The nearest confirmed grotto is the Queen's House, Greenwich: from 14 November, £30 a head. Beckenham Place Park and Lewisham's market grottos are still TBC.

No Santa’s grotto inside Lewisham has published its 2026 dates yet. The nearest one that has is just over the border at the Queen’s House in Greenwich, across Blackheath and Greenwich Park: open every Saturday and Sunday from 14 November to 24 December, plus selected weekdays, at £30 a person. Beckenham Place Park had a grotto at last year’s Winter Gardens, and the council has run free market grottos in Lewisham and Deptford before, but neither has announced anything for this Christmas.

This page tracks all three and will be updated as dates are published.

The one confirmed so far: the Queen’s House, Greenwich

Royal Museums Greenwich runs a ticketed grotto in the Queen’s House every Christmas. This year’s has a Snow Queen theme, based on the Hans Christian Andersen story, and its grotto page and FAQs set out the details.
Dates Every Saturday and Sunday, 14 November to 24 December 2026, plus selected weekdays
Sessions 18 a day, from 10am; the last starts at 5.45pm and finishes at 6.30pm
Price £30 a person, adults and children alike; RMG family members £27; under 1s free
Booking fee £3 per transaction
Ages Aimed at 2 to 9 year olds; older siblings welcome
Length Up to 45 minutes
Where The Orangery, on the Greenwich Park side of the Queen’s House

How it works. It is a walk-through performance rather than a queue for Santa. Actors take families through five rooms: the Snow Queen and her Hobgoblin, a sorceress’s summer garden, a robbers’ castle, and finally the Snow Queen’s palace, where each family has a private meeting with Father Christmas. Every child with a ticket gets a small wrapped gift; adults and under 1s do not. The museum says an average session has 22 people in it.

The rules worth knowing before you book:

  • Everyone needs a ticket, including adults, and every party must include at least one child. Children need an adult aged 18 or over.
  • No more than two adults per child.
  • Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable, and a late arrival is not rebooked, although the museum says staff will try to get a late child in to see Santa.
  • Arrive 5 to 10 minutes early. The waiting area is a gazebo outside, and there is no direct route from the grotto to the toilets, so allow an extra 15 minutes if you will need them.

Availability. On 30 October the museum listed four of its quieter SEND sessions as sold out (15 and 28 November, 4 and 10 December) and said availability was very low on the weekends of 5 and 6, 12 and 13, and 19 and 20 December, and on Monday 21 December. No November weekend was on the low-availability list. Same-day tickets are sold at the Queen’s House admissions desk if any are left.

Getting there from Lewisham. The nearest stations are Greenwich and Maze Hill, and the DLR stops at Cutty Sark. The National Maritime Museum car park on Park Row (SE10 9NG) is open 10am to 7pm through the grotto season, including Christmas Eve, though the museum warns weekday spaces are limited. There are also pay and display car parks in Greenwich Park. The museum also runs the Queen’s House ice rink outside.

Beckenham Place Park: last year’s grotto, 2026 not announced

The Winter Gardens festival at Beckenham Place Park ran from 15 November 2025 to 4 January 2026, and Lewisham Council’s announcement said “young families can visit Santa in his Grotto by booking a slot in advance”, alongside the covered ice rink, funfair and Christmas market. Entry to the festival itself was free, with some activities ticketed.

For 2026 there are no dates yet. A new premises licence application for “Winter Gardens, Beckenham Place Park” is on the council’s current licensing applications register, describing an annual event to be held between November and January each year, with dates to be agreed with Greenscene, which runs the park, and advertised on the council’s website. Representations close on 12 November 2026. The park’s events listing and the festival’s own website showed nothing for this winter when we checked on 30 October.

Our Beckenham Place Park ice rink page follows the licence and will carry the dates first.

Lewisham and Deptford markets: free grottos in past years

The council’s market Christmas events have twice included a free grotto, with no booking:

  • 2024, Marketmas at Lewisham Market, Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 December, 10am to 4pm. Santa was in his cabin on the Sunday, “first come first served”, the council said.
  • 2023, winter markets: a free grotto opposite Giffin Square at Deptford Winter Market on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 December, and another at Lewisham Winter Market, according to the council’s announcement.

Nothing has been announced for 2026, and we found no market Christmas event in the council’s 2025 news either; that year its Christmas offer was the Winter Gardens. Our Christmas markets page will carry any 2026 market dates, and the Christmas lights switch-on page has last year’s tree lightings, some of which were held alongside the markets.

Parking and travel

For a Lewisham market grotto, the town centre car parks and pay and display bays are in our parking in Lewisham guide. Weekend rail engineering works are on our trains page, and road closures on Lewisham roadworks.

What we are waiting for

  • Beckenham Place Park Winter Gardens: dates, and whether the grotto returns. The licence representation period ends 12 November.
  • Council market events: any Marketmas or winter market dates for December 2026.
  • Queen’s House: remaining availability, which changes daily on the booking calendar.

Running a grotto in Lewisham? Email hello@lewishamnews.co.uk with the dates, times, price and booking link, and we will add it free of charge.

Sources