A huge thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating our incredible Christmas in Cheapside Programme!
This Christmas, Cheapside Business Alliance lit up the area with a series of festive lights, events, tours and workshops. Thank you to everyone who took part, entered our advent calendar, stopped by at lunchtime, or enjoyed the festive lights and atmosphere.
While our events have now come to an end, the festive lights are still shining. There’s still time to stroll across the area, and enjoy our below installations, or check out our City BIDs Map of all City of London lights here.
- Walk-through Twinkly Lantern – New Change Garden
- Walk-through Christmas Tree – One New Change (Cheapside Entrance)
- Hanging Festive Lights – Bow Lane & Watling Street
- Christmas Tree – Bow Churchyard
- Festive Trees – Threadneedle Street (right next to The Royal Exchange – discover their incredible Fortnum & Mason Christmas Tree and sparkling columns around the front too)
We hope you enjoyed the wide range of activities on across the festive season, including our Christmas in Cheapside Pop-Ups. The lunchtime events gave out 394 hot chocolates and mulled wines, saw 37 participants in our macrame workshops, 2 amazing Victorian Choir performances, and our event team spoke to over 600 people. Special thanks to TM Lewin, TSB Bank Cheapside, Humble Grape Bow Lane, and St Mary-le-Bow Church for their support of these events.
Our ’12 Days of Cheapside’ Advent Calendar was the biggest and best yet, offering 25 prizes, generously donated by our local businesses. We received over 3,900 entries, marking an incredible 290% increase compared to the previous year. Thank you to 1 Lombard Street, Barry’s Bootcamp St. Pauls, Bloomberg Arcade, Bread Street Kitchen & Bar St Pauls, CUBITTS, dion St Paul’s, F1 Arcade, FAIRGAME, Fortnum & Mason, Host Café and Guild Church of Saint Mary Aldermary, Humble Grape Bow Lane, Jack the Clipper, Lina Stores, Loake Shoemakers, Madison, Marketplace St Paul’s, Merchant House Bar, Pure Sports Medicine, Royal Exchange Jewellers, St Paul’s Cathedral, The Anthologist by Drake & Morgan, The Ned, Tudor Markets at Paternoster Square, and Vagabond Wines St Paul’s for taking part.
We again supported the Bow Bells Association with the Bow Lane Lights Switch-On event, which saw attendance from Lady Mayor and Lady Mayor’s Consort (their first official event following their appointment), as well as sheriffs, councillors, the local ward club, and local businesses and BID Members. This year’s event had a professional Victorian Choir perform, followed by a reception hosted by Bloomberg.
43 participants took part in our Dickens and Harry Potter inspired walking tours, led by expert guides Sarah Williams-Robbins (aka Mrs Londoner), and David Harry (aka The London Spy). Whilst a further 30, joined our Cheapside Craft Club workshops to make Festive Wreaths and Living Baubles – thank you Market Place St Paul’s for hosting.
We want to finish by saying another big thank you to our businesses, partners, workers and visitors who helped make this year’s programme such a success.
We look forward to welcoming you back to Cheapside in 2026 with more events and activations to come.
