Psst! We've mapped a load of A Christmas Carol locations from the book, films and plenty more.
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is one of THE great stories — a magical cocktail of London, ghosts and Christmas. (Also, sometimes Kermit.) As usual this yuletide, there's a festive flurry of adaptations on stage, running the gamut from traditional, to drunken.
A Christmas Carol, Old Vic
Since 2017, Waterloo's Old Vic theatre has staged Jack Thorne's (the man behind Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, and Adolescence) version of the Dickens Christmas parable, which comes loaded with all the trimmings — think stove-pipe hats, groaning ghouls, bewitching hand bells and mince pies dished out to the audience. It's back again in 2025, with Paul Hilton playing the miserable old pinchpenny who (spoiler alert) eventually sees the light and gets his Christmas on.
A Christmas Carol, Old Vic, 12 November 2025-10 January 2026
A Christmas Carol, New Wimbledon Theatre and Hoxton Hall
The Dickens Theatre Company are up and down the country this November and December, calling in at New Wimbledon Theatre and Hoxton Hall, with their unique spin on A Christmas Carol — now in its 10th year. It's framed around two of Dickens's theatrical companions forced to play 30-odd characters between them, when the rest of their troupe gets stuck on a train.
A Christmas Carol, New Wimbledon Theatre, 10 November 2025; Studio at New Wimbledon Theatre, 1-6 December 2025; Hoxton Hall, 21-23 December 2025
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story, Alexandra Palace Theatre
Could there be a more bone-chillingly, spine-tinglingly sublime setting to spin Dickens' ghostly yarn than the distressed plaster/exposed brickwork of Alexandra Palace Theatre? Certainly it makes the perfect home for a return for Mark Gatiss' extra spooky retelling, which won many a plaudit when it first aired.
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story, 21 November 2025-4 January 2026
Ebony Scrooge at Sadler's Wells East, Stratford
Dickens goes hip hop, as Stratford's newest theatre Sadler's Wells East celebrates its first Christmas with Ebony Scrooge — a high-fashion, high-octane makeover. Hip hop, comedy and physical theatre commingle in the family-friendly tale of Ebony, the formidable head of a fashion empire who has cancelled Christmas for her landmark fashion show. Three mystical visitors help her to discover her Caribbean roots and the true meaning of happiness. Dickens meets The Devil Wears Prada, by the sounds of it.
Ebony Scrooge, Sadler's Wells East, 26 November 2025-4 January 2026
The Muppet Christmas Carol, Prince Charles Cinema
There will be no shortage of The Muppet Christmas Carol screenings in London's cinemas this festive season. However, the Prince Charles Cinema's singalongs are one of the great joys in life — and whether you've seen this film a million times, or are somehow, SOMEHOW a first-timer, you're going to have a hoot. Altogether now: "It's in the singing of the street corner choir..."
And while we're at it, Londonist's own Matt Brown is at a VERY special screening of the film in the Brunel Museum's Thames Tunnel shaft on Wednesday 17 December. He'll be providing a few surprising insights into the film's London connections, and explaining why it's the best movie of all time.
The Muppet Christmas Carol, Prince Charles Cinema, 28 November-24 December 2025
The Muppet Christmas Carol, Brunel Museum, 17 December 2025
A Christmas Carol: Live, Charles Dickens Museum
Wish you could've seen Charles Dickens perform A Christmas Carol at one of his famous live performances, in which he was hopped up on champagne and oysters? Head to the Charles Dickens Museum, where James Swanton does a bally good impression of the great author as he rollicks through the festive novella — a rendition that is both cockle-warmingly joyous and spine-chillingly horrifying (Swanton has appeared in Inside No. 9 after all).
That's not the only Dickens storytelling going on at the museum this Christmas: Swanton is also doing a handful of performances of The Haunted Man. Indeed, this charming house-museum fully embraces the spirit of a Dickensian Christmas, with a slew of special tours and events throughout the season.
A Christmas Carol: Live, Charles Dickens Museum, 2-23 December 2025
Christmas Carol Goes Wrong at Apollo Theatre, Piccadilly
If Ally Pally (above) takes A Christmas Carol seriously, the Apollo Theatre is the opposite, turning the whole thing into farce. On purpose, mind. The Play That Goes Wrong team blend slapstick comedy with a meta-narrative of a show-within-a-show, as an amateur dramatic society attempts to perform Dickens' work with disastrous consequences. God help us, everyone.
Christmas Carol Goes Wrong Apollo Theatre, 6 December 2025-25 January 2026.
A Pissedmas Carol, Leicester Square Theatre
Bar, rum, glug! This show does what it says on the tin (of lager) — namely A Christmas Carol but with one of the Sh!t-faced Showtime cast members becoming increasingly merry (insert 'Christmas spirits' gag here) as the tale unfolds. Whether they're staying true to the original text by guzzling down goblets of Smoking Bishop remains to be seen.
A Pissedmas Carol, Leicester Square Theatre, 9 December 2025-4 January 2026
Count Arthur Strong is Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, Bloomsbury Theatre
A taste is emerging for well-known comedians to take up the Scrooge-shaped mantel. After a successful short run in 2024, Steve Delaney becomes Count Arthur Strong/Ebenezer Scrooge for another brace of shows this Christmas. Fans of the popular Count Arthur Strong sitcom will no doubt go for this mirthsome one-man approach. As for anyone else: "If you miss it, you weren't there!".
Count Arthur Strong is Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, Bloomsbury Theatre, 13 and 14 December 2025
Some more Carols for you to mull over...
And the Carols keep coming. Others you might want to check out include:
🕯️ An alternative version — Christmas Carol - A Fairy Tale — at Eltham's Bob Hope Theatre, in which Ebenezer has died and his sister Fan has grown up to marry Marley. (19-22 November 2025)
🕯️ Mitch Benn's return to Barons Court Theatre, for an intimate 70-minute monologue. (9-13 December 2025)
🕯️ The classic story reimagined as a live radio play, at Boston Manor House. (9-28 December 2025)
🕯️ Vincent Franklin's heart-warming/blood-chilling adaptation at the Exchange in Twickenham. (10-11 December 2025)
🕯️ Jonathan Goodwin's one-off, one-man performance as Dickens at Vauxhall's Tea House Theatre. (11 December 2025)
A Christmas Carol Walk
Sticking around London for Christmas? Hazel Baker leads A Christmas Carol Walk through the City of London's streets on the afternoon of Christmas Eve itself. If you can't make that, check out our map of Ebenezer Scrooge's London.
A Christmas Carol Walk, City of London, 29 November 24-December 2025
Stay up to date with everything happening in London for Christmas 2025.
