Haringey half term is 26 to 30 October: free Halloween crafts at Bruce Castle on 28 and 29 October, adult ghost tours, and the fireworks moved to 7 November.

Haringey’s October half term runs from Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October 2026. The first half of the autumn term ends on Friday 23 October and school goes back on Monday 2 November (Haringey Council). Academies and free schools set their own dates, so check yours, but that is the borough calendar. Fortismere, Hornsey School, Highgate and Channing all break a week earlier, on 19 October; our term dates page has every school’s calendar.

Halloween falls on Saturday 31 October, the day after half term ends, in the weekend between the two halves of term.

Updated 30 September: Bruce Castle has published its half-term programme, with free drop-in Halloween crafts on 28 and 29 October and adult-only ghost tours on 28 to 30 October, and Highgate Wood has free guided walks on both half-term Saturdays. Details below.

The change that catches people out

For years the Alexandra Palace fireworks was the Halloween-weekend fixture. It ran on 31 October and 1 November in 2025. It is not on Halloween weekend in 2026. The Fireworks and Drone Festival has moved to Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November, a week later, after the Palace’s board approved a switch from a Friday and Saturday format to Saturday and Sunday.

If you are planning around a bonfire night, plan around the weekend after half term, not the one at the end of it. Times, prices, the DICE ticketing and the road closure position are on our Ally Pally fireworks page.

What is actually booked in half term week

Alexandra Palace has a busy October, but almost none of it is for children. In half term week itself the Palace’s programme is three adult evening events: Overmono on Wednesday 28 October, the comedian Gary Delaney on Thursday 29 October and the London Bollywood Orchestra on Friday 30 October.

On Halloween Saturday itself there are two: Skindred in the Great Hall, and Haringey Huskies against the Invicta Mustangs at the ice rink. The ice hockey is the family option of the two.

The one genuine children’s event is the day after. Wallace and Gromit with a live brass band, in the Alexandra Palace Theatre on Sunday 1 November, recommended for ages 5 and up:

  • Show one, 2pm to 3.30pm, doors 1.30pm: A Grand Day Out and A Close Shave, the latter billed as a world premiere live performance
  • Show two, 4.30pm to 5.40pm, doors 3.30pm: The Wrong Trousers

The KNDS Fairey Band plays Julian Nott’s original scores live. The Palace’s listing carries a code, W&GFAMILY25, for 25 per cent off if you book both shows, covering up to two adults and three children (Alexandra Palace).

Earlier in the month, before half term, the Palace has Knit + Stitch from 8 to 11 October, which has its own page here on tickets, prices and opening times, and the Crouch End Festival Chorus singing Mozart’s Requiem on 25 October.

The things that are open every day

Three attractions at Alexandra Palace run through half term regardless of what is programmed in the halls.

The ice rink. Skating is £11.75 off peak and £12.75 peak, with skate aids at £7.50 which have not been bookable online since March. Ice discos run through the season. Prices and session detail are on our Christmas at Ally Pally page.

Go Ape, in the park, less than a ten-minute walk from Alexandra Palace station, with parking at the East Court car park. Published starting prices are Treetop Adventure from £23.95 for ages 4 to 10, minimum height one metre; Treetop Adventure Plus from £28.95 for 6 and up; Treetop Challenge from £39.95 for 10 and up; the shortened Treetop Challenge Xpress from £32.95; and the after-dark Sundown Adventures from £33.95 for 6 and up (Go Ape). Sundown is the one that suits the dark half-term afternoons, but Go Ape has not published its 2026 Alexandra Palace dates for it.

The boating lake, with pedalos and rowing boats, weather permitting.

Free, indoors, and open on the wet days

Bruce Castle Museum, Lordship Lane, Tottenham N17 8NU, is free and open Wednesday to Sunday, 1pm to 5pm. For younger children the Little Parlour is a hands-on gallery aimed at ages 3 to 8, with costumes, books and puzzles. Creative craft packs are handed out at reception, but at weekends only, so they are no use on a Tuesday in half term.

Two sticker trails cost £1 each from the main reception desk: Mystery Manor, in which a dragon-like creature called Wilbur the Wyvern guides families round the manor house, and the Bruce Castle Tree Trail for the grounds. Bruce Castle Park has a playground behind the museum, the gates are never locked, and the Pavilion café is in the south-east corner (Bruce Castle).

Bruce Castle’s Halloween programme is now out, and both children’s sessions are free drop-ins with no booking, for ages 5 and over (Bruce Castle):

  • Spooky Spiders at the Castle, Wednesday 28 October, 1.30pm to 3.30pm: weaving a web with a spider hiding in it.
  • Halloween Prints at the Castle, Thursday 29 October, 1.30pm to 3.30pm: printing silhouettes of bats, pumpkins and trees.

For adults there is After Dark @ The Castle, candlelit Victorian ghost-story tours with costumed guides on Wednesday 28, Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October, at 6.30pm and 8.30pm. Each lasts an hour, costs £17.50 including a glass of wine or a hot chocolate, and is strictly 18 and over. There is no online booking: you email museum.services@haringey.gov.uk with names, numbers, the date and time, and the museum sends a payment link that must be paid within 48 hours (Bruce Castle). The Creepy Castle name used in past years does not appear this time.

The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, which takes out two of the five half-term weekdays.

Highgate Wood, 70 acres of ancient woodland run by the City of London Corporation, has two free guided walks either side of half term: an autumn guided walk on Saturday 24 October and a tree ID walk on Saturday 31 October, both at 11.30am from the information hut next to the café. They last an hour to an hour and a half, and no booking is needed (City of London).

Halloween nearer home

Two Highgate venues have family Halloween shows that sell by the ticket, both read from their own listings on 30 September:

  • Super Spooky Circus Cabaret for Kids at Jacksons Lane, N6 5AA, Tuesday 27 October to Sunday 1 November. Tuesday has a 2pm and a 5pm show, the other days 11am and 2pm. Tickets £10 to £22.50 (Jacksons Lane).
  • Halloween Spooky Walks at Lauderdale House, N6 5HG, on Saturday 31 October, six walks at 5pm, 5.15pm, 5.30pm, 5.45pm, 6pm and 6.30pm through the house and Waterlow Park, 50 people a slot. Standard £12.50, concession £9, plus a £1 booking fee on every ticket (Lauderdale House).

Our What’s On in Crouch End page has everything else in the diary for October.

Getting about

Muswell Hill’s controlled parking zone runs seven days a week, which surprises people on a Sunday. Zone hours and tariffs are on parking in Crouch End, and anything dug up that week will be on the Crouch End roadworks and travel page. For the rest of the year round the area, see things to do in Crouch End.

Bruce Castle and Highgate Wood had nothing up when we first checked on 6 September; both programmes above were read from their own pages on 30 September.

Sources checked on 6 September 2026

Sources checked on 30 September 2026