Queen's Park holds Westminster's only free display on 5 November, listed at 5.30pm. Battersea Park's is 7 and 8 November, with tickets from £10.60.

There is one bonfire night fireworks display inside the City of Westminster, it is free, and it is in Queen’s Park. Queen’s Park Community Council runs it in Queen’s Park Gardens, off Ilbert Street, on 5 November every year, which in 2026 falls on a Thursday. Nothing comparable happens in Marylebone, Pimlico, Mayfair, Paddington or Victoria.

The catch is timing. Queen’s Park Community Council confirms the display later than almost any organiser in London, and it had not confirmed 2026 when we checked on 6 September.

Updated 3 October: the council’s own event listing for the display gives 5.30pm to 6pm and says “Same time, same place each year!”, so plan on 5.30pm. Its October newsletter, published 1 October, still does not mention fireworks. Battersea Park has now published its 2026 prices, gate times and line-up: see below.

What is settled, and what is not

Detail Status
Organiser Queen’s Park Community Council, with Westminster ward councillors
Venue Queen’s Park Gardens, Ilbert Street, Queen’s Park
Usual date 5 November, annually, so Thursday 5 November 2026
Price Free
Length of display About 20 minutes
2026 confirmation Not published yet
Usual time 5.30pm to 6pm, “same time, same place each year”
Start time for 2026 Not separately published
Whether it goes ahead Weather dependent, decided close to the day

The council sets all of this out on its own what we do page, which describes the display as an annual 5 November fixture: “The show lasts approximately 20 minutes and can be viewed inside the park and on Ilbert Street.”

The time comes from the council’s own event listing for the display. It is the 2023 entry, timed at 5.30pm to 6pm, and it says the event is free, “targeted for residents of Queen’s Park, Westbourne Park and Harrow Road Wards”, and held at the “same time, same place each year”.

Road closures, and the street that is not closed

This is the part worth knowing if you live in the streets around the park rather than travelling to it. The council publishes the closures in advance:

  • Ilbert Street, Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue close from around 3pm to 7pm on the day of the display.
  • Bruckner Street becomes resident access only.
  • Residents on the affected streets get advance notice of the closures by post.

So the closures start about four hours before anything happens in the sky, and they are back open by mid-evening. If you park on any of those four streets, move the car in the morning.

Why the date is confirmed so late

Three separate checks on 6 September found nothing for 2026, which is normal for this organiser rather than a sign the event is in trouble.

The community council’s public events calendar runs all the way to May 2027 and carries fourteen entries, every one of them a committee meeting or a Communitea session. There is no fireworks entry on it at all. The council’s “What’s Coming Up in September 2026” post looks back at the summer programme and forward to the autumn meeting schedule, and does not mention the display.

The pattern from last year explains it. The 2025 display was announced in the council’s “November 2025 in Queen’s Park” post, published on 5 November itself, the day it happened. Councillor John McArdle wrote: “We’re kicking off November with our 18th annual Queen’s Park Fireworks display for Guy Fawkes Night.” The October 2025 post, published five weeks earlier, was all about Black History Month and said nothing about fireworks.

If 2025 was the 18th, 2026 is the 19th. Watch the council’s news page in the first days of November, not October.

It can be called off on the day

The council has said so in writing. Reporting on the 2023 display, it wrote: “Each year, the go-ahead for the fireworks display hinges on the weather, too much rain or wind and QPCC would have to cancel the whole event.” That year the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Patricia McAllister, ran the countdown.

There is also a VIP area at the display for community council volunteers and volunteers from partner local organisations, which is worth knowing if you help out with anything in the ward.

If fireworks are a problem in your household rather than a treat, the council published advice on managing fireworks anxiety for people and pets, and in 2024 it handed out calming capsules for pets from its office on the days either side. Email info@queensparkcommunitycouncil.gov.uk before turning up, because supply is limited and that offer has not been repeated every year.

The rest of Westminster has nothing

Westminster City Council does not run a bonfire night display anywhere in the borough. There is no display in Hyde Park, in Regent’s Park, on the Embankment or in any of the royal parks on 5 November. The council’s involvement in Queen’s Park is as a partner to the community council, which is a separate parish-level authority, the only one in London.

The nearest big display is across the river: Battersea, 7 and 8 November

For anyone in Pimlico, Belgravia or Victoria, the closest large display is Battersea Park Fireworks, run by the charity Enable with Wandsworth Council, directly across the Thames. Everything below is from the event’s own home page and information page, checked 3 October.

Saturday 7 November Sunday 8 November
Gates open 6pm 4.30pm
Gates close, no entry after 8pm 6.30pm
Fireworks, estimated 8.30pm 7pm
Show ends 11pm 9.30pm
Before the display Rudimental DJ set at 7.30pm, Conjunto Sabroso Lords of Lightning at 5.45pm, Fearlessly Taylor
After the display Disco Ceilidh Pop Anthems Afterparty with DJ Josh Lovatt

The two nights are different shows with different soundtracks.

Prices, all bought in advance through Kaboodle only; there are no tickets at the gate, no refunds and no resale:

  • Adults (16+): £10.60 super early bird, £13.10 early bird, £16.70 general admission, £15.90 late release, £18.10 final release
  • Youth (5 to 15): £11.50
  • Under 5s: free, but they still need a ticket, including babes in arms

Under-18s must be with an adult, and one adult can bring at most four under-18s. Bags are checked, and no food, glass, alcohol or sparklers can be brought in. There is no parking in the park apart from very limited disabled parking, and the park itself closes early for the build: car parks shut at 3pm on the Saturday and 2pm on the Sunday. Victoria and Battersea Power Station are the nearest Tube stations, and the organiser says Albert Gate is usually quieter than Sun Gate.

One more Queen’s Park date for the diary

The same community council runs a Winter Festival in Queen’s Park Gardens on the second Saturday in December, annually, which puts it on 12 December 2026. The council describes it as small, and it has not published this year’s programme.

Getting there and parking

Queen’s Park Gardens sits in the north-west corner of the borough, a short walk from Queen’s Park station on the Bakerloo line and the Overground. Going by car is the awkward option, because four of the streets nearest the park are closed or restricted for the afternoon.

If you do drive, read our Westminster parking zones and hours page first. Pay-to-park and single yellow line control in every Westminster zone stops at 6.30pm, so the evening question is not the meter, it is whether the bay you have found is a resident bay and whether the street is inside the closure. Check our Westminster roadworks and travel page for anything else dug up in the area on the day.

Sources