Sarah
Looking for the best photoshoot locations in London? Look no further, you have found what you were searching for! 😉
When I went to London earlier this year, I only had about two days for the city. You won’t be surprised when I tell you that this was not enough for fully exploring London. But it WAS enough to chase down the very best London photoshoot locations with Markus!
After all, London is one of the most instagrammable cities in Europe, probably only rivaled by Paris and the highly instaworthy Barcelona. So I really had to prepare well to hunt down the must see instagrammable places in London in that short time.
And I managed – thanks to a thoroughly planned itinerary. And what kind of a blogger would I be if I would share this Top London Photoshoot Location itinerary with you! 😉
I am aware that London has even more instagrammable places – but I only wanted to talk about places that I have personally seen and where I am confident that I can really help you get the best shot possible there!
Table of Contents
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Map of the best London Photoshoot Locations
As I do it most of the time, I marked down all the photoshoot locations in London in a customized Google Map – including the exact itinerary we took and the hotel we stayed at!
Read: Hilton Hyde Park – a review about where to stay in London
Top Central London Photoshoot Locations itinerary
Westminster Station
We will start our London photoshoot location itinerary in the heart of London – at Westminster Station. From here, it’s only a stone throw to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey if you are keen on some sightseeing as well.
There are also lots of iconic red phone booths – and I walked around to check ALL of them to find the one that looked the most iconic. Marked down on the map is the exact location of the phone booth in the picture – wait until one of the red busses passes by to get even more “London Chic” on your pic if you want!
Westminster Bridge
Next, we will cross over the Westminster Bridge. Stop in the middle to snap a shot with the Thames, Big Ben and Parliament Building!
Unfortunately, Big Ben is still under renovation until the beginning of 2020 and will partially be covered due to that.
River Thames and the view on the parliament
Once you crossed the bridge, go down the stairs to the right. You will find a low wall that is just perfect to sit on for another perspective on Big Ben, the Thames and the Parliament!
Let’s face it – no list of top photoshoot locations in London would be complete without Big Ben!
Ferry ride from London Eye to Tower Bridge
Now that we have already taken so many pictures of the Thames it’s time to actually get on the water and go on a ferry ride on the river!
Multiple companies offer sightseeing rides starting at the London Eye Pier (and opposite Westminster Pier) with City Cruises being the most well-known one. A single ride ticket is just about 10£ and the hop-on-hop-off ticket is 20£ for the day. Departures are every 40 minutes – so make sure to check the next one while taking pictures at Westminster!
Girl with Dolphin Statue
Lots of people have asked me about the exact location of this spot when I posted it to Instagram! In my opinion, “Girl with Dolphin Statue” is the instagrammable place to take a picture of the iconic Tower Bridge.
In fact it is my personal favorite photoshoot location in London AT ALL! Why? Because only few people know about it and thus it’s not as badly crowded as other spots! In fact, we were the only people taking pics there at this moment. And because this is the only place where you can also see the Shard in the background of Tower Bridge!
In order to get there, simply go down the stairs to the left of the south-facing tower bridge and pass the food stalls (or stop there for a beer and some fries – they were really good!)
On the Tower Bridge
Of course, you can’t miss taking an insta-worthy shot right ON the Tower Bridge when in London! Depending on the time of the day, your best shot will ever be walking southwards or northwards on the bridge.
Just try both perspectives and then select your favorite light situation. And don’t forget, you can always edit your shots afterwards with Lightroom Presets that fit the situation! In fact, my Vibrant Cities Preset Pack contains the exact presets I used to edit my London Tower Bridge Shots – from both directions! 😉
London Bridge
After crossing Tower Bridge, walk along the riverside towards London Bridge. The stroll along the river side also offers you some really beautiful shots of river Thames and the third photoshoot perspective of Tower Bridge. It always depends on where the sun is standing which is the best photoshoot location in London for the Tower Bridge!
London Bridge itself is not particularly beautiful – but that makes it perfect to stand on it. This way, you will have the other beautiful bridges like the train bridge into Canning Station in your photo instead!
Borough Market
It’s finally time to grab some food! Borough market is a great way to do this as there are numerous delicious street food stalls! Take some time to meander along the various foodie options until you continue your London photoshoot locations itinerary into Park Street.
From Park Street, you can take some really iconic and authentic instagrammable shots of Borough market – just turn around and select your favorite store to stand aside!
Millenium Bridge
Bridges, bridges, bridges! Well, London is all about river Thames – so no wonder that so many bridges make great photoshoot locations in London!
