Guide

London, England

The neighbourhoods of London

Where to go, which station, and which ones to pair in a single day

London is split into distinct neighbourhoods, each with its own character — and the real difficulty when planning a trip isn't knowing what's in them, it's knowing which ones go together. You'll find the attractions and things to do in this article, and how to get around in this one.

✎ Each entry gives the handiest Tube station and its fare zone — nearly every visitor-facing neighbourhood sits in Zones 1 and 2, which keeps you under the £8.90 daily cap

01The historic centre

Westminster

Westminster · Zone 1

The iconic one, and the neighbourhood I come back to on every single trip. It's where you'll find Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and the London Eye directly opposite on the far bank. Its great strength: everything connects on foot. Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard are fifteen minutes away through St James's Park, with Piccadilly following on naturally. If you only have one day in London, start here.

Soho

Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus · Zone 1

Unmissable, and especially so if you're here to shop: Regent Street, Oxford Street and Carnaby Street run into one another effortlessly. Piccadilly Circus and its screens mark the entrance to the area, and Chinatown fills the southern edge with its red lanterns. Shaftesbury Avenue, running along the edge of the area, holds most of the West End's theatres — including the Palace Theatre at Cambridge Circus, unmistakable with its red-brick façade. Come evening, Soho changes character entirely — theatres, bars, neon.

Covent Garden

Covent Garden · Zone 1

For the covered market above all, and even more so at Christmas when the hall is decorated and lit. One honest caveat: it's very, very busy. You'll find yourself squeezed, especially in the afternoon. Come early in the morning if you want to photograph the Apple Market without the crowd. Restaurants, pubs and the Royal Opera House round out the area.

Mayfair

Green Park, Bond Street · Zone 1

The hushed London of townhouses and galleries. Less touristy, but far from empty: the Royal Academy of Arts occupies Burlington House, and the Handel & Hendrix house museum on Brook Street tells a lovely coincidence — Handel and Jimi Hendrix lived in adjoining buildings, two centuries apart.

Westminster

Soho

Covent Garden

The Palace Theatre at Cambridge Circus, home to Harry Potter

02The Thames and the City

The City

Bank, St Paul's, Tower Hill · Zone 1

London's financial centre — the Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge. I go first for Tower Bridge, but I'd genuinely recommend the area for its own sake: the atmosphere is unlike anywhere else in the city, and the covered markets are worth the detour, starting with Leadenhall Market and its Victorian arcades. At weekends the City empties of its workers and turns oddly quiet, which makes it a great time to photograph.

South Bank & Bankside

Waterloo, Southwark, London Bridge · Zone 1

The south bank, between the London Eye and Tower Bridge, is the finest walk in London — and it costs nothing. Along it you'll find Tate Modern in a former power station, Shakespeare's Globe rebuilt as it was, and Borough Market for food. The Millennium Bridge links St Paul's directly to the Tate: the most photogenic shortcut in the city.

The City

03The west

Kensington

South Kensington, High Street Kensington · Zone 1

One of my favourite neighbourhoods, without hesitation. Three major free museums sit side by side — the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria & Albert — with Kensington Gardens stretching out just behind, along with Kensington Palace, the Peter Pan statue and the Italian Gardens. But what I love most are the streets themselves: quiet, elegant, lined with white houses, only metres from museums that draw millions of visitors.

Chelsea

Sloane Square · Zone 1

Luxury boutiques and designers around King's Road, but the real interest lies elsewhere: in the quiet little streets of colourful houses. Duke of York Square, Bywater Street, Burnsall Street, Godfrey Street, and Oakley Street with its famous "Love Door". The Chelsea Physic Garden, a botanical garden founded in 1673, is the oldest in London and still surprisingly overlooked.

Notting Hill

Notting Hill Gate, Ladbroke Grove · Zones 1-2

Romantic, made famous by the film. My advice comes in two parts: on a first visit, do the well-known streets — Portobello Road, its Saturday-morning antiques market, the bookshop and Alice's. But if you have time, the best of it is elsewhere: in the quiet side streets running off it, where the pastel façades line up with nobody standing in front of them. That's where the best photographs are.

Kensington

Chelsea

Notting Hill

Notting Hill, in the side streets

04The north

Camden Town

Camden Town · Zone 2

Like Westminster, this is a neighbourhood I return to every time. I love the atmosphere and the street art, which is everywhere. Camden Market, Camden Lock, the Amy Winehouse statue, the sculpted shopfronts along Camden High Street. One piece of advice, and it matters: come early in the morning. By the afternoon the crowd makes moving difficult and photographs impossible.

King's Cross

King's Cross St Pancras · Zone 1

A former railway district completely transformed, and one of London's finest pieces of urban renewal. The soaring roof of King's Cross station, the neo-Gothic front of St Pancras next door, Platform 9¾ and its shop for Harry Potter fans, Coal Drops Yard and the fountains of Granary Square. The area continues along the Regent's Canal all the way to Camden: an hour's walk, lovely, and barely used by visitors.

Agar Grove

Camden Road · Zone 2

Between King's Cross and Camden, a long street lined with 1860s Victorian villas and trees — cherry, plane, lime. In spring the cherry blossom makes it one of the prettiest streets in the area, and nobody goes there. Its northern side borders the Camden Square Conservation Area, a cluster of residential roads around a green square. Best done while walking between the two neighbourhoods rather than as a destination in itself.

Camden Town

05The east

Shoreditch & the East End

Shoreditch High Street, Old Street · Zone 1

If Camden won you over with its street art, Shoreditch is the next step — this is where London's largest murals are, and they're repainted constantly. Brick Lane and its Bangladeshi restaurants, Old Spitalfields Market, Columbia Road and its Sunday-morning flower market. The area is markedly less touristy than Camden, and far livelier in the evening.

06A little further out

Greenwich

Cutty Sark (DLR) · Zones 2-3

A World Heritage baroque ensemble, designed in part by Christopher Wren — the Old Royal Naval College and its Painted Hall, often nicknamed Britain's Sistine Chapel. Add the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Observatory where you can straddle the Greenwich Meridian, the Cutty Sark clipper and a covered market. The finest way to get there is still the boat from Westminster.

Brixton

Brixton · Zone 2

The heart of Caribbean culture in London. Brixton Village and Market Row hold a concentration of small restaurants that's hard to match anywhere else in the city, and Electric Avenue is the street that gave the song its name. Few monuments, plenty of atmosphere — this is a neighbourhood you come to eat and listen in, not to sightsee.

Wimbledon

Wimbledon · Zone 3

Known for its tennis championships, with the museum and courts open to visit year-round. The area is also home to the Buddhapadipa Temple, one of the best-known Buddhist temples in the UK, and Wimbledon Common, a huge stretch of open land far wilder than the central parks.

Which neighbourhoods to pair · in a single day

①

The classic day, all on foot

Westminster in the morning, early, before the coaches
Buckingham via St James's Park, then Piccadilly
Soho for the shopping, Covent Garden to finish

②

The quiet, museum day

South Kensington and its three free museums
Kensington Gardens, then the streets of Chelsea
Notting Hill late afternoon, for the light

③

The other London

Camden at opening time, before the crowds
The Regent's Canal on foot to King's Cross
Shoreditch at the end of the day for the street art

✎ Greenwich and Brixton are best done separately, half a day each — pairing them with the centre means spending your day on the Tube. For Greenwich, take the boat from Westminster: the crossing is part of the visit.