Primrose Hill was locked from 8pm on 30 December to 6am on New Year's Day last year. What we know for 2026, Parliament Hill, fireworks tickets, trains.
Primrose Hill was fenced off and locked for New Year’s Eve last year, from 8pm on Tuesday 30 December 2025 to 6am on Thursday 1 January 2026. The Royal Parks said an estimated 30,000 people had gathered there to watch the Mayor’s fireworks the year before, and that without the Metropolitan Police’s disbanded Royal Parks unit it could not manage the crowd. It has not yet said what it will do for Thursday 31 December 2026. Last year’s decision was published on 23 September, so an announcement could come at any point this autumn. We found no council-run New Year event in Camden.
The quick answer
- Primrose Hill 2026: not announced yet. Last year it closed at 8pm on 30 December and reopened at 6am on 1 January, behind a perimeter fence.
- Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath is the borough’s other high viewpoint. The City of London lists no New Year closure for it.
- The Mayor’s fireworks are ticket-only. The 2026 on-sale date has not been set; last year tickets cost £20 to £55.
Primrose Hill: what happened last year
The Royal Parks announced the closure on 23 September 2025:
- The hill was closed off with a perimeter fence on Tuesday 30 December and reopened on Thursday 1 January.
- Fence installation began on 27 December and it was removed by 3 January.
- The park body said: “With the potential for such a large number of attendees, and the absence of the dedicated Royal Parks Police, we are unable to support the necessary safety and crowd management arrangements. Closing Primrose Hill overnight is the only responsible course of action.”
It repeated the times in a 10 December 2025 notice, adding that there are no official viewing areas for the Mayor’s fireworks in any of the Royal Parks, and urging people to “avoid parks such as Primrose Hill that will be closed” and go to an organised event instead.
Primrose Hill this year
The Royal Parks’ Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill page carries one 2026 notice, dated 8 April: the hill closes 10pm to 6am on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until Sunday 8 November, and stays open 24 hours on weekdays. Nothing yet covers bonfire night or New Year. In May 2024 the Royal Parks said it would install permanent gates on the hill to “support park closures where necessary”. New Year’s Eve 2026 falls on a Thursday.
We will update this page the day the Royal Parks publishes its 2026 arrangements. Our Camden fireworks page tracks the bonfire-night side of the same decision.
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill, on the southern edge of Hampstead Heath, has a legally protected view across central London. The City of London, which runs the Heath, lists no New Year closure on its Parliament Hill viewpoint page. Its travel advice:
- Overground: Hampstead Heath and Gospel Oak are both a short walk.
- Tube: Belsize Park and Kentish Town, Northern line, then a walk across the Heath.
- Bus: the 24, 46 and C11 stop near the southern entrance.
The Heath is open land, so take a torch and plan the walk back.
The Mayor’s fireworks
The display is on the Thames around the Victoria Embankment, not in Camden, and you cannot get into the viewing areas without a ticket. City Hall’s 2026 event page says only that the fireworks will return and “a date for the ticket release will be announced soon”, with a sign-up for alerts.
Last year’s prices, from City Hall’s 2025 page:
| Viewing area | Standard price | Londoners’ price |
|---|---|---|
| Category A (Blue, Pink and White areas) | £55 | £35 |
| Category B (Red, Green and Orange areas) | £40 | £20 |
Londoners get £20 off each ticket, checked against the card’s billing postcode, and proof of address can be asked for on the night. A booking fee is added. The 2025 event ran from 8pm on 31 December to 12.30am on 1 January, and it sold out.
Getting home
TfL’s Christmas 2025 release said services, apart from planned closures, ran all night on New Year’s Eve, but some central London stations could close at short notice to stop overcrowding and some central buses were diverted from about midday. TfL has not yet published its 2026 plan; our Camden Christmas travel page tracks the closures TfL lists so far and will add New Year when it does.
National Rail says trains will finish earlier on some routes on New Year’s Eve, with last-train times due in late November or early December.
New Year’s Day
Friday 1 January 2027 is a bank holiday. Camden’s bank holiday parking rules apply: resident, shared-use and pay-to-park bays and most single yellow lines are not enforced, but double yellows, loading bans and disabled bays are. The detail is on our parking in Camden page. For bins, see our Camden Christmas bin collections page: last year the Thursday 1 January round went out a day late.
For a quieter New Year’s Day, Kenwood is open as normal, the house 10am to 4pm, free. Our Kenwood winter page has the hours.
Still to be confirmed
- The Royal Parks’ 2026 decision on Primrose Hill, expected in the autumn.
- The Mayor’s 2026 fireworks ticket release date and prices, expected in October.
- TfL’s New Year’s Eve 2026 service plan, likely early December.
Street closures around the borough are on our Camden roadworks page.
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