Millenium Bridge is a pedestrian-only bridge – and it’s leading directly towards St.Pauls Cathedral. Thus, the southern end gives you a perfect symmetric shot of the bridge with St.Pauls Cathedral in the background!
By the way, Millenium Bridge was even featured in a Harry Potter movie (“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”)
St. Pauls Cathedral / One New Change Entrance
Our next stop on this London photoshoot locations itinerary is One New Change, directly next to St. Pauls Cathedral! I found this instagrammable place in another blog post myself and it was an amazing tip!
The reflections of St. Pauls Cathedral in the windows of the entrance to this shopping center are just perfect! Don’t worry if you don’t see them with your eye in the beginning – just take your shot, edit it in Lightroom Photoshop and you will get amazing results!
One New Change Rooftop Viewpoint
Next after taking your insta-worthy shot at the entrance to One New Change – take the glass elevators to the highest level. This place is one of the hidden gems on my list of photoshoot locations in London as it’s not that well known.
There’s a free viewing area on top of One New Change with stunning views over the London – including St.Pauls Cathedral and even the London Eye (can you spot it in the pic?)!
Madison Rooftop Cafe / Bar
So, last but not least on our London photoshoot locations itinery is the Bar / Cafe on top of One New Change called Madison. Prices are rather on the high side – but after taking so many instagrammable photo you definitely deserved yourself a little drink! 😉
And plus, if you grab the right table you once again get a highly instaworthy shot of St. Pauls Cathedral together with quite a lot of (fake) flowers around you. 🙂
Other London photoshoot locations
There are quite a few other highly instagrammable places in London that I did not add to this itinerary (because they are far away or you should visit them at a certain time). In fact, there are MANY MORE highly instaworthy photoshoot locations in London. I will only show you the ones I personally checked out though 😉
Sky Garden Rooftop
Sky Garden would also be my top of things to do in London for free. Yey, you heard me right: visiting this awesome viewing area high on top of London is entirely FOR FREE!
Skip the rather overpriced “View from the Shard” and go for Sky Garden instead! You should reserve your entrance in advance online in order to not have to wait or be declined entrance.
In my opinion, the best time to visit is shortly before sunset and then stay to see the sun go down over London!
Kensington Palace Garden
Our hotel (Hilton Hyde Park) was super close to Kensington Garden so we walked by more by accident then by planning.
But the Kensington Palace gardens are definitely a cute instagrammable place in London! And while the palace costs entrance – the gardens are for free! So if you are in the area – definitely put them on your list of must see photoshoot locations in London!
Peggy Porschen Café
Peggy Porschen is THE MOST INSTAGRAMMABLE CAFE in London, if not all over the world. People line up for over an hour to eat a cute cupcake in a picture perfect rose setting here.
It’s definitely a highly instaworthy place – and their cupcakes are to die for. But it’s a bit hard to decide if you will like it due to the sheer popularity of the place.
I came at a good time and almost directly got a table. Then I stayed for over an hour and watched the other people who came to visit. What I saw is certainly worth another blog post on its own…
Where to stay in London
During our visit to London we stayed at the beautiful Hilton Hyde Park. It at the western end of Kensington Garden and directly accessible by underground (big plus!). Oh and the houses in that street are certainly a London photoshoot location on its own!
If you want to know more about Hilton London Hyde Park – we have published a thorough review about our stay too!
Review: Hilton Hyde Park – a review about where to stay in London
Things to do in London
There’s a myriad of other things that you can do in London. If you want to follow our path along London – I marked down all the restaurants, café, sights and attractions that we visited in my Wowanders London diary.
Wowanders is a diary app for logging the hotels, restaurants and sights you visit on your holidays. The app automatically suggests places to add to your trip based on the photos you take. What’s really cool is that it directly identifies the spots based on the location data of your phone’s picture! You can then rate the places and add comments about them too.
And you can choose to either keep your places private or share them with your friends. You can also share your diary outside the app as a website – so you can also share it with friends that don’t use Wowanders.
Oh, and did I mention that it’s completely free and there isn’t even advertising in it?!
Liked my London look? Get it on Amazon.com!
Actually, most of my outfits are not that expensive! Lots of people have asked me about my London skirt – and good news, I got this one on Amazon.com!
Thus, you can easily buy them if you liked my London look. And if you take pictures with it – send me a picture on Instagram (@fernwehsarah) so that I can feature you on my stories!
I even have an Amazon Influencer Store where I have many more outfit recommendations as well!
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