A photographer's tips for London pics
There are plenty of attractions in London from the Houses of Parliament to Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, St Paul's Cathedral and many, many more. Usual tourist photos are a great way to remember your visit however there are a number of great locations for some more artistic photography if know where to look.
I am a visitor myself so have no claim to knowing all the best haunts by any means, but I have discovered a few that are really worth seeing which I will share with you here. The first thing to do is venture down into the London Underground (or Tube). Many of the stations have their own attractions some of which reflect the area around the station. But even the regular tube platform can be interesting. Plus you can easily travel around the many areas of London with a tube ticket (or just use your contactless credit / debit card).
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| A Northern Line tube train leaving the station |
Make your way to Leadenhall Market around midday (not far from Bank tube station) to find shoppers and city types having lunch meetings in the beautiful old arcades. There was a market here as far back as the 14th century and the current Victorian arcades are well worth seeing.
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| Lunchtime at Leadenhall Market |
Not very far from here you will find Fenchurch Street, where the Sky Garden is located at the top of a high rise office building. Sky Garden is Europe's highest public garden and has a great viewing platform plus restaurants and bars. The garden is on the 35th and 36th floors of the building and would have stunning views over London if the weather is fine. On the day I visited there was low lying cloud so the visibility from the top wasn't good, still a few photographic opportunities were spotted!
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| Sky Garden building |
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| Reflections against the clouds |
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| Looking down from the 36th floor |
The gardens are at either side of the central area and flow from the 36th floor down to the 35th floor where the viewing platform is found.
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| The Sky Garden |
Hop on the Underground to Notting Hill Gate and you will find streets with pretty pastel coloured terrace houses just south of the main road. Some streets have a rainbow of colours along them.
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| Pastel terraces |
Wherever I am I keep an eye out for ghostsigns ie old advertising signs on the sides of buildings. I spotted one very close to the Notting Hill Gate tube station. This used to advertise 'Dundee Marmalade, the finest ever made' according to the ghostsigns guru Sam Roberts (aka Mr Ghostsigns). You can find out more about these historic signs on Sam's website
here.
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| Ghostsign on Notting Hill Gate |
Depending on the time of year there is a pub in this area (in Kensington) called the Churchill Arms which is covered with seasonal floral displays, in November it was covered with Christmas trees galore, but they were not yet decorated when I was there!
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| The Churchill Arms getting ready for Christmas |
Looking around the Kensington streets the trees were dropping their leaves and the colours brightened up a dull day.
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| Autumn leaves in Kensington |
Hopping back on the Tube I made my way to Tottenham Court Road to find
Heal's furniture store. At the back of the store is a delightful and very photogenic spiral staircase, called the Cecil Brewer staircase named after the architect who designed it. I had fun making various images here.
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| Cecil Brewer staircase, Heal's |
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| Spiral staircase in black & white |
If you have the chance to travel over to the London Docklands area more photographic opportunities can be found around the ExCel exhibition centre. The Emirates Airline cable car rises over the docks heading for the O2 arena and the old wharves have been cleaned up with new apartment buildings lining the waterside. Further downstream from ExCel I spotted colourful canoes on a pier.
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| Royal Victoria Dock |
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| A winter's day in London's docklands near ExCel |
From the end of November Christmas lights are twinkling all over the city and I loved the humour of the lights in Soho, they read Ho, Ho, Ho but from the back they were Oh, Oh, Oh!
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| Oh Oh Oh - Soho's Christmas lights |
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| So Ho Ho - it's Christmas |
The Christmas lights down Regent Street are wonderful this year, although I saw them from a bus window so wasn't able to take a suitable photograph.
As a photographer you will also appreciate a visit to
The Photographer's Gallery in Soho where there are regular exhibitions and talks or workshops, a good cafe and a great shop. A good place to head to for gifts for your photo-loving friends...
There are lots more locations I need to check out so will post an update later.
If you know of any other great spots please leave a comment, I'd love to hear about them. Thanks.
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