The Best Photography Locations in London
Where I shoot, when to be there, and exactly how — by Serge Ramelli
Hello fellow London lovers and chasers of that golden city light!
One of the questions I get asked most — right after Paris and Venice — is where to point your camera in London. I have been photographing this city for years, and below are my absolute favourite spots, with a Google Maps link to the exact place I stood, the camera settings, and the time of day that makes each one sing.
One quick tip: London is enormous, so plan around the light rather than the map. Shoot the river and the icons at sunrise and sunset, and save the City’s streets and covered spots for blue hour and rainy evenings.
1. Tower Bridge
📍 Tower Bridge on Google Maps (51.5055, -0.0754)
The most photographed bridge in the world, and for good reason — those Victorian Gothic towers and sky-blue suspension chains are pure drama. Shoot it three ways: a long exposure from the riverbank that turns the Thames to glass, the sweeping view from the More London steps with City Hall beside it, and — my favourite — from on the bridge itself, framed inside its own arches.
Best time: Blue hour, about twenty minutes after sunset, when the bridge lights glow against a deep cobalt sky.
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/5.6 · 150s · ISO 64 (tripod + ND filter)
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-01
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/5.6 · 1/100s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-02
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/125s · ISO 800
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-03
2. The Tower of London & Tower Hill
📍 Tower of London on Google Maps (51.5081, -0.0759)
Nearly a thousand years of history behind those battlements. The trick is to get above the walls — an elevated view at dusk reveals the whole fortress glowing, with the towers of Tower Bridge peeking up behind. A few steps away, the quiet of Trinity Square Gardens gives you a beautiful, often-overlooked second composition.
Best time: Dusk, when the warm floodlights kick in against a soft pastel sky.
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/3.2 · 1/160s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-04
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/50s · ISO 500
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-05
3. Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament
📍 Big Ben / Westminster on Google Maps (51.50074, -0.12463)
The most recognisable view in all of Britain. From Westminster Bridge you get the full sweep of the Palace of Westminster and the clock tower; from Parliament Square the statue of Churchill makes a perfect silhouetted foreground; and the brick archway by the bridge gives you a natural frame around the tower.
Best time: Sunrise. Be there at first light and the bridge is empty — by mid-morning it is shoulder-to-shoulder.
📷 Sony A7R V · 52mm · f/8 · 1/100s · ISO 125
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-06
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/22 · 4s · ISO 50 (tripod)
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-07
📷 Sony A7R V · 31mm · f/9 · 30s · ISO 125 (tripod)
4. St Paul's Cathedral & the Millennium Bridge
📍 St Paul's Cathedral on Google Maps (51.5138, -0.0984)
Wren's masterpiece deserves a clever angle. My favourite is the ‘frame in the frame’ from One New Change, where the modern glass canyon cradles the old dome. Then walk down to the Millennium Bridge — its taut steel lines lead the eye straight up to the cathedral, and from the south end you get the footbridge against a burning Thames sunset.
Best time: Sunset, looking west along the river for colour, or up at the floodlit dome.
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/4 · 1/100s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-09
📷 Sony A7R V · 35mm · f/8 · 1/25s · ISO 50
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-10
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/22 · 1/5s · ISO 50
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-11
5. Southwark Bridge
📍 Southwark Bridge on Google Maps (51.5085, -0.0942)
An underrated gem. The bridge's elegant green-and-gold ironwork photographs beautifully from the Bankside riverwalk, and on the right evening the sky behind it catches fire. Frame it with the Shard rising in the distance for a shot that says ‘London’ in one glance.
Best time: Sunset, from the south bank just downstream of the bridge.
📷 Sony A7R V · 27mm · f/5.6 · 1/160s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-12
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/7.1 · 1/160s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-13
6. The Shard
📍 The Shard on Google Maps (51.5045, -0.0865)
Western Europe's tallest building is best framed from down a London Bridge street, where the everyday city — traffic lights, brick terraces, a lone bus — gives scale to that 310-metre glass spike piercing the sky.
Best time: Blue hour, when the Shard is lit and the street lamps come on.
📷 Sony A7R V · 39mm · f/2.8 · 1/50s · ISO 400
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-14
7. The Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe)
📍 The Gherkin on Google Maps (51.5144, -0.0803)
The City's most loveable skyscraper. Shoot it up a narrow historic street like Bury Street, where the old stone and cobbles contrast with the bulbous glass tower and a pink sky frames the top. It also pops up unexpectedly above the neon of the City's side streets.
Best time: Sunset into blue hour for colour in the sky behind the glass.
