The 10 best photo spots in London, and when to shoot them

Most lists of London photo spots are the same ten postcards. This one mostly is too, because the postcards are right: Tower Bridge really is the shot. What we can add is where to stand, which week to go, and what the people who came home with a keeper actually did.

For every spot below we went through the most interesting public photos on Flickr taken within a couple of hundred meters of it, and counted each photographer once per day, so somebody's 300 frames from one wedding count as one visit. That gives a fair picture of when people go. The camera data of the best of those photos tells us how they shot it. The sun positions come from the same calculations as the sun and moon tool on our hotspot maps.

A note on the light. London sits at 51.5° north, so in June the sun rises in the northeast before 5am and sets in the northwest after 9pm, and in December it skims the south for under eight hours. Both are workable. Spring and autumn are easiest, and the data agrees: September is the busiest month at four of these ten spots.

Tower Bridge opened in 1894 and it was built to be looked at, which is why it works from almost any angle. The two classic views are from the north bank by the Tower of London, looking across with the walkways against the sky, and from the south bank at Potters Fields, with the bridge side-on and the river in front. Both look downriver, roughly east, so the bridge's west face catches the evening sun and sunrise puts it in silhouette.

Shoot it in the blue hour. The bridge is floodlit, and for about twenty minutes after sunset the sky holds enough color to balance the lights. Five of the fourteen photos we sampled were long exposures, which is the other trick here: a few seconds turns the Thames into silk and the river buses into streaks. The median aperture was f/10, so people were stopping down for sharpness and for the starbursts on the lamps.

The bascules still lift for tall ships, around 800 times a year. The schedule is published on the bridge's website a few weeks ahead, and a raised bridge at dusk is a photo very few people have.

Best light

Blue hour, 15–35 minutes after sunset

Busiest months

August and September (quietest: December)

Typical shot

28mm, f/10, 1/50s, ISO 100

Bring

A tripod, or a wall to rest the camera on

Walk west from Tower Bridge along the south bank and you come to More London, the cluster of glass offices around the old City Hall (the London Assembly moved out in 2022). From the riverside here you get Tower Bridge to the east and the Shard rising over the office blocks to the south, so it's two spots in one.

Here's the reason to set an alarm. From the riverside path in front of More London, Tower Bridge lies almost exactly east, at a bearing of about 83°. The sun rises on that line twice a year: around March 30 and again around September 14. Give or take a day either side and it comes up between the bridge's towers. Neither date is a secret, but very few of the 300 photographers in our sample were there for it.

People shoot tighter here than at the bridge itself. The median focal length was 50mm, and one in five photos used a telephoto, mostly to stack the Shard against the offices or to pull the bridge closer.

Best light

Sunrise in late March and mid-September; any clear evening for the Shard

Busiest months

August and September (quietest: May)

Typical shot

50mm, f/7.1, 1/200s, ISO 200

Getting there

London Bridge station, 5 minutes on foot

One New Change is a shopping center by Jean Nouvel, and on its sixth floor there's a roof terrace that costs nothing to visit. Step out and the dome of St Paul's is right there, close enough that you're looking at the colonnade at eye level rather than up from the street.

The terrace faces west over the cathedral, and the dome is at a bearing of about 276° from it. The sun sets on that line around March 28 and again around September 16, which means a sunset directly behind Wren's dome. Check the terrace's hours before you plan around it: they change with the seasons, and it sometimes closes for private events. Outside those two weeks, go for late light on the dome in summer.

None of the twenty photos we looked at was a long exposure, and the median shutter speed was 1/125s, so this is a handheld spot. A standard zoom does everything; the median focal length was 41mm.

Best light

An hour before sunset; sunset behind the dome around March 28 and September 16

Busiest months

March and August (quietest: May)

Typical shot

41mm, f/4.5, 1/125s, ISO 250

Getting there

St Paul's station, 2 minutes

The scaffolding came off Elizabeth Tower in 2022, and the clock face is back to its original blue and gold. The bridge itself gives you the tower and the length of the palace, but stand on the Albert Embankment by St Thomas' Hospital, on the opposite bank, and you get the whole building reflected in the river. Both are best in the evening, when the palace is floodlit and the sun is behind it.

From the middle of the bridge, Elizabeth Tower is at a bearing of 267°. The sun sets right behind it around March 14 and September 30. In winter the sunset swings south behind the palace itself, which is the shot in most of the November photos in our sample. November was the second busiest month here, probably because the sun goes down before five and you can catch blue hour on your way home from work.

The red buses are the other subject. A two-second exposure from the Lambeth end turns them into ribbons of light under the tower. A third of the photos we sampled used an ultra-wide lens to get the bridge and the tower in together.

Best light

Sunset and blue hour; the sun sets behind Elizabeth Tower around March 14 and September 30

Busiest months

September and November (quietest: October)

Typical shot

28mm, f/7.1, 1/106s, ISO 400

Getting there

Westminster station, at the end of the bridge

The same architect drew Tower Bridge and this covered market, and you can see the family resemblance in the painted ironwork. Harry Potter fans know it as Diagon Alley; the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron was filmed in Bull's Head Passage, just off the main arcade.

On a weekday at lunchtime it's a fine place for people-watching, with city workers drinking outside the pubs. For the architecture, come on a weekend morning, when the shops are shut, the arcades are empty and the light is soft. Rain is not a reason to stay at home. Wet cobbles reflect the maroon and cream paintwork, and the roof keeps you dry. August was the quietest month in our sample, which tells you something about where Londoners go in August.

Light is low under the glass, so expect to raise your ISO; the median in our sample was ISO 400 at f/4. A third of the photos used a telephoto to compress the arches into a tunnel of repeating ironwork, which is worth trying from the Gracechurch Street entrance.

