London’s annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display usually begins at midnight.
The display takes place beside the River Thames, centered on the London Eye and the area around Westminster. It is timed to mark the start of the new calendar year in the United Kingdom, immediately after the final seconds of Big Ben’s midnight chimes.
London’s modern riverside fireworks tradition developed into a major ticketed public event in the early 2000s. The display is broadcast widely, and fireworks are launched from barges on the Thames as well as from positions near the London Eye. The London Eye itself is not the clock that determines midnight; the nearby Elizabeth Tower’s clock and chimes provide the familiar time signal.
The event is often confused with London’s New Year’s Day Parade, which happens on January 1 rather than New Year’s Eve. The fireworks also occur at midnight in Greenwich Mean Time, not at the earlier midnight of another time zone.