark by landmark
The parade covers about 2.2 miles through the grandest part of Westminster, and the route is essentially a sightseeing tour with a brass band attached.
It sets off from just off Piccadilly, close to Green Park station, and moves east along Piccadilly past the Ritz, with Green Park on one side, towards Piccadilly Circus. It then turns down Regent Street St James's, one of the most handsome streets in London, and left along Pall Mall through the world of gentlemen's clubs that our guide to Mayfair and St James's describes.
From there it reaches Trafalgar Square, which is the noisiest and most photographed stretch, and turns into Whitehall past Horse Guards Parade and the end of Downing Street. In 2026 it finished at Parliament Square, in front of Westminster Abbey and beneath Big Ben, which is as good a closing shot as any parade in the world has.
Where to stand for nothing, and when to arrive
Every metre of the route is free to watch from, and the crowd is not evenly distributed. This is how the stretches compare.
| Stretch | What it is like | Arrive by |
|---|---|---|
| Piccadilly, near Green Park | The start. Thinner crowds, performers at their freshest, toilets and first aid nearby | Around midday |
| Regent Street St James's | Handsome buildings, good light, busy but manageable | Around midday |
| Pall Mall | Wide pavements, a slightly older crowd, easy to see over | 12:30 |
| Trafalgar Square | The busiest point on the route by a distance | 11:30 or earlier |
| Whitehall and Parliament Square | The finish. Performers are tired but the backdrop is unbeatable | 12:30, and expect a late start here |
The single best free decision is to stand near the beginning rather than the end. The parade takes a long time to travel 2.2 miles, so a group that passes Green Park at 13:10 may not reach Parliament Square until well into the afternoon. At the start you see everything early, the performers are still playing at full strength, and you can leave when you have had enough.
Stand on the north side of Pall Mall and you get the low winter sun behind you. On a clear 1 January the sun sits low in the south all afternoon, which means photographs taken from the south side of an east-west street are shot into the light. Cross over before you settle in.
The three kinds of ticket, and whether any is worth buying
The organisers sell three products, all through Ticketmaster, and all for the same free-to-watch event. Whether they are worth it depends entirely on who is in your group.
- Grandstand. Reserved covered seating along the route, with live commentary explaining who is passing, plus a parade guide and a commemorative flag. The commentary is the real value: without it, a parade of a hundred groups is a hundred anonymous groups.
- VIP. Covered seating in premium locations, goodie bags, dedicated toilets, and food and drink from the event's catering partner. This is the option for people who want to be comfortable for four hours in January.
- Fun Zone. New for 2027, in Waterloo Place, next to the press area. It is a relaxed, festival-style enclosure with fold-out chairs on a first-come basis, room to bring your own chair or picnic blanket, gazebos, food and drink nearby and toilets.
Our honest view: if you are two adults who do not mind standing, save the money and take a spot on Piccadilly. If you have small children, older relatives, or anyone who will not last four hours on their feet in the cold, a seat with a toilet nearby transforms the day, and the Fun Zone is the cheapest way to get one.
Prices are not published on the parade's own site; it links straight to the ticket agent. Tickets for the 2027 parade went on sale on 1 July 2026, and the pattern in past years has been an on-sale date in the summer for the following January.
What actually passes you
The parade's backbone is marching bands, many of them American high school and university bands who fundraise for a year to make the trip, mixed with cheerleading squads, dance schools, vintage cars, London taxis, horse-drawn vehicles and enormous inflatables.
The organisers described more than 8,500 performers in the fortieth anniversary parade on 1 January 2026, and put the crowd that day at around 700,000. Those are the organisers' own figures, and we have not seen them independently confirmed, but they give a fair sense of the scale.
The section that makes it a London event rather than an imported one is the boroughs' competition. London's local authorities each field an entry, competing for prize money that goes to charities in their own borough, and the floats range from the genuinely impressive to the endearingly homemade. Cheering for a borough you have never heard of is part of the fun, and the results are announced afterwards on the parade's site.
Grandstand commentary is what turns the parade into a story. From the pavement you see a band; from a grandstand you are told that it has come 4,000 miles, which school it is from and what the borough behind it has built. If you are buying a ticket at all, this is the reason.