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.8 · 1/60s · ISO 400
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-1
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/4 · 1/60s · ISO 400
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-16
8. Leadenhall Market
📍 Leadenhall Market on Google Maps (51.5128, -0.0833)
A jewel-box of Victorian wrought iron and painted glass — and a Harry Potter filming location. The ornate covered arcade lights up like a stage in the evening. Get there before the after-work crowd and shoot straight down the central aisle.
Best time: Early evening when the lamps are lit but the market is quiet.
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.8 · 1/60s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-17
9. Bank & the Royal Exchange
📍 Bank junction / Royal Exchange on Google Maps (51.5138, -0.0886)
The heart of the old City, where the columned Royal Exchange and the Bank of England sit beneath a wall of gleaming modern towers — 22 Bishopsgate, the Scalpel, Tower 42. Old and new London in one frame.
Best time: Blue hour, when the historic facades are floodlit and the towers glow.
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/60s · ISO 200
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-18
10. The City of London Streets After Dark
📍 20 Fenchurch St / the City on Google Maps (51.5113, -0.0837)
The Square Mile empties out after the bankers go home, and that is when it sings. Wander the narrow streets and let the skyscrapers loom at the end of them — the Walkie-Talkie up Arthur Street is a classic. And do not hide from the rain: wet pavement doubles every light and turns an ordinary junction into a cinema still.
Best time: Blue hour, and especially a rainy evening for the reflections.
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/60s · ISO 200
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-19
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/4 · 1/60s · ISO 400
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-20
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/2.8 · 1/40s · ISO 200
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-21
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.8 · 1/60s · ISO 400
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-22
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.8 · 1/60s · ISO 125
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-23
11. Trafalgar Square
📍 Trafalgar Square on Google Maps (51.508, -0.1281)
The grand civic heart of London. The floodlit National Gallery and the fountains make a classic blue-hour frame, with the spire of St Martin-in-the-Fields off to the right.
Best time: Blue hour, when the buildings are lit and the fountains catch the colour.
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/60s · ISO 400
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-24
12. Buckingham Palace & the Victoria Memorial
📍 Victoria Memorial on Google Maps (51.5018, -0.1409)
Shoot back toward the golden Victoria Memorial through the ornate Canada Gate, with the palace to your left. The wide empty road makes a powerful leading line — but only at dawn, before the traffic and the crowds arrive.
Best time: Early morning, ideally with moody clouds for drama.
📷 Sony A7R V · 25mm · f/7.1 · 1/30s · ISO 250
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-25
13. Canary Wharf — the Rainbow Tunnel
📍 Adams Plaza Bridge, Canary Wharf on Google Maps (51.5051, -0.0197)
A pure graphic-design playground: the Adams Plaza Bridge covered walkway is wrapped in bold blocks of red, yellow and blue that converge to a vanishing point. Stand dead-centre and let the symmetry do all the work. Weatherproof, so it is the perfect rainy-day shot.
Best time: Any time — it is covered and artificially lit. Quietest mid-morning.
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/2 · 1/60s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-26
14. Vauxhall & the Thames Skyline
📍 MI6 / St George Wharf, Vauxhall on Google Maps (51.4874, -0.1244)
A quieter stretch of the river with a great long-exposure skyline. The fortress-like SIS Building (the ‘MI6’ of the Bond films) and the cylindrical St George Wharf Tower light up against a streaky dusk sky — reach for a strong ND filter and let the clouds blur.
Best time: Sunset into blue hour, long exposure from the north bank.
📷 Sony A7R V · 70mm · f/7.1 · 30s · ISO 100 (tripod + ND filter)
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-27
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/5 · 30s · ISO 100 (tripod + ND filter)
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-28
15. Classic London Pubs & Corners
📍 The Sherlock Holmes pub on Google Maps (51.5074, -0.1247)
No London portfolio is complete without its pubs. Hunt out the characterful corners — the Sherlock Holmes near Trafalgar Square, a lamp-lit Victorian boozer on a wedge-shaped corner, a buzzing bar tucked into a railway arch. Shoot at dusk when the warm interior light spills onto the street.
Best time: Blue hour into evening, when the windows glow warm against the cooling sky.
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/30s · ISO 800
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-29
📷 Sony A7R V · 28mm · f/2.8 · 1/40s · ISO 200
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-30
📷 Leica Q2 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/30s · ISO 400
🔖 License this image — ref. LON-31
A Few Final Thoughts
London rewards the photographer who works the edges of the day and ignores the weather forecast. Get up for one sunrise on Westminster Bridge, stay out through one blue hour in the City, and chase one rainy night — you will come home with images most visitors never see.
Happy shooting!
— Serge
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