London Street Photography Locations
28 field-tested spots, with best times and what to look for at each
London is the best street photography city in Britain and one of the best in the world — and it punishes aimlessness. Turn up at Oxford Circus with no plan and you can walk for three hours and shoot nothing. Every location below is field-tested and specific: not "go to Soho", but when to go, where to stand, and what the place actually gives you photographically.
A rough shape for a day: markets in the morning while the traders are setting up and the light is low, the City or a busy interchange at lunchtime, the South Bank or Soho as the light goes, and neon and shutter drags after dark. Pick two locations maximum. One is better.
Each spot links to its full card with the complete brief, recommended camera settings, and a field assignment. The full deck pairs these locations with technique and project cards so you always walk out with a specific problem to solve.
Chinatown, London
Chinatown, London
Dense, colourful, layered. Paper lanterns, roast ducks in windows, signs in two languages, tourists looking at menus, restaurant workers on cigarette breaks. The contrast between the decorative and the functional is everywhere.
Best time: lunchtime and early evening. Chinese New Year if you can get there.
Full brief, settings & assignmentBrick Lane, London
Brick Lane, London
Brick Lane contains multitudes - Bangladeshi restaurants, vintage markets, street art, brunch queues, market traders, tourists, locals who've been there for decades. The collision of communities and demographics is the subject.
Best time: Sunday morning for the markets. Early evening for the restaurants coming alive.
Full brief, settings & assignmentSouth Bank, London
South Bank, London
The South Bank is a stage. Buskers, skateboarders under the bridge, tourists at the Tate, book market under Waterloo Bridge, the river as backdrop. There are always people performing and people watching.
Best time: weekend afternoons. Golden hour with the river light. Winter when it's quieter.
Full brief, settings & assignmentLeake Street Graffiti Tunnel, Waterloo
Leake Street, Waterloo
A long tunnel beneath Waterloo station, legally graffitied from floor to ceiling. The light is artificial, the colours are extreme, the acoustics are strange.
Best time: anytime.
Full brief, settings & assignmentFarringdon and Clerkenwell, London
Farringdon / Clerkenwell, London
One of London's most photogenic areas and consistently underused by street photographers. Smithfield Market, Victorian architecture, the contrast between the old meat market and the media workers who've moved in around it. Exmouth Market for street food and characters.
Best time: early morning at Smithfield. Lunchtime at Exmouth Market.
Full brief, settings & assignmentBorough Market, London
Borough Market, London
Martin Parr has photographed here. That tells you everything. Food, consumption, crowds, money, spectacle. People eating in public. People spending too much on cheese. Tourists photographing things they're about to eat.
Best time: Thursday to Saturday, late morning.
Full brief, settings & assignmentPetticoat Lane Market, London
Petticoat Lane, London
One of London's oldest street markets. Clothing, jewellery, food. The traders are the subject as much as the shoppers - patter, performance, the theatre of the sell.
Best time: Sunday morning only.
Full brief, settings & assignmentPortobello Road, London
Portobello Road, London
Antiques, fruit and veg, vintage clothing, tourists, locals. The antiques end is theatre. The produce end is working market.
Best time: Saturday, all day. Friday is quieter and the antique dealers are more relaxed.
Full brief, settings & assignmentRidley Road Market, Dalston
Ridley Road, Dalston
One of London's great working markets. Afro-Caribbean food, fabrics, meat, fish, vegetables. Less gentrified than most. A functional market, not a tourist attraction.
Best time: weekday mornings. Saturday is busier.
Full brief, settings & assignmentPeckham, London
Peckham, London
Peckham has been changing for a decade and the tension between old and new is still very much present. Rye Lane market, the multi-storey car park, the high street, the independent businesses that have survived.
Best time: Saturday for Rye Lane. Evening for the car park area.
Full brief, settings & assignmentDeptford, London
Deptford, London
Deptford Market on the high street is one of London's most photogenic and least photographed markets. Raw, functional, cheap. Less self-conscious than nearby Peckham.
Best time: market days - Wednesday, Friday, Saturday.
Full brief, settings & assignmentDalston, London
Dalston, London
Kingsland Road and the streets around it. Turkish and Kurdish businesses, music venues, barbershops, the Ridley Road market end. A high street that still functions as community rather than destination.
Best time: Saturday all day. Weekend evenings for the nightlife crowd.
Full brief, settings & assignmentBethnal Green, London
Bethnal Green, London
Roman Road Market, the green itself, the mix of Bangladeshi community, long-term East End residents, and newer arrivals. Less trafficked by photographers than Brick Lane despite being equally rich.
Best time: Saturday morning at Roman Road Market.
Full brief, settings & assignmentColumbia Road Flower Market, London
Columbia Road, London
Every Sunday morning, a narrow Victorian street becomes a riot of flowers, crowds, and theatre. The traders shout their prices. The street is so narrow the crowd becomes one organism.
