If you’re in London this week, this is your sign: run, don’t walk to Canary Wharf! Winter Lights – an annual, free event is back until January 31st. It’s a great idea for something to do on a free evening! The walking trail runs through the already stunning, urban area of Canary Wharf, and features over a dozen light and sound installations by renowned artists from all around the world. It’s well organised, accessible, and offers an opportunity to admire unique, elaborate installations.

When and where is Winter Lights festival taking place

The free event has been hosted annually in Canary Wharf, in east London, around January/February. It typically stays on for about 10 days. In 2026, the event started on January 20th and will continue until January 31st, every day from 5 pm to 10 pm.

Getting to Winter Lights in Canary Wharf

The artistic displays are spread across the main area of Canary Wharf. They don’t need to be viewed in a specific order, so you can choose which Canary Wharf station to commute to. Canary Wharf has great public transport connections, including the Jubilee tube line, Elizabeth line, DLR, and several bus lines.

How to get around Winter Lights festival

The event is organised really well, especially considering that it’s free and takes place in public areas. You can download the official event map from the official website – it has all of the installations clearly marked. Additionally, there is staff in various places along the route of the trail, handing out printed maps (for free) – I found the large paper map more convenient than the small display of my phone, though it was a little bit tricky to handle it in windy winter conditions.

In addition to official maps, there were arrows along the trail – on buildings, on the ground, on street lights and so on. It was really easy to follow the route.

How much time you need for the Winter Lights event

There are 16 temporary installations on the route of the event, some small, some large and more spectacular. It doesn’t sound like much, but they are spread across Canary Wharf, so be prepared to walk in between them. I’d recommend saving around 1.5 hours for the event. Of course, you can speedrun it if you want, or you might find yourself lingering near the spectacular installations for a bit longer.

My visit to the Winter Lights 2026 event

I took the Elizabeth line to Canary Wharf, and got off the train station near the installation marked as number 7. It featured large models of planets and the Moon in the rooftop garden above the Elizabeth line station. They were pretty impressive!

I then followed the route from number 7 onwards, armed with a map that I got from one of the staff. I walked past some of the permanent decorative installations living in Canary Wharf, like the spectacular whale jumping out of the canal. If you look closely, you’ll see that the statue is made from various plastic everyday objects!

Some of the Winter Lights installations were static, while others included animations. Pictures don’t do them justice!

Strolling around Canary Wharf was a pleasure despite the windy conditions. As a bonus treat, you get a nice view of central London.

Last year, one of the most spectacular installations was on the water at Eden Dock, opposite the Jubilee line station entrance. This year, there’s also one in the same location. Unfortunately, I visited Winter Lights on the opening day, and there seemed to be some teething problems. The installation in Eden Dock was out of order. I was told by the staff that there were ongoing efforts to fix it, but after about 10 minutes of waiting, I gave up. If you visit Canary Wharf for the Winter Lights 2026 festival and the Eden Dock installation is functional, let me know your thoughts about it!

Final thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed my stroll around Canary Wharf during the Winter Lights event. Free festivals are always a treat, and I’m glad that there are a few of those in London throughout the year! January in the UK tends to be cold and gloomy, and enjoying an event filled with colourful lights is a well needed mood booster. If you have a chance, I recommend visiting Canary Wharf – the Winter Lights event will continue until January 31st, so you still have about a week. And if you’d like to compare it to last year’s event, which featured completely different installations, here’s a blog post I wrote last year. In my subjective opinion, I think I enjoyed last year’s installations a little bit more, but this year’s event was still a treat.

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