Getting to know a city through its film locations is something most of us do sooner or later, each to our own taste, and when the city is London you are spoilt for choice. Still, it is Christmas, and to me Christmas means chocolate biscuits, chai latte, and Love Actually.
Since 2003 I have had a standing appointment with this romantic, oh-so-British comedy by Richard Curtis, who, as ever, assembled a wonderful cast and chose unusual corners of London that are perfect for falling in love with. As with Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral, not every location is worth a detour, and not all are central. So here are the ones I actually recommend, whatever romantic memories the film has left me with.
Heathrow, where it begins and ends
The film wins me over every year from its very first frames and leaves me in tears by the last, all shot at the arrivals gate at Heathrow. That famous opening, with its idea that, whatever the state of the world, love actually is all around, plays out exactly as any real arrivals hall does: hugs, tears, dreamy looks, sheer joy. If you are flying to London anyway, landing at Heathrow is easy on the city, with the Piccadilly line running into the centre roughly every ten minutes.
Somerset House
You only glimpse Somerset House in the film, but a London winter would not be the same without its traditional ice rink, which also hosts wonderful New Year celebrations. It is right in the centre, a few minutes from Temple and Covent Garden, and last time I treated my fellow skaters to some truly spectacular falls, and had the best time doing it. (I repeated the performance, for the record, on the rink at the foot of the Tower of London.)
Around Oxford Street
The streets around Oxford Street host several scenes, and are unmissable at Christmas anyway, for the shopping, the dressed windows and the lights. It is in beautiful St Christopher’s Place that Harry and Karen (Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson) meet, before the memorable scene inside Selfridges, the historic department store, with Rowan Atkinson as the gloriously maddening gift-wrapper. Selfridges has a lovely rooftop bar, too.
Not far away, on South Audley Street, is the Grosvenor Chapel, the small Anglican church where Juliet and Peter marry, with that unforgettable surprise musical finale that makes you half wish for a wedding of your own.
Gabriel’s Wharf and the South Bank
Gabriel’s Wharf and the Thames South Bank, near the OXO Tower, are another lovely corner from the film, and a favourite stop of mine: quiet river walks, small design shops, and a bite with friends looking across the water.
The Whiteley, Bayswater
The old Whiteleys department store in Bayswater appears several times in the film. Since then it has closed (in 2018) and been completely redeveloped into The Whiteley, a luxury complex with residences, a Six Senses hotel and shops, though the historic facade and grand dome have been preserved. Worth knowing if you go looking for the store you remember from the screen; it is now something quite different behind that famous frontage.
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is a must at any time, and it appears in every Richard Curtis film. Here you see it twice: at the Westway Studios in Ladbroke Grove, where the dreadful Christmas single is recorded, and, most famously, for Mark’s silent, cue-card declaration of love on a doorstep in St Luke’s Mews.
If you have followed me on social, you know I spent one November and December wandering all the mews I could find, the pretty former stable lanes tucked behind the grand houses. They are scattered across the city, but this one became the most famous, and, thanks to the film, the most expensive. If I could ever move to London, I would want to live in one of these low houses that give you the illusion of the countryside in the middle of the city.
Downing Street
Number 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s residence, is right in the centre, minutes from Westminster, though of course no scene was filmed there; the interiors were a set. One can only imagine what Churchill would have made of Hugh Grant’s joyous dance through the corridors of power.
A postscript for fellow obsessives: I once went looking for the “dodgy end of Wandsworth” that Natalie mentions, only to learn that the endless road Hugh Grant searches door to door is actually Poplar Road in Herne Hill. I still have not made it there.
Frequently asked questions
Key London locations include the arrivals gate at Heathrow (the opening and closing scenes), Somerset House, St Christopher’s Place and Selfridges around Oxford Street, the Grosvenor Chapel on South Audley Street (the wedding), Gabriel’s Wharf and the OXO Tower on the South Bank, the old Whiteleys in Bayswater (now redeveloped as The Whiteley), Westway Studios and St Luke’s Mews in Notting Hill (the cue-card scene), and Downing Street (exteriors only).
Many are central and walkable in clusters: the Oxford Street area (St Christopher’s Place, Selfridges, Grosvenor Chapel) makes one walk, and the South Bank (Gabriel’s Wharf, OXO Tower) another. Notting Hill (Westway Studios, St Luke’s Mews) is a separate outing, easily reached by Tube, and Somerset House sits between Temple and Covent Garden.
Mark’s famous silent declaration of love, on cards at a doorstep, was filmed in St Luke’s Mews in Notting Hill, one of London’s picturesque former stable lanes. It has become the most famous, and priciest, of the city’s mews thanks to the film, so visit respectfully, as people live there.
December, without question. The film is a Christmas story, and London at Christmas, with the Oxford Street lights, the Somerset House ice rink and the festive shop windows, gives the tour its full magic. Wrap up warm, and time it for the switch-on of the Christmas lights if you can.
Further reading
- Plan your stay: where to stay in London
- More London for romantics and readers: Literary London and walking Regent’s Canal
- Another film-lover’s day out near London: the Harry Potter Studios
And, away from London, the Portuguese restaurant, where writer Jamie finally declares his love for Aurelia ( Lucia Moniz ) is Le Bar de la Marine, 15 quai de Rive Neuve, the Old Port in Marseille ( tel: 91 54 95 42 ), in the South of France, which was also the setting for Marcel Pagnol s 1931 film Marius .
Thanks! I’ll be visiting it 🙂
Slightly further east along the walk is the Oxo Tower Wharf complex, home to Mark, where he embarrassedly leaves Juliet ( Keira Knightley ) with the wedding video. He exits the flat by the rear entrance of the wharf building on Barge House Street, through the courtyard to Oxo Tower Wharf itself. It s on the pier here that disgracefully ageing actor Maurice ( Peter O Toole ) recites a speech from Macbeth for an unappreciative Jessie ( Jodie Whittaker ) in Venus .
Thanks! I’ll be back this week and will be checking that!