Best time: Sunday only. 8am is quieter. 10am to noon is the peak.
Full brief, settings & assignmentSoho, London
Soho, London
Old Compton Street, Berwick Street Market, the alleys and courts, the surviving sex shops and music venues alongside the restaurants and bars. The character of Soho has changed but the bones are still there.
Best time: lunchtime for the workers. Late evening for the nightlife. Berwick Street Market on weekday mornings.
Full brief, settings & assignmentOxford Street, London
Oxford Street, London
Not usually recommended and that's exactly why you should go. Overwhelming, crowded, relentless - and that's photographic material. The buskers, the charity muggers, the tourist groups, the office workers, the people who look like they'd rather be anywhere else.
Best time: weekday lunchtime. Saturday is too busy even for this.
Full brief, settings & assignmentBrixton, London
Brixton, London
Brixton Market, the covered arcades (Market Row and Brixton Village), the station, the high street. One of London's best markets - Afro-Caribbean produce and food, the covered arcades with independent restaurants.
Best time: Saturday. Market Row and Brixton Village are good any weekday lunchtime.
Full brief, settings & assignmentGreenwich, London
Greenwich, London
Greenwich Market, the town centre, the park, the tourists at the Observatory. The contrast between the grand architecture and the tourist industry that surrounds it is very Parr territory.
Best time: weekend for the market. Summer for the park crowds.
Full brief, settings & assignmentStratford and Westfield, London
Stratford / Westfield, London
Post-Olympic Stratford is a study in regeneration. Westfield is Parr territory: consumption, escalators, fast food, families, the spectacle of the mall.
Best time: weekend for Westfield. Weekday morning for old Stratford town centre.
Full brief, settings & assignmentBermondsey, London
Bermondsey, London
Bermondsey Street, Maltby Street Market (weekend mornings), the Blue Market. Less tourist-heavy than Borough Market despite being nearby.
Best time: Saturday morning at Maltby Street. Bermondsey Street itself is worth walking any time.
Full brief, settings & assignmentElephant and Castle, London
Elephant & Castle, London
One of London's great ongoing demolitions and reconstructions. The area is in flux - a building site surrounded by community. The Latin American community around the area is worth knowing about.
Best time: weekday for the street market that's survived.
Full brief, settings & assignmentWalthamstow Market, London
Walthamstow, London
Claims to be the longest outdoor market in Europe. A long stretch of stalls along Walthamstow High Street - clothing, food, household goods, everything. Functional and unpretentious.
Best time: Tuesday to Saturday. Saturday is the busiest.
Full brief, settings & assignmentBarbican, London
Barbican, London
The Barbican Estate is one of the most photographically rich environments in London for architecture-led street photography. Brutalist concrete, elevated walkways, lakes, the arts centre.
Best time: early morning when the estate is quiet. Lunchtime when the arts centre fills up.
Full brief, settings & assignmentHackney Wick, London
Hackney Wick, London
Artists' studios, canal, warehouses, the Olympic Park boundary. A Friday and Saturday night destination but worth visiting in the daytime for the industrial aesthetic and canal.
Best time: Friday and Saturday evening. Weekend daytime for the canal and studios.
Full brief, settings & assignmentSmithfield Market, London
Smithfield, London
The last surviving wholesale meat market in central London. Victorian ironwork building, market workers in white coats and bloodied aprons, delivery lorries.
Best time: early morning - 4am to 8am is peak activity. This requires commitment. It's worth it.
Full brief, settings & assignmentShadwell and Whitechapel, London
Shadwell / Whitechapel, London
Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel Market, the Royal London Hospital, the Bangladeshi community. One of London's most densely populated and least photographed-by-outsiders areas.
Best time: weekday mornings and lunchtimes.
Full brief, settings & assignmentSpitalfields, London
Spitalfields, London
Old Spitalfields Market, Brushfield Street, the streets around Christ Church. The market is now largely upscale but the area retains photographic richness - the architecture, the mix of City workers and market visitors, the traders on the periphery.
Best time: Thursday to Sunday for the market. Weekday mornings for the quieter streets.
Full brief, settings & assignmentCamden, London
Camden, London
Camden Market, the Lock, the High Street, the canal. Loud, theatrical, deliberately strange. The market traders, the tourists, the goths, the tourists photographing the goths. Peak Parr territory.
Best time: weekend, all day. The earlier the better before it gets overwhelming.
Full brief, settings & assignmentShooting outside London? The deck also covers Hertfordshire and Essex locations, plus camera settings references for every situation these spots will throw at you.
Every location above comes with a complete brief, best times, camera settings, and a field assignment — alongside 100+ technique, project, and settings cards. One payment, lifetime access, all future cards included.
Get the full deck — £29