A Victorian feast for the senses: immersive storytelling, dining and live music transports audiences to Charles Dickens’ parlour on Christmas Eve, 1843, and the very first telling of ‘A Christmas Carol’
“The success of The Great Christmas Feast lies with its embrace of its identity as an immersive dining experience, focusing on three key elements and excelling at them.
The first is the atmosphere… second is the menu … the final part is the performance itself.
… it’s a theatrical, musical and culinary extravaganza”The Stage ★★★★
“The experience you can’t miss this Christmas”GQ
It is Christmas Eve, 1843, and you’re an honoured guest in the writer Charles Dickens’ parlour. You have been invited to hear him share his newest ghostly festive story – ‘A Christmas Carol’.
The tables are set, the snow falls outside and over the course of the night, you watch and listen as Dickens himself introduces you to his entrancing spectral characters, in what will become the world’s most famous cautionary tale…
This winter, behind a door in West Kensington, audiences are invited to step through a Dickensian portal and travel through time, right into Christmas Eve, 1843, to take their seats as the very first parlour guests gathered to hear Charles Dickens’ latest (and arguably, greatest) work, A Christmas Carol.
Now open for bookings, The Great Christmas Feast will run from 14 November 2025 to 4 January 2026, in a festive extravaganza combining live performance, music and a lavish Victorian hospitality, all combined to create what is perhaps London’s most transportive festive experience. Since it began eight years ago, the show has sold out every season – a secret underground Christmas tradition that has quietly become one of London’s great cult hits.
Conjured up by celebrated creators of immersive experiential storytelling, The Lost Estate – specialists in holistic works of art that fuse music, theatre, design and hospitality; The Great Christmas Feast blends performance and dining into immersive experiences that transport audiences into an entirely new world. At its centre is a one-man tour-de-force David Alwyn (Secret Cinema, War of the Worlds Immersive Experience) as Dickens, moving seamlessly between narrator and character to bring Scrooge, Marley and Tiny Tim to vivid life.
Binding it all together is a magical score of cinematic live music, composed by The Lost Estate’s Composer in Residence, Steffan Rees (Christ Church, Oxford and Royal College of Music) and performed by three exceptional classical musicians; Guy Button on violin
Beth Higham-Edwards on percussion, and Kieran Carteron on cello. The music acts as the evening’s heartbeat, shaping the tone and guiding the audience through the show’s shifting emotional landscape. The script and score work as a duet, amplifying each other, building together to climactic crescendos and softening moving moments; each note, not just heard, but felt. The talented ensemble carry audiences deeper into Dickens’ world, each doing their part to faithfully evoke the era in both tone and texture, lending the production a deeply resonant, atmospheric quality.
This hybrid of storytelling, theatre, music and feasting places audiences right inside Dickens’ own parlour as they become Dickens’ honoured guests and the very first captive audience to this most epic of festive cautionary tales. Here they witness a brand-new Christmas ghost story, from one of the most celebrated authors of the time. The setting is designed for shared experience – a gaslit parlour where strangers dine together, and in between the explosive moments of the ghostly tale are a handful of truly touching moments that create a special and heart-warming ripple through the room.
Echoing Dickens’ real reputation as an exceptionally generous host, this innovative take on storytelling is accompanied by a sumptuous three-course Victorian Christmas menu, curated by Executive Chef Ashley Clarke (Gordon Ramsay Group, SmokeStak, Temper Soho). Each dish uses produce and flavours specifically selected to accentuate Dickens’ London and mirror the fare that Charles’ house staff would have served up in the home. Starters draw on the flavours of Victorian London’s markets, with options such as potted rare breed beef, hot smoked salmon or a vibrant potted cheese. The feast continues with a choice of confit Gressingham duck leg or a king oyster mushroom pithivier, each served with classic seasonal trimmings, before concluding with a traditional Christmas pudding with brandy ice cream. Seasonal cocktails – including the legendary Smoking Bishop, the Pear Tree Cup and the Rumfustian – are available and served from Dickens’ recreated cellar, alongside wine, ale and soft drinks.
The Lost Estate’s West Kensington home is meticulously designed and dressed to allow audiences to step over a magical threshold, right into the heart of Dickensian London, Christmas, 1843. Audiences enter a vast Victorian realm of snow-dusted streets and lantern-lit alleys, before arriving in Dickens’ richly dressed parlour – all designed by Darling & Edge (Gingerline, Secret Cinema, Crystal Maze). And every detail of the service is carried by Victorian waitstaff, deepening the sense of having crossed into Dickens’ London.
The Great Christmas Feast is directed by Simon Pittman (Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Next to Normal Immersive), returning for his fourth year with the production. Each year, a world is built afresh where food, theatre and music converge. Step across the threshold and you’ll find yourself in Dickens’ parlour, 1843 – the story is about to be told, the feast is laid, and Dickens awaits.
ABOUT THE LOST ESTATE
The Lost Estate creates transportive, best-in-class world-building live experiences where music, theatre, design and hospitality become a single work of art. Every world begins with the music: it sets the pulse, shapes the story and carries the audience through each twist of time. Each production invites guests to step through a carefully built portal into another century – from the jazz-soaked speakeasies of 1930s New York to the candlelit parlours of Victorian London to the heady Havana nights of 1950s Cuba – and spend an evening inside a living, breathing story. Founded by classically trained musicians (William Kunhardt, Rowan Bell, Eddy Hackett) and driven by a passion for history and fine dining, The Lost Estate fuses world-class performance from top musicians with exceptional food, drink and top-flight mixology to craft nights that feel like time travel itself. The result is an evening that lingers long after the final note – a rare escape where the music follows you home, still humming in your head as the city returns.
Listings
What: The Great Christmas Feast
Where: The Lost Estate, 9 Beaumont Ave, London W14 9LP
When: Friday 14th November 2025 – Sunday 4th January 2026
Tickets: Classic Dining tickets from £139.50, Charlie’s Circle (private table) from £179.50 and VIP from £249.50 plus booking fees
Nearest Station: West Kensington tube (2min) and Earls Court tube (10min)
Evening performances are at 7pm (doors from 6pm) and matinee performances are at 1pm (doors from 12noon).
November evenings will be Tuesday to Sunday with matinees on Saturday and Sunday. December will have evening and matinee performances Monday to Sunday, with 24th and 31st, matinee performances only.
Menu
- Starters: Choice of Potted Rare Breed Beef, Hot Smoked Salmon, or Potted Cheese (v), each served with seasonal jellies, relishes, pickled vegetables and soda bread.
- Main Course: Confit Gressingham Duck Leg with festive trimmings, or a vegetarian Pithivier of King Oyster Mushroom with shiitake, winter herbs and rich jus.
- Dessert: Traditional Christmas Pudding with brandy ice cream and crème anglaise.
Ticket Pricing Details
- Classic Dining – From £139.50, shared tables with a three-course festive banquet and immersive Christmas Carol experience.
- Charlie’s Circle – From £179.50, private table seating with welcome drink, coat check, three-course banquet and Christmas Carol experience.
- Charlie’s Circle “Royale” – From £249.50, VIP seating with Champagne and canapés on arrival, after-dinner digestif, priority entry, check-in and coat check, plus three-course banquet and Christmas Carol experience.
For more information, visit https://christmasfeast.thelostestate.com/
Images supplied
