The Winter Gardens licence bid is still open: comments now run to 12 November. No 2026 dates yet. Last winter the rink and market ran 22 Nov to 4 Jan.

Short answer, as of 20 October 2026: a licence application is in, but no dates have been announced. Lewisham Council’s register of current licensing applications lists a new premises licence for “Winter Gardens”, Zone F, Beckenham Place Park. In the register’s words, it is “for an annual event to be held between November and January each year”.

Updated 20 October: the council’s register now gives 12 November 2026 as the last date for representations, replacing 16 October. The register does not say why the deadline moved. The event’s website and the park still show no 2026 dates.

Updated 13 October: the licence application is new since our last check on 3 September.

What the application asks for:

  • showing films, 11am to 10pm every day
  • selling alcohol, 11am to 10pm every day
  • dates “agreed with Greenscene in advance of each annual event”, and advertised on the council’s website
  • agreement each year through the council’s events safety advisory group (ESAG)
  • the applicant says it will not use the licence for anything other than the Winter Garden event

The register does not name the applicant, and it does not mention an ice rink.

The last day for representations is now Thursday 12 November 2026. Anyone can comment, for or against, by emailing licensing@lewisham.gov.uk or writing to the Licensing Authority at Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, SE6 4RU. A representation without your full name and full postal address is invalid, the council says.

A licence application is a strong sign the organisers plan to come back, but it is not an announcement. Last year’s announcement came out on 16 October, about five weeks before opening. This page records what ran last winter and what we checked, and we update it the moment dates are confirmed.

What we checked, and what it showed

  • The council’s licensing register, checked 13 and 20 October 2026, carries the Winter Gardens premises licence application described above. On 20 October its deadline for representations read 12 November.
  • visitwintergardens.co.uk, the event’s own booking site, is still live but carries no 2026 dates (checked 20 October).
  • beckenhamplacepark.com has published no news about the Winter Gardens since its October 2025 announcement, and its events listing still shows last winter’s 15 November to 4 January run as the latest (checked 20 October).

If it returns, the park’s own news page is where it appeared last time.

What ran last winter

The Winter Gardens was announced on 16 October 2025 for Saturday 15 November 2025 to Sunday 4 January 2026. It did not open on time: the park postponed the opening to Saturday 22 November because of a Met Office severe weather warning, so the season ran about six weeks rather than seven.

Entry was free. The attractions were ticketed separately, which is the detail people get wrong when they budget for it.

What was on site, per the park’s own announcement:

  • The ice rink, billed as Lewisham’s first all-weather covered rink, with themed sessions through the season
  • The Revel Puck Circus, a returning fixture at the park
  • A Christmas market of more than 15 stalls, plus a Christmas tree seller
  • Plonk Golf, a nine-hole Christmas-themed crazy golf course
  • A funfair with more than 15 rides
  • The Winter Lodge, split into an adults-only bar, a family zone and a games area
  • Street food, and the Homestead Courtyard shops and cafe
  • Dogs allowed throughout

We are not quoting last year’s skating prices. The rink was ticketed by session, but the figures circulating in listings sites do not match a first-party source we could read, and prices would be reset for a new season anyway.

If it returns, what to plan around

Two things about this park catch people out, and both applied last winter.

It straddles a boundary in name only. Beckenham Place Park is owned and run by Lewisham, and the Winter Gardens was billed as a Lewisham first, even though the postcode is BR3 and the name says Beckenham. If you are looking for it in Bromley’s what’s-on listings, that is why it is not there.

Getting there is a train problem, not a parking problem. Beckenham Hill and Ravensbourne stations both sit on the park’s edge, on the Thameslink route through Catford and Bellingham. Our trains and travel page covers the line. The park has car parks, but they filled early on December weekends last year, and the roads around the Beckenham Hill entrance are narrow. Our parking in Lewisham page has the borough’s charges, and anything dug up on the approach will show on our roadworks and travel page.

When to check back

On last year’s timing, an announcement would have come by mid-October, and it has not. The licence cannot be granted before the 12 November deadline, which is three days before last year’s planned opening date. Until the organisers publish dates, treat it as unconfirmed.

In the meantime, the borough’s fixed winter dates are the Blackheath Fireworks on 7 November, licence granted and the Cinderella pantomime at the Broadway Theatre in Catford from 9 December, which is already on sale.

Sources