Sutton Fireworks: None in the Borough, Epsom £12 on 7 Nov

There is no fireworks display in the London Borough of Sutton. The Carshalton Park display, which was the borough’s bonfire night event for decades, was cancelled permanently by its organisers in 2024, and no organiser has replaced it.

That is worth stating plainly, because listings sites and search results still carry the Carshalton display as though you can buy a ticket for it. You cannot. The two nearest displays that are confirmed for 2026 are in Epsom and in Merton, and both fall on Saturday 7 November. Bonfire night 2026 itself is Thursday 5 November.

Updated 23 October: Merton has now published its full 2026 visitor rules: tickets are not sold at the gates, under 4s go free without one, bags must be no bigger than A4 and Blue Badge parking for Morden Park is at Merton College. Epsom is still £12 in advance until 31 October, with 74 premium tickets left.

The Carshalton display, and the statement that ended it

The display was run by the Wallington and Carshalton Round Table at Carshalton Park. Its own website carried the cancellation notice, addressed “Dear Community” under the heading EVENT CANCELLED:

“After careful consideration, we regret to announce that our fireworks event will no longer be taking place. Several factors have contributed to this decision, including increasing time commitments of our members and organisers, a decline in our group’s numbers, escalating costs associated with the event, and insufficient support from our local council in navigating the necessary paperwork.”

The notice went on to say the money already raised would be donated to charitable partners, that the group had “struggled to maintain a strong membership to organise and run the event”, and, unusually bluntly, that “we are unable to offer any advice or guidance on alternative events in the area, so please seek this information at your own convenience” (Round Table Carshalton Fireworks, archived 12 November 2024).

The domain itself has now been repurposed. As of 3 September 2026, carshaltonfireworks.org.uk redirects to wallingtonbeerfestival.org.uk, where the Round Table’s page reads “Coming soon, details of our latest community event. Please come back later.” The fireworks page no longer exists at all, which is why the cancellation notice above is only readable in a web archive.

Inside Croydon reported in August 2024 that the display had raised around £20,000 a year for local causes and drew thousands of people, and that a food festival operator which looked at taking it over withdrew for lack of commercial sponsorship (Inside Croydon, 18 August 2024). When South West Londoner covered the permanent cancellation in October 2025, Sutton Council’s response was: “We are sorry to hear the news about the fireworks display. We value the work of the Round Table, and we are always happy to help community groups who are seeking to host events in Sutton” (South West Londoner, 15 October 2025).

No new organiser has come forward since, and the council does not run a display of its own.

The two confirmed displays nearest Sutton

Epsom, Hook Road Arena, Saturday 7 November

The Epsom display is the closest thing to a replacement for Carshalton, and it is the better documented of the two. The organisers have confirmed for 2026 a low noise children’s show at 6.30pm and the main display at 7.30pm, with a bonfire straight after the main display and a funfair running through the evening on a pay per ride basis. The venue is Hook Road Arena, Epsom, KT19 8QG, which is a short drive from Worcester Park and Cheam.

Tickets are on sale through the organisers’ own ticket shop (Epsom Fireworks tickets), checked 23 October:

• Standard entry, age 5 and over: £12 at the “special advance” price, which ends on 31 October. The shop shows £15 as the full price
• Under 5s: free, but they still need a ticket
• Premium entry: £30, advance only, with a separate gate and a viewing area at the front. Only 74 were left on 23 October, down from 85 on 3 October
• A £2.50 booking fee per order, and carer tickets are booked through a separate link
• Gates open 5.30pm to 9.30pm. No dogs
• Online only. “Tickets are not for sale on the gate”, and refunds are not offered after purchase
• They warn about ticket scams: “Don’t buy from people offering tickets on social Media posts. We have found in the past a majority of these are scams due to the popularity of our event”

The display has run since 1971 and for the past 35 years at Hook Road Arena, with Illusion Fireworks providing both shows for the last eleven. It is run by volunteers, and profits go to youth charities through the Epsom Fireworks Charitable Trust, charity number 1197031 (Epsom Fireworks, tickets).

Do not drive to the arena. The organisers say in capitals that there is no parking at Hook Road Arena or in the surrounding area, and the local roads carry parking restrictions from noon to 11pm on the day, patrolled by enforcement officers. Instead there is a free park and ride and bus service from 5pm to 9.45pm, with the last pick-up at 7pm and the last drop-off at 9.45pm. The park and ride car park is NESCOT on Reigate Road, Ewell, which also has the disabled parking, and the organisers expect it to fill early, so they ask people to use the bus points instead: Epsom station, Tolworth station and the Longmead Industrial Estate. From Sutton, Cheam or Worcester Park, the train to Epsom and the bus from the station is the simplest way in. The organisers also say the field is not suitable for wheelchairs (Epsom Fireworks, travel).