Watching it with children, or with a wheelchair
The parade is a genuinely good event for children: it is loud, colourful, continuous and free, and there is no queue to get into anything. The difficulties are the cold, the four-hour duration and sightlines in a standing crowd.
Three things help. Arrive early enough to get to the front rather than the third row, because a child behind two adults sees nothing. Pick a spot near the start so you are not waiting an extra hour. And plan for toilets in advance: our guide to public toilets in London covers where they are in the West End, and on a bank holiday many of the usual options are shut.
The organisers say that dedicated accessible viewing areas will be available and that details are published closer to the event. As with any large street event, contact the organisers in advance rather than turning up and hoping; our guide to accessible London covers the wider practicalities, and London transport in a wheelchair covers getting there.
Getting there and away on 1 January
Do not attempt to drive. The route closes several of the central roads for most of the day, and the closures extend well beyond the parade route itself. Even the taxi ranks in the area become unreachable.
The Underground is the only sensible approach, and Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, Charing Cross and Westminster all sit on or near the route. Expect the nearest station to your viewing spot to be busy or exit-only at times, and be ready to walk ten minutes to a different one afterwards.
Public transport runs a special timetable over the New Year period rather than the normal one, and services can start later than usual on 1 January. Check the TfL website for the day's running times before you set out, and again before you head home. Our guide to bank holidays, Sundays and opening hours in London explains how the whole holiday week works.
The concerts around the parade
Many of the visiting bands and choirs also perform in a series of concerts in the days on either side of the parade, at venues including Smith Square Hall and churches in Westminster and Waterloo. The programme runs across the last days of December and into 2 January, and it includes an international choral festival.
These are ticketed separately and listed on the parade's own festival pages. For a visitor with a few days in London over New Year, they are a considerably more comfortable way to hear the same musicians than standing on Whitehall in January. For the city's permanent concert halls, see our page on classical music in London.
What else is open on New Year's Day
1 January 2027 is a bank holiday, and the city runs at half speed. Some attractions close entirely, others open late, and shops keep bank holiday hours. Since the parade finishes in the middle of the afternoon, it is worth knowing what you can do afterwards before the light goes.
Our month guide to London in January sets out what is open and what is not, and what closes on public holidays has the general rules. If the weather is poor, what to do in London on a rainy day is the fallback. And if you enjoy a London procession, the other great one is the Lord Mayor's Show in November, which is older by several centuries.
Frequently asked questions
What time does the London New Year's Day Parade start in 2027?
The parade runs from 13:00 to 16:30 on Friday 1 January 2027, with ticket holders admitted to their enclosures from noon. Start times have changed between years, so confirm on the organiser's own location and timing page in the week before you go.
Is the New Year's Day Parade free?
Yes, from the pavement. Standing anywhere along the route costs nothing and needs no ticket. Grandstand seating, VIP enclosures and the Fun Zone at Waterloo Place are sold separately through Ticketmaster, and those tickets went on sale on 1 July 2026 for the 2027 parade.
What is the route of the London Parade?
About 2.2 miles through Westminster: it starts just off Piccadilly near Green Park, runs along Piccadilly towards Piccadilly Circus, down Regent Street St James's, along Pall Mall, through Trafalgar Square and into Whitehall past Horse Guards Parade and Downing Street.
Where is the best place to watch the London Parade?
Near the start, on Piccadilly close to Green Park. The crowds are thinner than at Trafalgar Square, the performers are at their liveliest, and you see the whole parade early rather than waiting for it to reach the far end of the route. Arrive around midday for a place at the front.
How many performers take part in the London Parade?
The organisers said more than 8,500 people performed in the fortieth anniversary parade on 1 January 2026, and put the crowd at around 700,000. Those figures come from the event itself rather than from an independent count.
Sources
- London Parade - Location and timing (checked September 2026)
- London Parade - Ticket information (checked September 2026)
- London Parade - New for 2027: the Fun Zone (checked September 2026)
- London Parade - Route, landmarks and best viewing spots (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - UK bank holidays (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London (checked September 2026)