London's Callng

[CraigK]

HI All, and a special Hello to all the Englishfolk on the site.

My wife and I travel to Europe almost every year to photograph dogs (long story involving a mildly excentric hobby and a book project).

Anywho, this year we are flying in to London and staying in Jolly Old for a few days before heading to France and Spain.

Since it has been well over 20 years since I last set foot in the U.K. I thought it best that I seek the advice of the fine members on this board. Specifically, we will be spending a day in London just wandering around enjoying the sites and sounds and sampling some of the finer bitters, ales, lagers and ports. Any suggestions for a nice relaxing route that will take us through some of the more interesting areas?

Now, keep in mind that I will be armed with a Mamiya 7 with 80mm lens and a pocket full of FP4 and HP5 (when in England after all.....) And I would also like to do a bit of photo gear window shopping as well. So, if you had a day in London to burn a few rolls while strolling around, museum hopping and sampling pub fare, where would you go? what would you do?


Cheerio!

 

[lesdix]

Hi there,

I am not a Londoner, I live in the North East of England, but I was down there last year and had an enjoyable time exposing a couple of rolls of Delta 400 in the great courtyard of the British Museum. Although indoors, this area is an expanse of white marble with interesting curves and columns and is filled with light even on dull days. It is quite a popular subject. The museum also allows non-flash photography throughout.


Regards

Les

 

[Bob F.]

ONE DAY??? Well, you are gonna be busy.....

OK, given the time constraints, try a bus tour that you can hop on and hop off to your heart's content. Prices are a bit steep at around 20 quid, but London is expensive... http://www.bigbus.co.uk/uk/html/uk_our_tours.html or slightly more off-beat (but I don't think you can hop-on/hop-off): Dead Link Removed

If you have any particular interests, you will find them catered for: 17th century architecture? 18th century textiles? 19th century steam engines? 20th century design? 21st century art? You name it, it'll be there somewhere... ask Dr. Johnson...


Have fun, Bob.

 

[Baxter Bradford]

Similarly I'm not from the smoke.

Knowing no, or little shame, I did the Duck with my family in Feb. Fun, especially the whizz down the ramp into the Thames; but stinks of Diesel especially if plastic windows are rolled down and cannot get a good view for pictures.

Also avoid Mme Tussauds like the plague.

On a positive note, had a good early morning outing from Globe theatre, heading East along past HMS Belfast, to Tower Bridge, across river, past Tower of London and back along via St Pauls and over Millenium footbridge to the start. Pubs weren't open though!

 

[Andy K]

It is a shame you only have a couple of days, there is also much to see which is off the usual tourist track... Kew Gardens with it's crystal palace-esque architecure, Covent Garden with it's hundreds of street photography opportunities, Windsor Castle (slightly out of town), the Thames itself (west of London is most photogenic).
The Tower of London is cool but expensive, the various bridges over the Thames are worth a frame or two, as is the London Eye, you might even consider a brief ride on the Underground, some of the stations are worth a view.
I concur with Baxter, avoid Madame Tussauds, it's pants.

 

[Leon]

i quite enjoy walking around the square mile on a saturday or sunday when it is deserted - some great pics to had around there

 

[dingo]

i agree with leon the city is great for photos on the weekends. also try around smithfield markets great victorian arcitecture.
also try around the british museum there are also lots of photograpy shops both for new and used equipment in that area.
if you are there on the weekend the mall leading to buckingham palace is closed to cars on sundays, if you get there early you will get great pictures and should not be fighting for space.
generally anywhere you walk you should get great pictures. purchase a one day travel card at any tube station and use the tube, bus and trains all day for one price.
enjoy your time it truly is a great city, with lots of sights to see, smells to smell and plenty of strange pepole to photograph.

 

[andrewmoodie]

If you've got time... get off at Waterloo Station, head for the South Bank Centre. There you've got cheesy 60's architecture, the London Eye, skateboarders. And then just head east on foot toward Tower Bridge. On the way you've got Hayes Galleria, Southwark Cathedral, the Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge, HMS Belfast, City Hall, Tower Bridge. If you like you can then cross the bridge toward the Tower of London, or just check out the cityscape right there, it was old warehouses but now it's all very chi chi.

