London is filled with seasonal things to do, if you know where to look. Even as a local who has been to all of the popular touristy places multiple times, you can’t get bored in the British capital. Today, I’m taking you on a photo trip to the Winter Lights Festival that is taking place at the moment in Canary Wharf in East London. It’s free to visit and will stay around until February 1st, so you still have time to go!
A few words about Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is one of my favourite areas in London. It’s known as the second City of London, and rightly so. Just like the original City of London district, Canary Wharf is filled with glass skyscrapers, home to many businesses. It’s located in East London, not too far from the City Centre.
Canary Wharf has a very posh, modern, business-industrial vibe. It’s made of concrete, steel and glass, but there are also canals cutting through the area, making it feel like a futuristic island. Apart from office spaces and residential buildings, there is also a shopping centre – one of the most confusing shopping centres I’ve been to. It spans across multiple buildings, covering their ground floors but also the floor underneath. It feels like an underground city, and it took me quite a few visits to get used to navigating around it.
Overall, Canary Wharf, to me, feels futuristic and just different. I particularly like visiting it on early Saturday or Sunday morning, when most Londoners are still asleep. There’s something liberating in walking around that modern area when it feels like a ghost town.
Anyway! Enough about Canary Wharf itself, let’s talk about their Winter Lights event.
Winter Lights in Canary Wharf
I first heard about the Winter Lights Festival last year, after seeing some posters in Canary Wharf. It sounded intriguing and I wanted to visit it, but by the time the Festival arrived, I had completely forgotten about it. The event only took place over a week and a half, so it was easy to miss.
This year, I managed not to forget about the winter event in Canary Wharf. It’s taking place from January 21st till February 1st 2025, so you still have a few days left to visit it. This year’s edition is the 9th, and I hope the Winter Lights return to Canary Wharf next year too!
I got to Canary Wharf on public transport, taking a DLR train. After leaving the station, I saw the first of the 12 installations of this year’s event – some large, inflatable balls floating on the surface on a large fountain. They were illuminated with lights switching between shades of blue, green, red and orange. It was quite calming and soothing to look at.
The next installation I saw was quite intriguing. At first glance, I thought it was some abstract tower with flickering, blue lights illuminating random segments of the structure. It took me a good while to realise that the tower was actually made of old bathtubs. There was background music played too, which sounded like dripping drops of water. It all came together!
When describing the Winter Lights festival in Canary Wharf, I need to mention how well it was organised. There were plenty of arrow signs around the festival area, marking the route through all the installations. There were also many staff members, directing the visitors and handing out printed maps of the festival area. Some of the exhibits had one-way traffic in place, to better manage the crowds. Everything worked really smoothly. For an event that’s completely free to visit, there was an impressive amount of effort put into making sure that it was a good experience for all visitors. Well done, Canary Wharf!
Let’s get back to the exhibition. One of my favourite installations was a spinning portal made out of blue lights, high above the ground.
One of the visitors’ favourites was an alley filled with colourful lightbulbs hanging from the sky in a gradient of colours, ranging from green, through yellow, pink and blue. Periodically, there was also a short show when the lights went off and then slowly came to life to the sound of music, starting with shades of grey and white lights.
The Winter Lights event in Canary Wharf features 12 installations by various artists, but there were also additional decorations adorning the area, like some artificial trees made entirely out of fairy lights or real trees dressed in bright lights.
Not all installations were abstract art. There were also some life-sized, realistic looking illuminated human sculptures.
Another one of my favourite installations was the one portraying a flying bird. Photos don’t do it justice, so you need to use your imagination. If you look closely, the segments of the structure look like different phases of a bird’s flight, with the wings changing their position. Those segments, when illuminated in order, looked like a bright bird flapping its wings. It looked pretty spectacular when watched from the right angle!
I visited Canary Wharf Winter Lights on a Thursday early evening. The area was fairly crowded already, but I overheard the staff saying that the real crowd was still to come. The festival is open 5pm-10pm every day, and it can get very busy – especially on weekends.
Portals seemed to be a popular theme this year. There was another one, this time looking like a huge gateway made of blue lights.
The final structure of the trail was a giant fake sinkhole placed on one of the many canals in the heart of Canary Wharf. Once again, photos don’t do it justice. The lights were moving towards the centre of the installation, which created an impression of the hole having a pulling, sinking force.
Closing thoughts
I was thoroughly impressed with the Winter Lights 2025 event in Canary Wharf, London! The installations were impressive, and the festival itself was really well organised. The weather didn’t make it easy this year, with lots of rain and wind forecast for the weeks when the event is taking place. I managed to visit Canary Wharf on a dry and relatively warm evening, and I had a great time. I’m still amazed by how many unique things you can do in London completely for free. I hope the event returns next year too, and if it does, I will definitely visit it again!
Remember – you have until February 1st 2025 to visit the Winter Lights in Canary Wharf. If you’d like to find more information about the event, you can check its official website: https://canarywharf.com/whats-on/winter-lights-2025/.
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