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January is a famously dreary month of the year. The Christmas magic has worn off, everyone is swearing off anything fun and the days are dark and cold. In short, exactly when we could all do with an extra injection of light. And for the past decade, Canary Wharf has been providing just that.
At the start of each year, the Winter Lights festival sets out to help you beat the January blues and transforms the financial district into a kaleidoscopic outdoor gallery of light art. It returns for 2026 this month, on January 20.
The lights are completely free to see and will switch on every evening from 5pm to 10pm until January 31. For 2026, the festival’s theme is ‘Dreamscape’, which promises an ‘an exploratory journey of the surreal and ethereal’. Expect interactive displays, colourful projections and magnificent installations from world-renowned light artists, as well as pop-up food stalls to keep you fuelled along the way.
Pippa Dale, an associate director at the Canary Wharf Group said: ‘Winter Lights started as a glowing idea to brighten the dark January nights and bring joy through art to Londoners. Over the past decade, this idea has grown and brightened into one of the capital's most ambitious light art festivals, with this year's Dreamscape theme representing our boldest vision yet.’
Last year, the installations included a piece that reflected sunlight during the day and became a dazzling choreographed light show by night, plus an illuminated bird in flight and a stack of 32 bath tubs pulsating with light and sound.
When is the Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2026?
The outdoor art show will take place from January 20 to January 31 2026, lighting up every day at 5-10pm.
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2026 lineup
The artist lineup for this year’s show has been revealed, with 16 installations from a range of artists hailing from a huge range of countries including Britain, France, Netherlands and Palestine.
- ‘FloWeЯ PoWeЯ’ by Aerosculpture/ Jean-Pierre David and Christian Thellier
- ‘In Bloom’ by Kumquat Lab
- ‘Aether’ by Architecture Social Club
- ‘Hulahoop’ by Scale
- ‘Out of Body Experience’ by Alaa Minawi
- ‘Lacto-Reacto-Light’ by Jack Wimperis
- ‘Trispheric Garden’ by REELIZE.STUDIO
- ‘For Ever and Ever and Ever’ by Anna Lomax
- ‘Sol’ by Artistic Latvia/ Janis Petersons
- ‘Blueprint’ by Studio Vertigo
- ‘Sanctuary’ by Ithaca Studio
- ‘Un-reel Access’ by KAPPA/ Patrick and Kaori Jones
- ‘Colour Rush’ by Liz West
- ‘Manifestation’ by Marcus Lyall
- ‘At the Hand’ by LACROIX
- ‘Amplititudes’ by Limbic Cinema
How to get to the Canary Wharf Winter Lights
By tube and train, the lights are best accessed via Canary Wharf station (Jubilee and Elizabeth lines, and the DLR).
The D3, D7, D8, 135, 277 and N550 buses all go to Canary Wharf, while Canary Wharf Pier is served by Thames Clippers riverboats.
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