Honeywood Museum in Carshalton is free, open Thursday to Saturday 10am to 5pm. Its winter talks, trails and exhibition, and the Frost Fair outside on 5 Dec.

Honeywood Museum, the borough’s museum on Carshalton Ponds, is free and open Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, and it has a full autumn and winter programme already on its books: a local history walk, two evening talks, a Halloween trail and an exhibition running to January. On Saturday 5 December the Carshalton Frost Fair fills Honeywood Walk outside. Its Christmas opening hours and this year’s Santa grotto are not announced yet.

The quick answer

  • Free entry, Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, at Honeywood Walk, Carshalton SM5 3NX.
  • Carshalton Frost Fair: Saturday 5 December 2026, on Honeywood Walk. Last December the museum ran a Santa grotto at £3 a child, booked in advance.
  • Christmas closing dates and the 2026 grotto: not published yet. The winter exhibition runs until 23 January.

Opening times and getting there

The Friends of Honeywood Museum give the hours as Thursday to Saturday, 10:00 to 17:00, admission free, “families welcome”, telephone 020 8770 4297 (Friends of Honeywood Museum). The museum is owned by the London Borough of Sutton and run by council staff with volunteers. It has a tea room and a shop, and the ground floor, including both, is wheelchair accessible; the upper floors are not.

It is about five minutes’ walk from Carshalton station (not Carshalton Beeches). Buses 127 and 157 stop in North Street, the 407 in Pound Street, and the S3 in West Street. There is limited street parking, a Blue Badge bay in Honeywood Walk, and no parking in Honeywood Walk from 10am to 11am on weekdays; the two public car parks off Carshalton High Street are the alternative (Friends of Honeywood, find us). Their charges are on our parking in Sutton page.

What is on, October to January

All from the museum’s own events and exhibitions pages, read on 25 September:

Date Event Price
Sunday 11 October, 10am The Heart of Carshalton historical walk, North and West Streets, with Andrew Skelton £5, book in advance
Thursday 22 October, 7.30pm Talk: Did the Industrial Revolution start on the River Wandle? John Phillips £7 (£6 members)
24 to 31 October, Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm Millie’s Magical Spells and Potions Trail £2, drop in
Saturday 31 October Wizard and Witches Escape Room, ages 7 to 12 £3, advance booking only
Thursday 19 November, 7.30pm Alison Weir, The Boleyn Secret, at Cryer Arts Centre, Carshalton High Street £8
Until 23 January Exhibition: Before it Was All Built Up, the five villages before the suburbs Free

Talks are booked through the Friends by email or phone, or on their printable booking form, and they say the talks “are always popular and generally fully booked well in advance”. Neal Vaughan’s pastel exhibition, The River: Typology. Water. Colour. Work, closes on 25 October. The half-term events are covered in more detail on our Sutton Halloween page.

Every week while the museum is open there are free children’s trails and a reading corner, and in school term time a free Friday baby and toddler session, Honeywood Mice, 10.15am to 11.15am, which must be booked (Friends of Honeywood, regular events).

Christmas at Honeywood

Nothing for Christmas 2026 is on the museum’s pages yet. Last year it ran Festive Fun at Honeywood on Saturday 6 December 2025, with Santa in a Honeywood grotto: “Spaces to visit Santa in his Honeywood Grotto are limited so must be purchased in advance. Tickets (£3 per child) on sale at Honeywood Museum”. The listing gave the times as 12:00 to 14:00 in its headline and 12:00 to 16:00 in the text (Friends of Honeywood, latest news).

This year the museum’s doorstep is booked for the Carshalton Frost Fair on Saturday 5 December, run by EcoLocal with the Friends of Honeywood. Its times, stalls and last year’s grotto are on our Carshalton Frost Fair page, and every other grotto in the borough is on Sutton Santa’s grottos.

What is still to be confirmed

  • Honeywood’s Christmas and New Year closing dates: not published. We will add them when the museum does.
  • Whether there is a Santa grotto at Honeywood in 2026, its date and ticket price: last year’s tickets were on sale by 3 December.

Sources: the Friends of Honeywood Museum’s home, events, exhibitions, regular events, find us and latest news pages, all read on 25 September 2026.