Oxford Street’s Christmas lights switch on tomorrow, Monday, November 9, with a Harry Potter theme — the first traffic-free switch-on on the famous shopping street in nine years.
The lights go on between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., with host Sam Thompson presenting from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Hanover Square Christmas tree, part of the display, will stay up until January 5, 2027. The switch-on is the next in a run of London lightings that began last week: Carnaby Street’s lights went on from Wednesday, November 4, and Regent Street’s from Thursday, November 5, when the street was traffic-free from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The Harry Potter theme is a first for the street, and the traffic-free format is a return to the way the switch-on used to be run — the first time in nine years that the street has been closed to traffic for the event.
More switch-ons this week
Oxford Street is not the only lighting this week. Knightsbridge switches on on Tuesday, November 10, with more than 12,000 bulbs along Brompton Road. Marylebone switches on on Wednesday, November 11, at 6 p.m. Covent Garden and Bond Street both switch on on Thursday, November 12 — Bond Street’s lights go on at 7 p.m., as part of an event running from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The weekend’s switch-ons have already happened: Edinburgh’s St James Quarter switched on on Saturday, November 7, from 5 p.m., and Southport’s Grand on Lord Street switched on from 4 p.m. on Saturday, with more than 4,000 new lights. Manchester’s Trafford Centre switched its lights on quietly on Friday, November 6, with no public event this year.
The markets are already open
The switch-ons come as the Christmas markets are already trading. Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market opened on Thursday, November 5, and Manchester’s opened on Friday, November 6, with more than 210 stalls across ten locations. York’s market opens on Thursday, November 12, Edinburgh’s on Saturday, November 14, and London’s Hyde Park Winter Wonderland on Thursday, November 19.
For anyone planning to attend the Oxford Street switch-on, the advice is to arrive early: the street will be closed to traffic, the crowds will be large, and the best views are from the middle of the street rather than the pavements. The lights themselves stay up until early January — but the switch-on itself happens only once, tomorrow night between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.
