Before Beacon Hill's Gas Lamps Get Their Wreaths, November Belongs to Charles Street

Beacon Hill's December look is put together on a tight schedule. A fundraiser on November 18 pays for it, a volunteer crew hangs it the first weekend of December, and the Charles Street storefronts that stand behind it this year were reviewed window by window back in September. The most visible of those storefronts is Harry Hare's, a British-style alehouse in the former Beacon Hill Pub. The Beacon Hill Architectural Commission set terms for its windows at the level of glass coating and spacer bars. The few weeks between now and the wreaths are when the street gets its holiday face, and most of the work happens somewhere you can see it.

The 1,100 lamps are a neighborhood fundraiser first

The wreaths are funded by neighbors. The Beacon Hill Civic Association holds its annual Garlands & Greens evening on Wednesday, November 18, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Hampshire House, 84 Beacon Street, hosted by Tom Kershaw. The evening includes hors d'oeuvres, drinks and live music, and the money raised goes toward decorating the neighborhood's 1,100 gas lamps for the holidays. Tickets are listed at $60 for BHCA members and $75 for nonmembers.

That figure of 1,100 is worth holding onto. It makes the decorating an all-day job. The BHCA lists Holiday Decorating for Saturday, December 5, and Sunday, December 6, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., based at 74 Joy Street. Last year's version ran the same way. The association's November 2025 community notice in the Beacon Hill Times called it a community volunteer effort, used 74 Joy Street as home base, and described wreaths and bows going onto the lamps. That notice also asked anyone who could help to call the BHCA at 617-227-1922. It named the 2024 decorating team as Melanie Bertani, Carole Gunst, Patricia Tully, Erica Azad and Allison Reichert, and it closed with a pizza party for volunteers at 74 Joy Street on the Sunday evening after decorating.

So the order goes like this. The money comes in on November 18, the greens go up on December 5, and in between, Charles Street fills in the storefronts the lamps will light.

Harry Hare's had its windows set by the commission before it set a table

The storefront at 147–149 Charles Street was the Beacon Hill Pub, which closed during the pandemic. It is now Harry Hare's, from Patrick Lyons and the Lyons Group. In Boston.com's November restaurant roundup, Lyons is described as a Beacon Hill resident himself, and the room as one meant to feel "more like a public living room than a scene." Boston.com put the opening at mid-November.

The exterior was settled weeks earlier. On September 17, the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission approved an updated design for the street-level storefront, as reported by the Beacon Hill Times. Project architect David Freed presented these changes:

• A new wood band sign with the name in carved lettering, plus overhead lighting
• Storefront windows converted to operable, "fully swinging" windows
• New cedar window boxes
• A granite base recladding the storefront
• Two of the three front doors changed into windows
• A menu display to the left of the remaining door

Chair Mark Kiefer's motion passed unanimously, on the condition that the new windows be true divided-light, use dark spacer bars, and contain no low-e glass. Details of the windows and the remaining door went to commission staff for final sign-off. Those conditions shape how the glass will look on a December evening, when the gas lamps outside are lit and the windows are lit from inside.

What's on the table inside

The menu on Harry Hare's own site reads like cold-weather food. The dinner menu includes Duxbury oysters, a scotch egg, naan, London-style chicken tikka masala, fish and chips, a lineup of pot pies, and sticky-toffee cheesecake. Boston.com lists the pot pie choices as including chicken, steak, lentil and duck, along with La Chouffe ale-steamed mussels and British ales on tap. The restaurant's site marks its brunch and drinks menus as samples that may change. Brunch includes a Full English breakfast, and the Sunday roast has its own menu. The plan reported by MassLive in July covered lunch, dinner and weekend breakfast.

In September, Eater Boston put the pub on its list of the six most anticipated Boston openings of the fall. Eater highlighted the nods to the Indian diaspora in Britain, such as the tikka masala and tandoori-fired naan. Harry Hare's was the only Beacon Hill entry on that list.

The same hearing reshaped two more corners

Harry Hare's was not the only Charles Street address on the commission's September agenda. The commission unanimously approved a revised plan for 160 Charles Street, the former Savenor's Market. The plan adds a new board sign and an awning carrying the name of the incoming business, Brick Street Bagel. In the Beacon Hill Times account, staff member Nicholas Armata explained that buildings in the historic district usually get both a band sign and a blade sign. Because Brick Street Bagel did not ask for the blade sign, the awning was effectively allowed in its place.

At the corner of Beacon and Park Streets, Childs Gallery is moving into 22 Beacon Street from its former home on Newbury Street in the Back Bay. Gallery president and owner Richard Baiano proposed a striped gold-and-brown awning. The stripes were a tribute to the awning on the Newbury Street storefront. Chair Kiefer asked for "something less busy and more understated." The approval required the alternate solid-gold design, with the gallery's name in simple lettering on only the larger of the two awnings.

One change on the street is already in place. Nantasket Sweets By Swedes opened its second location at 115 Charles Street in August, according to Boston.com. A candy shop on Charles Street will be part of the holiday walk before the bagel counter at 160 or the gallery at Park Street.

The stroll is where all of it meets

The Beacon Hill Business Association's Holiday Stroll is when Charles Street's shops, restaurants and lamps are all on display at once. The last two strolls fell on the first Thursday of December, December 5, 2024, and December 4, 2025. The 2024 edition covered Charles Street from Cambridge Street to Beacon Street, with Santa at Hill House from 3 to 5:30 p.m. and a tree lighting at 7 p.m. Sponsors that year included Beacon Hill Books and Cafe and Upstairs Downstairs Home at 69 Charles Street. Dozens of businesses took part along those five blocks, as reported afterward. The 2025 stroll held its tree lighting at Mount Vernon and Charles Streets on December 4. That December, the Beacon Hill Ringers performed in Louisburg Square on Christmas Eve.

Here is the season in order, starting from publish day:

The Freedom Trail Foundation's holiday tours run 60 minutes and include a holiday-lights tour. A tour receipt earns discounts at Freedom Trail site museum stores, including the gift shops at the Paul Revere House and Old North Church. The tours start at the edge of the Common, a short walk from Charles Street.

Between the November 18 fundraiser and the December 5 decorating weekend, the BHCA's calendar also lists a First Friday Coffee Hour at 74 Joy Street on December 4, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. It is the morning before volunteers start hanging greens out of the same address.

At Frank Carroll Homes, we follow the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission's monthly hearings as closely as the Charles Street calendar, because the commission's agenda covers residential addresses as well as storefronts. Its September meeting also took up a garden-level gate and service door at 9 Louisburg Square. If you'd like to talk through what Beacon Hill's design review would mean for a building you own or are considering, schedule a local market consultation with our team.