Merton, Morden Park, Saturday 7 November

Merton Council runs two nights of Fireworks in the Park, Wimbledon Park on Thursday 5 November and Morden Park on Saturday 7 November. Morden Park is the relevant one for most of this borough: it sits just over the boundary from Rosehill and St Helier.

The running order published by the council is:

• 5.15pm gates and funfair open
• 6.45pm first fireworks show, which the council describes as “more suitable for young children”
• 7.15pm gates open for the second show
• 8.30pm second fireworks show, plus funfair, refreshments and bar
• 10pm funfair closes

The council’s fireworks page lists as “brand new for 2026” a DJ set from Lisa Maffia at Wimbledon Park, with “another big name DJ to be announced soon for Morden Park”, and an observation wheel “with stunning views across south London”, which you “book on the night, first come first served” (Merton Council, Fireworks in the Park).

Merton has now published its 2026 attractions and directions: funfair, fireworks to music, a street food village, a licensed bar, toilets, an accessible change facility and baby change and feeding areas, with “no cash points on site”. Morden Park has three entrances: Gate A on London Road, which is the one to use for the funfair because the fair sits close to it, and Gate B on Hillcross Avenue and Gate C on Lower Morden Lane, which the council says may be quicker if you are skipping the fair. There is no parking at the event; the council advises walking, cycling or public transport (Merton Council, Attractions, maps and directions).

The council’s “Plan your visit” page is now live for 2026 too (Merton Council, Plan your visit):

• Tickets are not for sale at the venues. You can only attend the show you booked, there is no re-entry and no official resale. Children under 4 do not need a ticket
• Banned items include food and drink, glass, bags larger than A4, sparklers, drones, gazebos, radios and animals other than assistance dogs, and security will search bags
• Blue Badge parking for the Morden show is at Merton College, and the council says the London Road entrance gives the best wheelchair access. There is a first come, first served wheelchair viewing area and accessible toilets
• There are no cash machines on site, but all vendors have been told to take cash and cards
• Children and vulnerable adults can get a wristband at the gate in case you are separated, and the information point by the bandstand handles lost children and first aid
• Residents with questions about the build or the show can call the event team on 07375 646745, 11am to 11.30pm on each show day

The running order is still published without a year attached, so treat those times as the established pattern and check before you travel. Tickets are sold through See Tickets and the council links to them from merton.gov.uk/fireworks, which is where the confirmed dates come from. Merton says “these shows do sell out”.

The date is confirmed a second time, in a place most people never look. Merton publishes a list of every Morden Park event expecting more than 500 people, as a condition of the park’s premises licence, and its Events in 2026 table carries “Merton Fireworks, Field 1, 07 November”, with setup from 31 October and the site cleared away by 10 November (Merton Council, Large events at Morden Park). So if you walk in Morden Park, expect Field 1 to be fenced for eleven days, not one evening. The same table shows Autumn Fest on Field 1 from 22 to 31 October, which means the fireworks build starts the day that comes down.

If you are staying in the borough

There is nothing ticketed to go to, so the practical questions become different ones.

Private fireworks are legal but time limited. The rule is that “you must not set off fireworks between 11pm and 7am”, with the cut-off pushed to midnight on bonfire night and to 1am for New Year’s Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year. You cannot buy adult fireworks, meaning categories 2 and 3, if you are under 18, and the law says you must not set off or throw fireworks, sparklers included, in the street or any other public place (GOV.UK, Fireworks: the law). So a display that runs past midnight on 5 November, or one being let off in a road or a park, is not a grey area.

Expect the borough’s parks to be busier and its roads noisier around 7 November even without a display, because traffic heads out to Epsom and Morden. Live roadworks and diversions across Sutton, Cheam, Carshalton and Wallington are on our Sutton roadworks and travel page, and if you are driving to a display and parking in the borough afterwards, the tariffs and permit zones are on our Sutton parking page.

Questions people ask

Are the Carshalton fireworks coming back? There is no sign of it. The organisers described the decision as final, said they were “exploring alternative charitable activities” instead, and have since turned the event’s web address over to a beer festival. Any revival would need a new organiser and a fresh event licence from the council.

Does Sutton Council run a fireworks display? No. Its statement to South West Londoner in October 2025 offered help to community groups wanting to host events, not a council display.

What is the nearest display to Sutton town centre? Morden Park, just outside the borough in Merton, on Saturday 7 November. Epsom’s, on the same evening, is the larger of the two and the one with a bonfire.

When is bonfire night 2026? Thursday 5 November. Both of the nearby Saturday displays fall two days later, on 7 November.