Kensington half term is 26 to 30 October, but many schools are off from 19 October. What is on: Design Museum camps, museum shows, Halloween in Holland Park.

October half term in Kensington and Chelsea is two different holidays. The council’s week is Monday 26 to Friday 30 October, but most of the local schools we checked break up a week earlier, on Friday 16 October, and go back on Monday 2 November. So the borough’s families are off anywhere between 19 and 30 October, and the museums on Exhibition Road will be busy for both weeks. Below is what is confirmed so far by the organisers themselves; most museums publish their half-term family programmes in October, and this page will be updated as they do.

The quick answer

Council half term: Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026, back on Monday 2 November. Seven of the ten schools we checked are off for two weeks from Monday 19 October. Confirmed so far: Design Museum Design Camps on 27, 28 and 29 October (from £73), the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition opening at the Natural History Museum on 16 October, and a free Halloween afternoon in Holland Park on Saturday 31 October, 4pm to 7pm. Kensington Palace is closed on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 October.

Which half term is yours

The council sets the dates for its community schools: the first half of the autumn term runs from Wednesday 2 September to Friday 23 October, and the second half starts on Monday 2 November (RBKC, school term and holiday dates). Academies, church schools and independents set their own, and in this borough that is most of them. Holland Park School, Kensington Aldridge Academy, Fox Primary and several independents close from Friday 16 October for two weeks; Chelsea Academy closes from Thursday 22 October. The school-by-school table, with Christmas and INSET days, is on our term dates page.

What is on, from the organisers’ own listings

What Where Dates Price
Design Camps, ages 7 to 14 Design Museum, Kensington High Street 27, 28, 29 October £81, early bird £73
LAIKA presents Wildwood Design Museum From 15 October Ticketed
Es Devlin: Other Worlds Design Museum From 2 October Ticketed
Wildlife Photographer of the Year Natural History Museum From 16 October Adults from £17 off-peak
Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep Natural History Museum Until 3 January Adults from £15 off-peak
Power Up, video games gallery, ages 5+ Science Museum Daily, 10am to 5.30pm Paid day pass
Kensington Palace Kensington Gardens Wednesday to Sunday Adult £24.70, child £12.40
Halloween trail through the shops High Street Kensington 24 to 31 October Free
Playful Park of Peculiar Holland Park Saturday 31 October, 4pm to 7pm Free
Big Kensington Vintage Flea Phillimore Walk Saturday 31 October, 10am to 4.30pm Free to browse

Design Museum Design Camps are full-day workshops. For ages 7 to 10: Stop Motion with Clay on Tuesday 27 October, inspired by the LAIKA exhibition, which has already sold out with a waiting list; Create in Clay on Wednesday 28; and Stage Design Lab on Thursday 29. For ages 11 to 14: Stage Design Lab, inspired by the Es Devlin retrospective, on Wednesday 28, and Create in Clay on Thursday 29. Camps run 10am to 4pm for the younger group and 10.15am to 4.15pm for the older one. A child ticket is £81, or £73 at the early-bird price, which ends three weeks before each camp, so around 6 to 8 October; members pay £65 (Design Museum, families and young people; Design Camp booking information). The two big exhibitions open in the run-up: Es Devlin: Other Worlds on 2 October and LAIKA presents Wildwood, props, puppets and sets from the stop-motion studio’s new film, on 15 October (Design Museum, future exhibitions).

The Natural History Museum opens this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year, 100 new images, on Friday 16 October, with adult off-peak tickets from £17 (NHM, Wildlife Photographer of the Year). Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep runs until 3 January, entry 10am to 4.30pm daily, adult off-peak from £15, and the museum recommends it for ages 8 and up (NHM, Jurassic Oceans). The main galleries stay free.

The Science Museum’s Power Up, the hands-on video games gallery, is now a permanent paid gallery on level -1, open daily 10am to 5.30pm, for ages 5 and up; under-16s must be with an adult. General admission to the museum is free but booked (Science Museum, Power Up).

Kensington Palace is open Wednesday to Sunday only, so both half-term Mondays and Tuesdays (19, 20, 26 and 27 October) are closed days. Tickets until 8 November include The Last Princesses of Punjab exhibition, and Power, Perfume and Scandal run on the weekends, 10.30am to 2.45pm (Historic Royal Palaces, Kensington Palace what’s on). Prices drop from 11 November, when the palace’s Christmas display is next; see Kensington Palace at Christmas.

Halloween is the half term’s biggest free event. Opportunity Kensington, the High Street Kensington business district, runs a mapped Halloween trail through the shops and attractions for the whole of the council’s half term, 24 to 31 October, and on Saturday 31 October from 4pm to 7pm turns Holland Park into the “Playful Park of Peculiar”, free to enter (Opportunity Kensington, Halloween 2026). The full programme had not been published on 25 September. Details, and the clash with the Phillimore Walk market’s road closure, are on our Halloween page, and the market calendar, including the Big Flea on 31 October, is on our Phillimore Walk markets page.

Libraries run their usual free weekly sessions through both weeks rather than a half-term programme: story time at Kensington Central Library on Wednesdays, Crafty Creations at Chelsea Library on Thursdays, and Craft Time at North Kensington Library on Saturdays, among others (RBKC, events calendar).

Getting around

Half term does not stop weekend engineering work; check our roadworks and travel page before a trip, and our parking page if you are driving to the museums, where there is no visitor parking.

Still to be confirmed

  • The museums’ free half-term family activities. The Natural History, Science and V&A museums had not listed October half-term events on 25 September. Expected in early October.
  • The Halloween trail’s shops and the Holland Park programme. Opportunity Kensington says details follow; its 2024 announcement came in mid-October.