Halloween in London tends to mean crowded bars, plastic fangs and the same party playlist you heard last year. This October, South Kensington is offering something considerably grander: a night among dinosaurs, skeletons and specimens in jars, as the Natural History Museum Halloween celebration returns for another adults-only outing.
The museum’s after-dark Halloween party is back on Saturday 31 October, running from 7pm until midnight, following a sell-out event last year. For one night only, the famous Cromwell Road building swaps school groups and daytime queues for a live band, a silent disco and a vampire ball, with the galleries staying open long after they would normally have closed.
A party among the specimens
There is something about this building after hours that suits Halloween particularly well. By day it is one of the capital’s best-loved free museums. By night, with the crowds gone and the lighting down, those long galleries of skeletons and preserved creatures take on a rather different atmosphere, and that is precisely the point of the evening.
Your ticket is as much about wandering as it is about dancing. Guests can explore the museum’s galleries and exhibitions late into the evening, including Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep. If you have only ever seen those spaces shoulder-to-shoulder in the daytime, seeing them at night, drink in hand, is a very different experience.
What you get for your ticket
Entry to the Natural History Museum Halloween night includes quite a lot before you spend anything extra. The standard ticket covers:
- After-hours access to the museum’s galleries and exhibitions
- A live band performance
- Entry to the silent disco
- The chance to take part in the vampire ball
- The opportunity to meet museum scientists showing off their spookiest specimens from the natural world
The evening has a loose storyline running through it. Visitors are invited to dress as members of the Dark Vampiric Council, with characters set to emerge from the shadows of the building, trails to follow and a vampire ball scene to join. It gives the night a bit of theatre, so you are not just drifting between a bar and a dancefloor, although you can absolutely do that too. Food and drink will be on sale from the museum’s bars throughout the night.
The Tank Room add-on for the brave
If jars of preserved specimens are your idea of a good time, there is one extra worth knowing about. A behind-the-scenes Tank Room Tour can be added to your booking for an additional cost, taking small groups to see creatures kept in jars and tanks, including a giant squid that stretches to eight metres long. It is arguably the most Halloween-appropriate extra any London venue is offering this year, and places are likely to be far more limited than entry to the main event, so it is the part to book first rather than last.
What to expect on the night
So what is an evening here actually like? Based on the format, expect a mix of museum night, fancy dress party and gig. The sensible approach is to arrive closer to 7pm than to the 9pm last entry, because there is a lot to fit in: two exhibitions, the galleries, the band, the silent disco and the vampire ball, plus the scientists and their specimens. Five hours sounds generous until you are halfway round Jurassic Oceans at 10pm.
Costume-wise, the vampire theme gives you an easy brief: dark, dramatic and comfortable enough to dance in. The silent disco also solves the classic Halloween party problem of music tastes, since you can switch channels when your friends’ choices become indefensible. And because the crowd is strictly 18 and over, the whole thing has a grown-up feel that family Halloween events, fun as they are, cannot match.
Tickets, timings and practical details
- When: Saturday 31 October, 7pm to midnight
- Last entry: 9pm
- Where: Natural History Museum, South Kensington
- Age limit: 18 and over only
- Tickets: from £65, or £48 for museum members
- Extras: Tank Room Tour tickets available as an add-on; food and drink available to buy on the night
Tickets are on sale through the museum’s website. Given last year’s event sold out, and given that this is a single Saturday night rather than a run of dates, early booking is strongly advisable, particularly if you want the Tank Room add-on. Members save a decent chunk on the standard price, so if you are already a member, make sure you are logged in before you buy.
South Kensington is well served by the Tube, and the museum is a short walk from South Kensington station, which helps when you are heading home at midnight in full vampire dress. If you are planning the rest of your Halloween around it, our guide to Paranormal Activity returning to the West End covers the spookier theatrical option, while Bongos Bingo’s Halloween night in Brixton is the louder, messier alternative. Museum fans planning a quieter weekend can also read about the British Museum’s new Bayeux Tapestry audio tour.
London does Halloween well, but very few venues can compete with a cathedral-like museum full of monsters of the deep. If you want one big night out this spooky season, this is a strong place to start.
