London Hen Party: Ideas, Activities & Costs

Planning a London hen party usually lands on one person, and the real job is wrangling a mixed group: the bride's school friends, her work crowd, an aunt or two who will not be raving until 6am. London makes this manageable, with the deepest menu of hen activities in the UK, but everything sits in separate neighbourhoods. Get two decisions right, one daytime activity and one base area, and the rest of the weekend books itself.

Start with the activity, because that is what people remember and what sets the tone for the night. Everything after it, the dinner, the bar, the club, just slots in around it.

Start with one good daytime activity

The daytime thing is the heart of a hen do, the part guests still talk about after the hangover fades, so choose it first and let it anchor the day. A cocktail masterclass is the safe default: the group learns to shake two or three drinks, then drinks them, which thaws out any table where half the guests have never met. Reckon on GBP 40 to 100 per person depending on the venue, with Shoreditch and Soho the obvious areas to look.

If you want the room laughing inside ten minutes, life drawing does it. A neon, blacklight version starts from around GBP 17 a head and breaks the ice faster than anything else on the list. At the calmer, more refined end, an icing or afternoon-tea masterclass sits around GBP 95 per person, and a gin tasting masterclass runs roughly GBP 28 to 75, both of which suit a group with a wider age range. Bottomless brunch needs no real planning at all: book a table in Soho, Shoreditch or Covent Garden and you have food, prosecco and a base for the loudest of your guests, usually GBP 30 to 45 for around 90 minutes.

One free move belongs on every shortlist. Sky Garden is the public garden on the 35th and 36th floors of the building at 20 Fenchurch Street, with 360-degree views across the city. Entry costs nothing, but you must pre-book a timed slot, released roughly three weeks ahead, so put one organised friend in charge of grabbing it the moment booking opens.

Pick a base and stay put

The single biggest planning mistake is scattering the day across the map. London is large, and a hen group of ten loses an hour and a small fortune in cabs every time it crosses zones at night. Choose one neighbourhood and run the whole weekend inside it.

Shoreditch and Hoxton is the strongest all-rounder for a hen do. It is built on cocktail bars, rooftops and warehouse-feel clubs with a young, dressed-down crowd, and you can do a daytime class, dinner and a late club without leaving the postcode. Activities here often run 20 to 30 percent cheaper than the West End, which adds up fast across ten people. Old Street and Shoreditch High Street are the hubs.

Soho and the West End is the pick when you want everything walkable and a classic bars-and-theatre night, with late-night pizza and the historic core of the gay scene on Old Compton Street. Almost every organised crawl starts here, around Leicester Square and Piccadilly. The trade is price and crowds: cocktails run GBP 12 to 18 and weekends get packed. Camden suits a music-loving crew over an Instagram-loving one, with live rock and indie, grungy pubs around the Market and the cheapest pints of the lot at GBP 6 to 8; KOKO, Jazz Cafe and the Electric Ballroom anchor the scene. Mayfair is the dressed-up exception, where strict-door, smart-dress venues carry table minimums from around GBP 500 up, fine as a one-off splurge but a poor base for most hen groups.

The night, start to finish

A hen night runs on a simple arc: pubs from around 8pm, bars by 10, club after midnight. Traditional London pubs call last orders near 11pm, so always have somewhere to move on to. For the first night with a big group, a guided bar-and-club crawl earns its keep, because someone else owns the running order, you skip the queues, and nobody has to herd ten people between five venues. Central crawls start from roughly GBP 15 to 18 per person and usually cover four or five venues with some drinks thrown in.

DIY-ing it works too, as long as you keep the whole night inside one area. In Shoreditch, open on a rooftop or a cocktail bar such as Queen of Hoxton, a three-floor spot with a seasonally themed rooftop and a basement club, then move to a nearby warehouse club. In Soho, do bars then walk to a central club. The cross-city dash after midnight is where both the money and the momentum drain away.

For the dancing itself, two very different rooms cover most hen groups. fabric in Farringdon is the serious option, open since 1999, heavy on house, techno and drum and bass, with entry of GBP 15 to 30 depending on the line-up and doors running roughly 11pm to 7am on Fridays and Saturdays; it suits the hardcore end of the group more than everyone. For a mixed, sing-along night, Heaven near Charing Cross is the city's best-known gay superclub and home of the long-running G-A-Y nights, with entry of GBP 5 to 15 and a famously welcoming crowd. If the brief is pop over techno, it is the more reliable call for a whole hen party.

What the weekend costs per head

With the day and night chosen, the budget is easy to sketch. The line that decides whether the trip feels like a treat or a fleecing is rarely the activities; it is the beds. As of mid-2026, central hotels run GBP 120 to 200 per person per night, so swapping two hotel rooms for one self-catered flat is the biggest single saving you can make. Everything else is controllable, and a full day and night before accommodation lands around GBP 150 to 300 a head.

Item	Budget version	Mid-range	Splash out
Daytime activity	GBP 13-25 (boat, treasure hunt, life drawing)	GBP 40-60 (cocktail masterclass)	GBP 75-100 (gin masterclass or tea)
Food	GBP 15-25 (street food, pizza)	GBP 30-45 (bottomless brunch)	GBP 60+ (restaurant dinner)
Drinks and entry	GBP 40-60 (pubs, free club entry)	GBP 80-120 (bars and club)	GBP 150+ (cocktail bars, table)
Bed (per night)	GBP 60-90 (hostel or budget hotel)	GBP 120-160	GBP 200+

Two numbers worth banking. Bottomless brunch is the best-value way to feed and fuel a group, typically GBP 30 to 45 for around 90 minutes of food plus free-flowing prosecco. And guestlist sign-up is free at most clubs and saves GBP 10 to 30 each on the door if you arrive before midnight. Midweek drinks and entry are often 30 to 50 percent cheaper if the dates are flexible.

Classy or cheap, two ways to play it

A grown-up London hen do is less about spending more and more about swapping the club for a great bar. Trade the late dancefloor for an early dinner and cocktails at a top Soho bar such as Swift, an award-winning two-floor spot with quick aperitivo upstairs and a whisky den below, or, if the budget stretches, a Mayfair institution where cocktails run GBP 24 to 30. Pair one refined daytime thing, afternoon tea or a gin masterclass, with that and you have a calm, well-dressed day that still ends with everyone merry.

The budget version is just as good and arguably more fun. Pre-book Sky Garden for free views, do a cheap life drawing class or a self-driven small boat with your own drinks, drink in Camden or Brixton where pints are GBP 6 to 8, and use free club entry before midnight. London rewards groups who plan the cheap stuff carefully and splash out on one thing, rather than spreading the money thin across everything.

Getting around without losing anyone

Logistics quietly make or break a hen weekend. The Night Tube runs all night on Fridays and Saturdays on the Victoria, Jubilee, Central, Northern and Piccadilly lines, roughly every ten minutes, covering most central nightlife zones for the price of a contactless tap. On other nights, the N-prefixed night buses cover the city, with a flat bus fare around GBP 1.75. A short central Uber or black cab runs GBP 10 to 25, but app rides surge between 1 and 3am at closing, so one shared cab beats everyone ordering separately.

Two rules to drill into the group before you go. Bring physical photo ID, because clubs enforce Challenge 25 and some doors reject digital-only. And never get into an unbooked minicab that approaches you on the street; use a black cab or a booked app ride. Sort those in advance and the only thing left to settle is who is wearing the sash.