Only the Best Things to Do in London in October

Autumn is hardly a season if the leaves don't change, and London in October exudes the season's beauty beyond measure. The Royal Parks turn yellow, orange, and red, there's a refreshing chill in the air from the Regent's Canal to Hampstead, and there are plenty of events taking place across the city for you to explore too. If you're planning a trip to the city at this time, you're in for quite a treat. Here at Plum Guide, we've compiled a list of the very best things to do in London in October to make sure your trip is one to remember. So, let's take a closer look...

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London parks are welcome green oases across the grey city landscape and anyone who thinks there's no nature in London is sorely mistaken. You'll find parks in every borough, each supplying a unique offering of things to see and do. Some of the most beautiful parks in London during October are those whose path and waterways wind up coated in foliage. And the best news? Exploring these parks is one of the greatest free things that you can do in London.

Get an expertly-made coffee from the Pavilion and then sit outside to watch the West Boating Lake collect falling leaves or wander by the reconstructed Chinese Pavilion.

Visitors can take the Albert Memorial Walk at any time of year, but the monument itself is particularly beautiful at this time of year.

Home to the oldest deer park in London, The Wilderness, and London's only planetarium at the Royal Observatory. Want to stay in the area? Choose your favourite from our collection of remarkable homes in Greenwich like Memoirs.

The Royal Botanical Garden welcomes Autumn with stunning rotating exhibitions and an annual festival

Known for its deer and epic size, one of our favourite things to do in London in October is to grab tea at The Pembroke Lodge and go deer-spotting around Richmond Park. Stay in one of our remarkable Plum homes in the neighbourhood like Vicarage Gardens and make this a delightful daily routine throughout your trip.

To celebrate living in the most culturally diverse city on the planet, Trafalgar Square hosts cultural festivals that visitors can get involved with for free. Diwali is the Hindu, Sikh, and Jain Festival of Lights. This festival symbolises joy, love, and forgiveness. It represents the triumph over evil with the spirit of togetherness. Diwali on Trafalgar comes with show-stopping performances, traditional craft workshops, and the most delicious Indian food you've ever had. (Including Dishoom...) Africa on the Square celebrates the wide variety of African culture in the city and beyond. This fabulous festival has entertainment, live and traditional music performances, and the best in food and fashion from all across the African continent.

Every October, London celebrates its eclectic foodie scene with the London Restaurant Festival. For the entire month, restaurants across London offer deals, new great-value menus, taster evenings, and dozens of other gastronomic activities. If there's a restaurant in the capital that you've been meaning to try out, October is the time to do it.

Do museums really come to life at night? It's time to find out. These entertaining, informative evenings aren't just for kids. The three-day Museums at Night event happens twice a year, in May and October, but it's October that wins out by displaying London's culture and history in an even spookier light.

Regent's Park turns artistic in October when two of the most important art fairs around descend Frieze London offers the best in contemporary and modern art whilst Frieze Masters serves up its specialty: The Classics. You can buy, sell, or just view some wonderful art from galleries all over the world in the dead centre of Regent's Park.

During London Cocktail Week bars north, south, east, and west help celebrate the growing cocktail culture in the capital. This is the biggest cocktail event you'll find pretty much anywhere, involving over 300 bars and a week-long cocktail-village right in the middle of it. I'd say that's a good time to book a week in London, wouldn't you?

It's the most wonderful time of the year - and the spookiest! London knows how to have a good time, and to ride the tube on Halloween weekend is like being in a John Carpenter film. There's a lot to do around Halloween in London for all age groups, from the littles to the, well, us adults. Because why should the little'uns have all the fun?

London is one of the most haunted cities in the world - if you believe in that stuff, at least - and many haunted locations throw special Halloween-themed nights throughout October. As well as haunted London, there are bone-chilling attractions, family-friendly events, and delectably horrifying tours.

At Halloween, wandering around the streets of Soho can shock or surprise you. Baron Samedi might pull up in his open-top vehicle to pick up a lucky couple from one of the bars, or Sexy Magnum PI will cross your path on the tube. You can never tell and we love it.

Some of our personal favourite Halloween parties are as follows but both are booked up way in advance:

This is one of London's most exquisite and magnificent Halloween balls. Held yearly by resident Mare Street weirdo extraordinaire Viktor Wynd and The Last Tuesday Society, La danse macabre is a costume-mandatory explosion of haute filth and debauchery. And it is phenomenal.

London synth-pop and 80's nightclub Electric Dreams' annual Dust to Dust Halloween Party is a phenom. It brings together the like-minded Flock of Seagulls who believe the eighties will never truly be dead.

Halloween really is for all ages, and if your kids can't go to the above parties, they might enjoy one of these things to do in London in October instead:

Tour guides are busier than ever during Halloween. Dozens of tours are in operation over the Halloween period. There are Ghost Bus Tours and ghost hunts, Jack the Ripper walks and Tales of the Plague - visiting the locations of some of London's old plague pits.

A few of the London Cemeteries have Halloween-oriented guides and walks. Our favourite of these is the oldest of the 'Magnificent Seven': Kensal Green Cemetery.

The Halloween Dog Walk takes place every October in Hampstead - dress your dog up in their best Halloween garb and help raise some money for All Dogs Matter.

Why not catch a show at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane? The grey man might be there to keep you company. It is the most haunted of London's theatres, after all.

Has this guide to the best things to do in London in October tempted you to a trip? Browse our collection of homes in London. Each and every award-winning home on our site has passed our rigorous Plum Test, so you can guarantee a stay with standards when you stay with Plum. And if you want to keep reading our journal, take a look at our guide to London in November, or perhaps what to do in London in December next.