Dalston Garden: Carved Pumpkin Lantern Halloween Overkill

Last Sunday Ms B & I had visited the pumpkin picking patch in Wimbledon. It was fun, but overpriced: admission for two, a bag, and one small pumpkin came to £13. We also found it a bit weird that the pumpkins have been picked elsewhere and just been laid out on an open field in Wimbledon Park with zero farm atmosphere or agricultural air. The Halloween aspects were toned down too because of the tons of toddlers. In short, after the recent pumpkin let-down in terms of Halloween atmosphere, we made our way to Dalston Eastern Curve Garden yesterday night after work to check out their hundreds of illuminated carved pumpkin lanterns.

The Garden is located next to the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural at No. 13, Dalston Lane (E8 3DF), literally just opposite Dalston Junction Overground and less than five minutes’ walk from Dalston Kingsland Overground station. This means that it can be reached from most points in central London and Canary Wharf in less than 25 minutes. Beware that the Overground trains might not be running as frequently as your average commuter tube train, though, so you might have to wait 10, 15 minutes for your train in a worst-case scenario, more likely just a few minutes.

 

While the pumpkin lantern garden is open from noon (every remaining night until 1 November, always until 10pm, so better hurry), it clearly makes sense to visit after nightfall, so that the lanterns will have been lit up and looking nicely. Unfortunately this is not the ideal time to check out the famous Mural, but can’t have both I’m afraid. You might just have to come back to this still in parts pretty ‘authentic’ but definitely upcoming area of East London. There are already plenty of fancy bars, restaurants, and other cool spots nearby to check out.

The area is surprisingly large, filled with partially covered, mostly uncovered seating and tables. There is a bar where you can buy drinks. Considering that there is so much Halloween fun on offer, we were shocked that there were no more than 15 or 20 other people in the garden when we visited at 8:30pm, most just staying for a few minutes to take pics for the Gram. In many ways that’s a plus, of course, because no one will stand in your picture, block your views or delay the queues at the bar. We’ll be back again next year: 5 out of 5 in our book. Well done Dalston!!

For some travel and adventure inspiration, feel welcome to eyeball our posts about our rides with The London Helicopter, The Thames Rocket, Adventure Balloons, and the Queenstown Shotover Jet, as well as our articles about England’s Medieval Festival, the Jurassic Coast, Dismaland, and Canterbury.

Or perhaps looking for some London restaurant reviews? Check out our posts about Boisdale and Fera, Mayfair, Phat Phuc, Chelsea, Bistro Mirey, Fulham, Beso, Covent Garden, and M Grill, Victoria.

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