Ealing Half Term 26 to 30 Oct: Free Play, £2 Halloween Trail

Ealing’s October half term is Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October 2026, and Halloween falls on Saturday 31 October, the day after half term ends. Those dates are Ealing Council’s own, for community primary, high and special schools and community-maintained nurseries (Ealing Council). Academies, foundation schools and voluntary aided schools set their own dates, and plenty in the borough are academies, so check your child’s school before you book anything.

Most of the half-term week is now published. Gunnersbury has a Halloween trail, slime workshops, a spooky film, a bird walk and a quiet session; Pitzhanger has three days of free outdoor play and a messy play morning; and The Questors has two children’s shows. The council’s free holiday programme is the one big gap.

Updated 6 October: Pitzhanger has added three days of free outdoor play, 28 to 30 October, and Gunnersbury has added a bird walk and an adults’ Rocky Horror screening.

What is already booking

Everything below is on sale now at The Questors Theatre, 12 Mattock Lane, W5 5BQ, which published its half-term week first.

The Spooktastic Halloween Show is by Dantastic Productions, in the 90-seat Studio, and runs an hour. It is an interactive musical romp with panto-style audience participation, suitable for all ages, and the company says last year sold out. Tickets are £12, or £10 for under 18s. The theatre’s old page gave the date as “Tuesday 28 October” in one place; its relaunched page now says 27 October throughout, which is the Tuesday in 2026 (The Questors).

Dame Dolly’s Spooktacular Pirate Show is Page to Panto’s one-hour pirate story, also in the Studio, at 2pm on Wednesday 28 October, £10, advised for ages 2 to 12 (The Questors).

For older children and adults there is also Romeo and Juliet in the 350-seat Playhouse, running 23 to 31 October at 7.30pm with a 2.30pm matinee on Sunday 25 October, no show on Monday 26 October, and a captioned performance on Thursday 29 October. It runs two and a half hours including the interval, is recommended for 11 and over, costs £10 to £25 (concessions £9 to £23, children and students £7 to £12.50), and the closing night is Halloween itself (The Questors).

Gunnersbury Park and Museum

Gunnersbury, on Popes Lane, W5 4NH, has the fullest half-term programme in the borough this year. Every event below is from its own listings, read on 6 October (visitgunnersbury.org).

• The Creepy Creatures trail is a self-led hunt for Sid the Spider and seven other hidden creatures around the park, for ages 3 and up, with a prize at the end (Gunnersbury).
• The Relaxed Session is a quiet museum opening for neurodivergent children and young people aged 5 to 25 and their families, with object handling, giant games, a chill-out room and an indoor picnic room. Numbers are limited and siblings are welcome (Gunnersbury).
• Spooky Slime sessions last 45 minutes, for ages 6 and up with an adult. The museum warns the materials may not suit children with some skin sensitivities (Gunnersbury).
• Spooky Cinema is the animated Addams Family, rated PG, with popcorn included in the ticket (Gunnersbury).
• The Autumnal Bird Spotting Stroll is a guided walk with Sennen, an RSPB ambassador, pitched at beginners, with a few pairs of binoculars to share. The museum’s own page gives two different times, 8.30am in its header and 10am to 12pm in its event details, so check the time when you book (Gunnersbury). A family version, Bird Detectives, follows on Sunday 1 November, 10am to 12pm, £8 (Gunnersbury).
• Rocky Horror is the grown-ups’ half of Spooky Cinema: rated 15, under-15s not admitted, popcorn included (Gunnersbury).

The park is open daily from 7am until dusk. The museum is shut on Mondays except bank holidays and booked sessions, which is why the relaxed session is the only museum event on Monday 26th.

Pitzhanger, Walpole Park

PlayWorks at Pitzhanger is three days of free, child-led outdoor play, Wednesday 28 to Friday 30 October, in the walled front garden of Pitzhanger Manor on Ealing Green, W5 5EQ. Children build and invent with giant blocks, boxes, branches, fabric and loose parts, run by the Hackney play organisation Outdoor People, in all weathers. Free registration is recommended and drop-ins are welcome; children must stay with an adult (Pitzhanger). One caution: the page is a reworked version of the summer listing, and while its header gives 28 to 30 October, the details box still reads “Wednesday 29 to Friday 30 August, 10am to 3pm”. Take the October dates from the header and check the hours when you register.

Mini Makers: Messy Play is on Friday 30 October, 10am to 2pm, in The Rickyard behind Pitzhanger Pantry next to the Walpole Park playground, W5 5BS. It is a drop-in session for ages 1 to 5 led by the artist Lewis McVey: cardboard building, painting, sensory play and drawing. It costs £15 for one child and one adult, £1 for concessions, and the ticket also gets you into Pitzhanger Manor. Bring spare clothes (Pitzhanger).

Free activities: the council’s programme

Ealing Council runs a holiday activities and food (HAF) programme funded by the Department for Education, free for children in reception to Year 11 who get benefits-related free school meals and either live in the borough or go to school in it. Summer 2026 ran from 20 July to 28 August with football, multi-sports, gymnastics, arts and crafts, music and drama, nature and outdoor sessions, and eligible children could book up to 16 days (Around Ealing, 16 July 2026).

The autumn half-term programme was still not open on 6 October, and the council had not announced it. When it is, bookings go through the council’s family directory at ealingfamiliesdirectory.org.uk/haf-home. Summer bookings opened about a week before the holiday started, so expect the October programme around the third week of October.

For everything else on in the borough that fortnight, including the Ealing Film Festival the week before, see what’s on in Ealing.

One to be careful of

If you search for a Halloween market near Ealing you will find Duck Pond Spooky Nights on 31 October, 4pm to 9pm, and the Halloween Dog Parade that goes with it. Both are at Ruislip, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, not in Ealing.

Duck Pond’s Ealing-borough market is at Gunnersbury Park, and it has now added three more dates there, all 10am to 4pm: Sunday 11 October, Sunday 8 November and a Christmas market on Sunday 13 December. None of them falls in half term (duckpondmarket.com, checked 29 September).

Bonfire night is the following week

Halloween falls on a Saturday and bonfire night on the Thursday after, 5 November, with the two firework Saturdays either side of it on 31 October and 7 November. Ealing has no council display and three club-run ones, and the display sold as “Ealing fireworks” online is actually in Harrow. That is all on our fireworks and bonfire night page.

Before you set off

The Questors is a five-minute walk from Ealing Broadway station down Mattock Lane, and the controlled parking around Walpole Park runs into the evening on weekdays. Check parking in Ealing and roadworks and travel before driving. For the rest of the year, see things to do in Ealing.

Sources

• Ealing Council, term and holiday dates, academic year 2026/27
• The Questors Theatre, what’s on and the individual event pages, checked 29 September 2026
• Around Ealing, thousands of free summer holiday activity places, 16 July 2026
• Duck Pond Market event list, checked 29 September 2026
• Pitzhanger and Gunnersbury event pages, checked 6 October 2026

Nothing on this page is a prediction. Everything dated 2026 was on sale or published when we checked it (6 October 2026), and this page is rewritten as the rest of the half-term programme lands.