Hampstead New Year’s Eve Walk – Then See the Fireworks from the Roof of London

Hampstead Underground station, London

Guided by David or Mary

Adult: £20 · Students & Seniors: £15 · Children: £5

Walk Times

Day	Walk Type	Start Time	End Time
31 December 2025	Special	9 pm	11.59 am	Winter

Short read: Auld Lang Syne in Auld Hampstead* (& after the walk ends, if you wish you can do as guides David, Mary and Richard do: see the New Year in and watch the fireworks from the summit).

*London’s best preserved Georgian village

Medium read: This is one of those special experiences. To do it, to have it is to acquire a memory that’s bottled like a perfume. Never fades. Never gets stale. Sets you up forever after. Whenever you want you can uncork the bottle and live the memory all over again.

Why Do It Our Way? AKA Long read:

Six thinking-outside-the-box reasons. Good reasons. Reasons you probably won’t have thought of. They’re personal reasons but I’m confident you’ll take them on board – share them.

1. I object mightily – object in principle – to having to pay £20 – £55 to look up at the night sky. (Which is what the central London New Year’s Eve experience hits you up for.)

2. New Year’s Eve in central London – wall to wall humanity – is pickpockets’ heaven. I don’t want any part of that – don’t want to have to worry about that. Up in Hampstead – watching the fireworks from the roof of London – you give that a miss.

3. Contraflow. By that I mean, when the fireworks are over there are going to be a million people down in central London stampeding for the Tube and buses. No one down there is going to be able to “hop on a bus” or “hop on the Tube” because everybody – an ocean of humanity – is going to be surging toward those buses and Tube stations. Carriages are going to be overflowing. Most people are going to be looking at long delays before they can finally fight their way into a station and onto a carriage (or onto a bus). Up in Hampstead on New Year’s Eve you’re shot of that problem.  You’re heading in not trying to get out. Contraflow. No problem at all getting on a Tube or a bus. Trust me, a lot of those people with £20 – £55 “ringside” tickets for the central London show are going to be walking home afterward – or walking a good part of the way home. Because they won’t be able to get on a Tube or a bus. That’s their problem and they’re welcome to it. Our contraflow Hampstead Village on New Year’s Eve walkers don’t draw that short straw.

4. After the “scheduled event” – the Hampstead Village Walk – if you go up top – head on up to “the roof of London” – it’s possible to see all the fireworks, right across London. That’s in addition to the big show. The local stuff of course but all the fireworks “sideshows” across London. So a full palette as opposed to just the one big show.

5. Mobs. Who needs them?

6. Seventh reason isn’t a thinking-outside-the-box job. It’s that both the scheduled event – the walking tour of Hampstead Village – and the optional extra, the bolt-on after the walk is over, i.e., watching the fireworks from “up top” – are wonderful. A New Year’s Eve Walk in Hampstead Village – it doesn’t get better than that. And then – when the walk is over, doing what guides Mary, David and Richard do – i.e., heading up to the summit  – to a special perch up there to “take survey of London”, watch the fireworks bloom, etc. – well, it’s the perfect grand finale. Roll it all up together you’ve got a super special, a singularly memorable New Year’s Eve. Memories make us rich. 

Synopsis read: The “event” itself – the Hampstead Village Walk – best possible prelude to seeing the New Year in.  And then, après Walk, if you want, watching the fireworks bloom up on the roof of London: bliss! Makes for a magically memorable way of marking it. For many years we always did the Along the Thames Pub Walk as the Auld Lang Syne pub walk. In 2016 we changed all that – headed in the opposite direction. Headed up top. It worked a treat. So much so that we’ve done it every year since. Our personal New Year’s Eve starts with the Old Hampstead Village Walk. When the walk – the “scheduled ‘event'” – is over, the “ascension” is there for the taking. Bliss. Up there looking out across London. Watching the extravaganza. The rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air…

The infant 2026 swaddled in the richest possible cloths and wisps of history and legend. With plenty left over for a winding sheet for 2025. That nearby mound for example. It’s believed to be a Bronze Age round barrow.

THE NEW YEAR’S EVE  WALK – THE PRACTICALS

The New Year’s Eve Walk starts at 9 pm on  Wednesday, December 31. The meeting point is just outside the exit of Hampstead Tube Station.

FURTHER PARTICULARS

1. The Walk ends near Belsize Park Underground Station. And, yes, the Underground will be running all night.
2. It’s a New Year’s Eve Walk up in Hampstead so do dress warmly.
3. This bears repeating: why “up there” and not down in central London? Central London on New Year’s Eve? You must be joking. Been there, done that. It’s too crowded, too crazy, too expensive, not fun. The further away we get from all that, the better.
4. If you’ve got any questions give us a bell. Or email us. The London Walks phone number is 020 7624 3978. Email is: [email protected].
5. So all of the above is the game plan. Nothing to add except a few marching orders: enjoy the views, store up some great memories, give your partner or friends a good hug, wish everyone around you a Happy New Year and lean wholeheartedly into the bonhomie.
6. Happy New Year one and all.