Great London Street Photography locations

Southbank

There’s no doubt that London is a great city, it ranks alongside other global cities like New York, Paris, Tokyo etc. It’s where I live with my family and also where I do most of my work.

The thing about living in a city like London is, it’s easy to take much of it for granted. When you see the same views on a regular basis it’s easy to become immune to their charms, and there have often been times when I’ve found myself getting frustrated with tourists stopping in the middle of busy pavements to admire the views and take pictures with their mobile phones. But then I’m reminded that people come from all over the world just to see these views that are so familiar to me and I make a renewed effort to see the city with fresh eyes. That’s often something I tell people on the Street Photography Workshops I run - try to see the world as if it’s all new to you and you’re seeing it for the first time. That’s also why, on those workshops I often find myself getting quite excited about scenes that are actually very familiar to me. If I have a camera with me, even though I’ve been there hundreds of times before, I’ll still take loads of pictures as if it’s my first time there. In a way, that speaks to the very essence of Street Photography - you never know what will unfold in front of your lens and the mundane or familiar surroundings of a well known location can often be transformed into something remarkable for a split second. The key is to be in synch with your surroundings and immerse yourself in the moment.

Millenium Bridge

Bank of England

Tate Modern

London is a big city and there are many areas I have yet to explore, but there are always a few favourite areas that I’m drawn to as they offer such rich potential for street photography. I tend towards black and white in my street photography as I find the timeless quality of monochrome resonates with the urban tones of the city. I especially love the high contrast light which provides rich black shadows on a bright sunny day. Of course I also enjoy colour too and some scenes look better in that way without a doubt. Nevertheless, I’m always drawn to what I see as the honesty of black and white, especially within the context of a simple, uncluttered scene, often with a single figure somewhere in the frame.

More London

More London

One New Change

Here are some of the areas I regularly visit for Street Photography, with a map below showing a suggested route that will take in some of them.

Royal Festival Hall and the Southbank

Tate Modern Turbine Hall

Millennium Bridge

Borough Market

Fenchurch Street to St. Mary Axe and the area around the Lloyds Building

Bank of England and the Royal Exchange

Brick Lane

Kings Cross and St. Pancras Station

One New Change

More London

If you want to join me on one a street photography walk, a group workshop or a one-to-one Street Photography session, please get in touch.

Fenchurch Street

St. Mary Axe

Undercroft Skate Park

Skaters at the Undercroft at London's Southbank.
I've been coming to this area for years but I'm still fascinated by the energy of the place every time I visit. There's always something new that catches my eye, and I'm drawn to the many photographic opportunities the place offers.
It's quite a gritty, urban environment that appears slightly unapproachable, but it seems that anyone who approaches with an open mind and a sympathetic eye is welcomed without judgement. There are often people smoking weed in the shadows but there's never any sense of threat or danger. Indeed, there are often young kids learning to skate in amongst the more seasoned skaters who seem to readily welcome the new generation into their tribe.

Tube People

About a year ago I was on the underground and my attention was drawn to the man sitting opposite me. He was totally absorbed in what he was doing on his mobile phone, and seemed completely oblivious to anything around him, including the man who had just entered the carriage and was now sitting directly opposite him. As a photographer and being interested in people I decided to take a portrait of him on my phone.

I didn’t ask permission as it would have fundamentally altered the situation and the moment I wanted to capture. I guess I’d probably have been refused anyway. There are of course those who would argue that I should have asked first, but I believe that street photography and candid portraits are an entirely legitimate form of photography. Unless those images are being used with a view to commercial gain or are associated with a particular political view or a product endorsement, photographing people in public spaces is a valid form of a photographer’s craft, a way of seeing the world and recording a particular slice of life.

That first image, the first one in this little series, led me to repeat the exercise on subsequent journeys and slowly developed in to a kind of personal project almost every time I’m on the tube.

The project is all shot on my iPhone - it’s the perfect camera to provide anonymity and that’s what I soon realised this project is all about. I quickly recognised that what I was doing was trying to explore the sense of anonymity in what is in effect a very intimate setting. Often it’s worth shooting with a gut feeling and then analysing the subconscious thinking behind the image later. Underground trains in London are shared public spaces where people retreat in to their own private spaces, mostly through electronic devices, where people rarely engage or connect with each other, often in very crowded carriages. We travel together for a short part of our journeys and barely notice the people around us, who they are or what they’re doing. That strikes me as quite a nice metaphor for life.

In some instances I’ve clearly been rumbled, but I’ve only once been challenged. I was asked if I knew the person I’d just photographed and when I tried to explain the project I was cut short. I respected the person’s objection and deleted the image.