Taking a tour bus around is always a good idea if you've only got a little bit of time but a walk along the south bank of the Thames is one of the few places where you can look around you and admire the city. Everywhere else is kind of closed in and a bit claustrophobic. Going from Trafalgar Sq down the mall and toward Buckingham Palace is kind of nice as well though.

Andrew

 

[Andy K]

Waterloo Station is wonderful. Purely for the delicious irony that travellers to Britain arriving through the Chunnel have to disembark there...

 

[Struan Gray]

Go for a walk around Whitechapel and the Mile End Road, or stroll out to the M25 along the length of the A10. Buy postcards of the other stuff.

 

[Dave Miller]

Waterloo Station is wonderful. Purely for the delicious irony that travellers to Britain arriving through the Chunnel have to disembark there...

Isn’t it wonderful! I think that may be why they are moving the Chunnel terminus to St. Pancras; shame really. Maybe we should rename St. Pancras, Trafalgar Station. Duck!

 

[David Henderson]

I'm going to ignore the photo shopping bit because the most interesting is to be found not in central London but out where rents are cheaper and in magazines/the web.

If I had one day to spend in London I'd spend it walking along the Thames frm the Houses of Parliament to Canary Wharf. Its a long way- about 7 or 8 miles maybe, but over a full day thats nothing and there's a lot of photographic opportunity, some great old pubs and you won't waste the day travelling from one place to another on Public transport.

It couuld work out as follows.

Photograph the Houses of Parliament from the south bank near Lambeth Bridge at or near dawn when the front's just lit. Carry on round the south bank to Westminster Bridge, the new Hungerford footbridge and the London Eye; go up onto Waterloo Bridge for a view downriver to the City/St Pauls and note that between two buildings on the southern approach you can frame Parliament exactly within the London Eye. Ten minutes East and you'll come to the Millenium Bridge and five minutes from the north side you'll see St Pauls cathedral. Back on the river and re-crossing the Millenium bridge you'll get a good look at the Tate Modern; a converted Power Station which normally has some great exhibits but also terraces with good views. Virtually next door you'll see the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Staying on the south bank look at the pillara and placques on Blackfriars Bridge and walk along Clink Street to where you'll find a replica of Francis Drake's Golden Hind, with an old pub nearby,( this part of London being strong on replicas, including the modern London Bridge which replaced the one now in Arizona or somewhere).

Staying on the south Bank, take a look at Hays Galleria which demonstrates albeit imperfectly that there's better things to do with handsome old commercial buildings than demolition. Then staying on the south bank you'll see the eceentric ( in both senses) City Hall building recently completes but managing to look out of date already. You'll then walk past the warship HMS Belfast , reaching Tower Bridge with a good view of the Tower of London opposite.

In fact if you wanted to see a little more of the City and some fine old and new architecture you could depart the above route at London Bridge walking north to the Monument and another 5 mins north to the Bank of England/Royal Exchange /Mansion House then turn East along Cornhill to Leadenhall Street where you'll see the Lloyds Building and Leadenhall Market behind in interesting proximity. Then you can cut south to rejoin the River at Custom House, noting and maybe photographing the modern gothic London Underwriting Centre on the way, and turn east past the walls of the Tower.

Both these routes get you to Tower Bridge. You walk north climbing down from the Bridge and enter St Katharine's dock, a mixture of old and new, and through the dock you rejoin the Thames Path heading East. From now on there's a number of pubs but mainly its passing by conversions of old docks to modern shopping and apartments. Its our Tribeca. Look at the massive Butler's wharf on the opposite bank.

There's some excellent old seafarers houses at Wapping and the density of small old pubs increases which can make progress slow. There's also some of the old dock Basins remaining. Quiet Places now. You'll reach a point where you can see the Tower Blocks of Canary Wharf illuminated by the by now afternoon sun. There's a lot of fairly dramatic modern architecture to see round here in a dockland setting and in good light the photography can be excellent. You get back to Central London on the Jubilee Line or on the Docklands Light Railway into the City.

Its a busy day but if you're sufficiently keen to get out early, it is one day, including photography but not a lot of time waiting for light.