The best Halloween parties in London

If a big, imposing Gothic revival museum full of giant animal skeletons sounds like the perfect place to celebrate the spookiest holiday of the year, then head to the Natural History Museum’s Halloween party this October 31. Guests are encouraged to don their best fancy dress – anyone know where we can find a blue whale costume? – for the after-hours knees-up, where you can bust some moves at a silent disco in the spectacular Hintze Hall, explore the museum’s galleries after dark and check out the current Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. There are also two special tours you can join on the evening for an additional fee; a Spooky Tour around the museum’s ‘all-time strangest specimens’, or the Tank Room Tour, taking you round ‘jars upon jars containing specimens from across the world preserved in alcohol’. Gross!

If we’re being honest with ourselves, once you’re past the age when trick or treating is socially acceptable, Halloween is basically just a convenient excuse for a big old piss-up. Which is exactly what Tottenham-based craft brewery Beavertown has organised for its spooky season celebrations this year. Taking place in the cavernous railway arches of Kachette in Shoreditch, the Saturday night knees-up promises ‘immersive’ journey ‘into the unknown’, featuring loads of great beers on tap, a stellar line-up of DJs including Artwork and Tash LC spinning tunes across a variety of different rooms and a host of spooky surprises throughout the night. Tickets include a pint of Neck Oil on arrival. 

London's West End is about to be transformed into a petrifying patch of Halloween performances, and none look quite so terrifyingly fun as this Soho Halloween Cabaret at Phoenix Arts Club. Taking place in the haunted dressing rooms of this iconic West End theatre, you can expect death-defying stunts, drag artists and aerial performances from some of London's biggest and best performers. There'll also be themed cocktails, plus plenty of frights and surprises for the best dressed spooky attendees — grab your ticket now!

London nightlife big hitter The Cause has gone from strength to strength since moving into its new home in the east London Docklands earlier this year, and it’s promising its biggest ever production for this mega Halloween Festival. The cavernous warehouse spaces of east London’s Dock Road will be turned into a wonderous, twisted day and night carnival featuring funfair rides, food stalls, games and circus performers, plus the likes of Babara Boeing, Lagoon Femshayma, Scarlett O’Malley, Nicolas Lutz and more on the decks. With loads of spooky new rooms and rave spaces to explore this year, it promises to be one hell of a party. Scream if you want to go faster!

Edgar Allen Poe, a writer renowned for his morbid and mysterious stories, is the inspiration for this year's London Month of the Dead's Halloween Ball. 'Once Upon a Midnight Dreary' is described as the ultimate 'tribute to the Master of Macabre', taking place at the Century Club this Halloween weekend. The celebration of murderers and madmen will take over the four floors of this Soho venue, with each level revealing its own chilling secrets, luring you into exploring Poe's ghostly stories, and you can party into the night on the top floor in the Garden of Oblivion! 

Visit the London Month of the Dead website here for full details of all the spooky goings-on this month. 

If you're after a little something more than your average Halloween party this year, look no further than this soirée at The Mansion. The secret venue will be transformed into an immersive, eerie experience with a bunch of London's top DJs such as Amin Sane and Fabrizia to soundtrack the spectacular acts taking place. Praecantrix will enchant audience members with her witchy performance, Daton will shock with their series of 3D horror animations, and there'll even be a tarot card reader. Attendees need to don their very best red Halloween fancy dress, so have a ransack for your best spooky red get-up and grab your ticket. 

Nomadic party starters Cirque du Soul are back in town for the ‘Halloweekend’, and they’re throwing a massive Friday night shindig at Canning Town megaclub The Cause. Expect haunted circus decor, food stalls, confetti canons, costume prizes and a genuinely terrifying house of horrors featuring ‘killer clowns, rabid bats and marauding zombies’. DJs will be spinning jackin’ house, breaks, techno and club bangers across four rooms until 5am, and they’re also promising some big name surprise headliners. Get on eBay and start putting together the perfect evil clown lewk stat. You might want to run away with the circus after this one...

Housed inside a (possibly haunted) Victorian theatre, south London’s modern variety palace The Clapham Grand is known for its OTT camp-as-Christmas programming, so it’s no surprise that it’s once again pulling out all the stops for its epic Halloween party this weekend. Head down early doors for a drag show starring Black Peppa, Elektra Fence, Miss Leighding and host Ginger Johnson and warble along to some spooky bangers at a secret karaoke bar before track monster mash-ing the night away to tunes from DJ TeTe Bang and headline selector Rylan (off the telly!) You can also expect ‘horrifying confetti, blood-curdling balloon drops and ghostly cocktails’. Fancy dress is of course mandatory!

If you want to extend your Halloween weekend as much as possible, head to Appetite Halloween at The Cause to continue to party well into Sunday evening. A five-room halloween spectacle is promised at the Dock Road location, with music from some of the scariest selectors in London: think Alec Folcaoner, Lea Lisa, MiNNA and many more. This is event is strictly no costume, no entry — you have been warned. 

The Mandrake, one of London's most glamorous boutique hotels, will be hosting a haunted takeover to celebrate this Halloween. Featuring will be some of the city's finest creators of art, sound and visual experiences to create an inescapable land of horror. Opt for the upgraded tickets and you'll get a marvellous three-course meal thrown in, designed by executive chef, George Scott-Toft. This bougie celebration promises to be a hair-rising, haunted night — be sure book your ticket. 

If you’re looking for just a classic, massive Halloween knees-up, this long-running spook-tastic affair should definitely be on your hit list. Pulled together by Matt’s BBQ who started out running literally BBQs for his mates back in 2006 and has since put on massive raves in Jamaica and Ibiza, it’s taking over the O2’s 2,800-capacity venue indigo with an immersive haunted-house experience filled with ghouls, ghosts and zombies, plus DJs spinning rnb, dancehall, house and garage tunes. Fancy dress isn’t mandatory, but there will be a cash prize for the best dressed. Usually feel like a zombie the day after a rave? You may as well get into the spirit a day early.