Best light

Overcast or rainy weekend mornings

Busiest months

March and September (quietest: August)

Typical shot

43mm, f/4, 1/200s, ISO 400

Getting there

Bank or Monument stations, 3 minutes

Richard Rogers put everything that's usually hidden on the outside: the stairs, the lifts, the pipes. When it was listed Grade I in 2011 it was the youngest building in England to get that status, and from the street it still looks like it arrived yesterday.

There's no single viewpoint. Walk around it. The lift towers on Lime Street are the dramatic side, and on a sunny day the stainless steel throws light into the narrow streets around it. A telephoto earns its keep; 31% of the photos we sampled used one, mostly for abstracts of the ducts and stairs. Look up from Leadenhall Street for the neighbors: the Gherkin, the Scalpel and the Willis Building all crowd into the same patch of sky.

If you want to see it from above, the Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street (the one everyone calls the Walkie-Talkie) is two minutes away and free, but it books up, so reserve a slot in advance.

Best light

Bright overcast for detail, low sun for the steel

Busiest months

April and September (quietest: November)

Typical shot

36mm, f/5, 1/125s, ISO 320

Getting there

Bank, Monument or Aldgate stations

Leake Street runs under the tracks of Waterloo station, and since Banksy's Cans Festival in 2008 it's been one of the few places in London where painting the walls is allowed. That means the tunnel is never the same twice. Whatever you photograph this week will be gone by the next.

The light is all artificial and fairly dim, so the people who did well here shot wide open; the median aperture in our sample was f/3.5. Midweek mornings are quiet. Weekend afternoons are busier but that's when the artists are working, and a painter mid-piece in a cloud of spray is a better photo than the wall alone. Ask before you photograph someone's work in progress, and ask before you photograph them.

Best light

Any time; it is always lit

Busiest months

January and March (quietest: June)

Typical shot

31mm, f/3.5, 1/160s, ISO 200

Getting there

Waterloo station, off York Road

This is the one most visitors miss. Point Hill is a small, steep green at the top of the hill west of Greenwich Park, and its view across the river to the City is one of the views of St Paul's that London's planning rules protect, so nothing will be built to block it. Flickr has about 650 public photos taken within 200 meters of it. Tower Bridge has more than 89,000.

It faces northwest, which makes it a sunset spot, and here's the surprise. St Paul's is at a bearing of about 306° from Point Hill, and the sun sets on that line around May 25 and again around July 18. For a few evenings each side of those dates, the sun goes down behind the dome, seven and a half kilometers away. You'll want a long lens for that, and the longer the better: a quarter of the photos we sampled were taken with a telephoto, and it's the only way to make the sun look as big behind the dome as it feels standing there.

If you'd rather stay in Greenwich Park, the view from the General Wolfe statue by the Royal Observatory looks the other way, over the Queen's House to Canary Wharf, and the Greenwich foot tunnel under the river is a strange, tiled photo of its own on the walk back.

Best light

Sunset; the sun sets behind St Paul's around May 25 and July 18

Busiest months

April and May (quietest: September)

Typical shot

34mm, f/4, 1/400s, ISO 100

Bring

A telephoto of 200mm or more for the dome

Canary Wharf is all glass and still water, which makes it a reflection machine. The old West India Docks run between the towers, and on a windless evening the whole skyline sits upside down in them. Walk the footbridges across the docks and look for the angles where the towers line up.

Look at when people come, though. January accounts for 36% of all the visits in our sample, far more than any other month at any spot in this guide. That's Winter Lights, the free festival of light installations that fills the estate's squares and waterfronts every January. If you're in London that month, it's the easiest night shoot in the city: big, bright, colorful subjects with nothing to pay and plenty of space.

The rest of the year the waterfront is quiet in the evenings, which suits a tripod. An ultra-wide lens is the most used here, at 29% of the photos we sampled, for getting the towers and their reflections into one frame.

Best light

Calm evenings in the blue hour; January for Winter Lights

Busiest months

January and April (quietest: November)

Typical shot

28mm, f/5.6, 1/320s, ISO 200

Getting there

Canary Wharf station (Jubilee line, DLR or Elizabeth line)

Alfred Waterhouse covered the building in terracotta tiles molded with plants and animals, living things on the west side and extinct ones on the east, and you could spend an hour on the front without going in. Inside, Hintze Hall is one of the great interiors in London, with the skeleton of a blue whale diving from the ceiling since 2017.

Bring your widest lens. It's the most lopsided result in this guide: 78% of the photos we sampled were taken between 20mm and 35mm, and the median ISO was 800 because the hall is dim and tripods are not an option when it's full of school groups. Entry is free. Be at the doors when they open, head straight for the balcony at the top of the main staircase, and you'll have ten minutes before the crowds arrive.

Best light

Opening time on a weekday, outside school holidays

Busiest months

August and September (quietest: January)

Typical shot

27mm, f/4, 1/25s, ISO 800

Getting there

South Kensington station, through the subway

If you have more time

Battersea Power Station reopened in 2022 with shops in its turbine halls, and its four white chimneys are as photogenic as they were on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals. One of them now has a glass lift to the top. Columbia Road Flower Market on a Sunday morning is London at its most colorful, and best before ten, when you can still move. And if you're here in December, go to Piccadilly Circus on a wet night. December was its busiest month in our sample, and a puddle under the big screen is worth more than any filter.

How we worked it out

For each spot we took up to 500 of the most interesting public Flickr photos taken nearby, counted one visit per photographer per day, and added them up by month. The typical settings are the medians from the camera data of twenty of those photos, each by a different photographer. Sun bearings were calculated for each viewpoint and are good to a day or two; hills and buildings on the horizon can shift the exact moment. Every spot has its own page on ShotHotspot with all its photos, a map and the sun and moon tool, so you can check the light for the day you're going.