Valentines Mansion is free and open Sundays and Mondays, 11am to 3pm from November. Its lights switch-on is Sunday 22 November, 4pm to 6pm, also free.

Valentines Mansion, the Grade II* listed house in Valentines Park, is Ilford’s best free day out in winter, but it is only open two days a week, and from November it closes at 3pm. Get those two things right and it is an easy afternoon: free entry, period rooms, a café in the grounds that opens daily, and one proper Christmas event.

Opening times and visitor details are from the mansion’s own site and Vision Redbridge’s listings, checked on 25 September 2026.

The quick answer

Open Sundays and Mondays only. From November to February, 11am to 3pm (12pm to 5pm until the end of October). Entry is free. The gardens are open every day.

The Christmas lights switch-on at Valentines is Sunday 22 November, 4pm to 6pm, free. Last year’s big Christmas at Valentines Mansion open day was on Sunday 7 December; this year’s date has not been announced.

Opening times and what it costs
House open Sundays and Mondays only
March to October 12pm to 5pm
November to February 11am to 3pm
Entry Free
Gardens Open every day
Dogs Not allowed in the house, except guide dogs
Address Emerson Road, Ilford, IG1 4XA

Those hours are from the mansion’s open days page. Inside are period rooms including a recreated Victorian kitchen and a Georgian bedchamber, and an audio tour you play on your own phone by scanning a code in each room. The top floor, once the servants’ quarters, is now six artists’ studios.

The mansion’s site does not list Christmas closures. This year Christmas Day is a Friday and the Boxing Day bank holiday falls on Monday 28 December, so the Monday opening that week is the one to check before you set off. We will add closure dates when they are published.

Christmas at Valentines: what is confirmed and what is not

Confirmed for 2026:

  • Christmas lights switch-on, Sunday 22 November, 4pm to 6pm, free. One of six across the borough on Vision Redbridge’s switch-on listing. Last year’s was on 27 November. Note that it starts after the house has closed for the day at 3pm.
  • Mini Mondays, Monday 14 December, 10.30am to 11.15am, free. Books and rhymes for under fives with characters in costume, no booking, on the second Monday of every month. Also 9 November.

Not yet announced:

  • Christmas at Valentines Mansion. Last year this was on Sunday 7 December 2025, 10am to 6pm, free, according to the council’s Christmas 2025 programme. Vision’s Christmas page, still showing the 2025 programme, describes carol singing, craft stalls, the Christmas artists’ open studios, children’s crafts, live music, Victorian Christmas displays, mulled wine and the whole house decorated. The 10am to 6pm hours were much longer than a normal winter open day.
  • Christmas wreath workshop. Last year’s was on 30 November 2025 at £65.

On last year’s timing, the council’s Christmas programme lands in mid November. We will add the 2026 open day here as soon as it is listed.

Before Christmas: October and November

  • Black History Month exhibition: Venetta Nicole, A Language of Colour and Form, free, on open days from 12 October to 9 November, per its Vision listing. The listing gives 12pm to 5pm for the November dates too, while the house’s own winter hours are 11am to 3pm, so go early in November.
  • Guided tour, Sunday 4 October, 1.30pm to 2.30pm, £5.
  • October half term: open Sunday 25 and Monday 26 October on summer hours. Everything else on that week is on our October half term page.

The mansion was also on television this month: BBC One’s Antiques Roadshow filmed there on 7 June, and the first of three episodes from the house was screened on Sunday 20 September, as the mansion’s home page reports.

Getting there and parking

From the mansion’s getting here page:

  • Tube: Gants Hill (Central line), about five minutes’ walk. Ilford station on the Elizabeth line is a longer walk or a short bus ride.
  • Bus: routes 396, 128, 179, 123, 296 and 167 from Gants Hill, and 128, 296, 150, 396 and 167 from Ilford, to the Beehive Lane stop.
  • Car: parking at the mansion, paid by RingGo only, site code 21405, by phone or the RingGo app.

The Gardener’s Cottage Café in the grounds opens every day, according to the council’s Valentines page.

Other free Christmas dates across Redbridge, including Santa, are on our Santa’s grotto page.

Sources