Putney and Northcote Road switch on their Christmas lights on Friday 27 November. The council's other 2026 dates are due in November; last year's are listed.

Updated 3 October: Putney and Clapham Junction have both fixed their 2026 switch-ons for Friday 27 November, and Putney’s ice sculpture trail is on Saturday 28 November. Details below.

Two of Wandsworth’s 2026 switch-ons are now dated, both on Friday 27 November: Putney, 3pm to 6pm, and Northcote Road in Clapham Junction, lights on at 5pm. Both were set by the local business improvement districts. Wandsworth Council has not published its 2026 Christmas events list yet, and there is no reason to expect it before November. Its Christmas events page for this year does not exist: /business-and-licensing/town-centres/christmas-events-2026/ returns a 404, and none of the five town centre pages carries a festive link. Last year’s page has been taken down too.

That is normal here rather than a warning sign. The 2024 list was live by 20 November 2024, and the 2025 list was still being updated on 1 December. If you are planning around a specific switch-on, the useful thing right now is last year’s timetable, because this council repeats its pattern closely from year to year: a run of small, free, early-evening events, twelve of them across eleven town centres, between mid-November and early December, each one carol singing plus a countdown.

Every 2025 switch-on, in date order

These come from the council’s own Christmas events 2025 page, which is now offline and survives as an archived copy captured on 8 December 2025. They are 2025 dates. Do not diarise them for 2026.

  • Battersea High Street, Saturday 15 November, 12 noon to 4pm, mini Christmas market, lights on at 3.45pm
  • Clapham Junction, Friday 21 November, lights on at 5pm. The council noted there was no event around it, just the switch-on
  • Northcote Road and Abyssinia Close, Friday 21 November, 3 to 5pm, school carol singing, lights on at 5pm
  • Roehampton, Danebury Avenue, Thursday 27 November, 3 to 4.30pm, lights on at 3.45pm
  • Putney, Friday 28 November, 6pm
  • Balham, Bedford Hill, Sunday 30 November, 1 to 5pm, schools and choirs, lights on at 5pm
  • Battersea Square, Tuesday 2 December, 6.30 to 8pm, Carols in The Square, lights on at 6.45pm
  • Southfields, Wednesday 3 December, market from 3 to 6.30pm, schools singing at 4.30pm, lights on at 5pm
  • Tooting, Church Lane, Thursday 4 December, 4 to 8pm, outdoor market in the church grounds, tree lights on at 4.30pm
  • Bellevue Road, Friday 5 December, 4 to 5pm, Finton School and Trinity Road Chapel singing, lights on at 4.30pm
  • Furzedown, Friday 5 December, 3 to 5.30pm, local schools singing, lights on at 4pm
  • Wandsworth, Southside piazza, Saturday 6 December, lights on at 5pm

The markets are the part worth planning for

Three of those are proper shopping events rather than a five-minute countdown, and they are the ones people travel for.

Southfields and Tooting both build a market around the switch-on, the Tooting one running four hours in the church grounds on Church Lane. Battersea High Street does the same at lunchtime in mid-November.

Separately, the RCASU indoor market ran in the RCA Hangar on Howie Street, SW11 4AS, from Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 December, 1 to 8pm. Established in 2012, it sells ceramics, jewellery, print, zines, illustration and textiles by Royal College of Art artists and designers, and it is the closest thing the borough has to a designer-maker Christmas market.

Putney added ice sculptures around the town centre on the Saturday after its switch-on, run by the Positively Putney business improvement district rather than the council. It is back on the same pattern in 2026: see below.

There was also an Age UK Wandsworth carol concert on Thursday 11 December at St Mary Magdalen’s Catholic Church, SW18 2QU, 6 to 7pm, with traditional carols, Bach organ music and the Union Chapel Voices gospel choir. That one is ticketed.

What is confirmed for 2026

Three events, all from business improvement districts rather than the council:

  • Putney, Friday 27 November, 3pm to 6pm, free. Positively Putney’s switch-on listing puts it on St Mary’s Church Square, where the lights come on on the town’s Christmas tree. “More details to follow,” it says, so the switch-on time is not yet published.
  • Clapham Junction, Friday 27 November, lights on at 5pm. The Junction BID’s Christmas page says the evening centres on the Christmas tree at the corner of Northcote Road and Abyssinia Road, with carol singing along Northcote Road from local schools and a finale on a stage on Abyssinia Road. That is a week later than last year’s 21 November.
  • Putney Ice Kingdom Sculpture Trail, Saturday 28 November, 10am to 4pm, free. Ice sculptures around the town centre and a live carving on the square, per Positively Putney, which says the trail map is “coming soon”.

The other ten town centres have nothing published for 2026. The Junction BID’s page also lists Battersea Arts Centre’s festive soft play and Santa’s grotto, both confirmed for 2026 and covered on our Wandsworth pantomime and Christmas shows page. The one big local fixture with 2026 dates locked down is the ice rink at Battersea Power Station, which opens on 6 November: see Battersea Power Station ice rink.

Getting to a switch-on

Almost all of these are on high streets with controlled parking and no event parking laid on, and several fall on a weekday teatime when the roads are already busy. Check parking in Wandsworth for the town centre tariffs and the one-hour zones that catch visitors out, and Wandsworth roadworks and travel for closures, including Albert Bridge, which is shut to vehicles until further notice.

When we will update this

We check the council’s town centre pages weekly from the start of November. As soon as the 2026 list is published, the dates above will be replaced with the real ones. If you spot a switch-on announced before we do, tell us at hello@wandsworthnews.co.uk.