New Year's Eve Preparations and Primrose Hill Closure in London
Primrose Hill in Camden, London, will be closed for New Year’s Eve, with gates locked from 8pm on 30 December to 6am on 1 January. This closure follows cost-cutting measures taken to address a £260m funding gap, including the Metropolitan Police disbanding the Royal Parks Police in November, leading to a severe reduction in crowd-management capacity due to the dissolution of the Royal Parks Operational Command Unit.
The Royal Parks charity stated that the decision to close Primrose Hill was not taken lightly. This action comes in the wake of a fatal stabbing on Primrose Hill during the 2023 New Year’s Eve fireworks, where 18-year-old Areece Lloyd-Hall was jailed for a minimum of 16 years for the murder of 16-year-old Harry Pitman.
Organisers in London and other towns are also monitoring weather conditions ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
A live countdown tracks the arrival of 2026 around the world, starting with Kiribati’s Kiritimati at 10:00 UK time, followed by a sequence of time zones including New Zealand at 11:00, Australia at 13:00, Korea and Japan at 15:00, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China at 16:00, Thailand at 17:00, India at 18:30, the UAE at 20:00, Russia at 21:00, South Africa at 22:00, Germany at 23:00, Brazil at 03:00 on January 1, New York at 05:00, and Los Angeles at 08:00.
