In just over one week, I’ll be (attempting) to snuggle down in my little corner of Air Canada’s Economy Plus seating, hurtling through the air at 30,000 feet, on my way to spend the holidays in my favourite city. That’s right. This blogger is headed across the pond to London-town for three weeks of Christmas markets, holiday lights, cozy pub evenings, museums and galleries, side train trips to Cambridge and Bletchley Park, and general Christmas-y chaos.
In the past two years I’ve been lucky enough to visit the city four times, though December 16 will mark my sixth time in London overall. My first pilgrimage occurred back in July 1990, at the tender age of 9. I could say that it was love at first sight, but I’d be lying. The truth is I fell in love with the world-class city long before I ever set foot out of Heathrow.
My first glimpse of the city came (most likely) via Mary Poppins around the tender age of 3. So yes…technically, my toddler self initially fell in love with a Disney-fied city replicated on a sound stage in Burbank but that didn’t stop the surge of affection for a place I’d never been. I wanted to sit on the steps of St. Paul feeding the birds, stand on a street corner and watch the Pearly Kings and Queens, dance with chimney sweeps near the Bow Bells, and march with the Suffragettes down the Mall.
My love affair continued apace over the years, largely due to PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! (I’m looking at you, Granada “Sherlock”), but with the occasional film making my London lust ratchet up a few more notches. So in anticipation of my impending return to the Mothership-City, I’ve pulled together a list of my twenty-five favourite London films (in no particular order). Read on and get to watching…or just click to open the images as a gallery.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) – London and George Smiley are forever tied in my mind, from the bathing ponds of Hampstead to Vauxhall and the Circus, they are the perfect pair.
28 Days Later (2002) – One of the most memorable images of cinematic London (for me, that is) comes courtesy of Danny Boyle. Cillian Murphy wandering the empty streets of the city still haunts my dreams..
Atonement (2008) – Though only the last half of the film brings us to London, Joe Wright manages to evoke a heartbreaking yet functional look at Blitz-battered London. And Celia’s watery end (based on a real life bomb striking the water lines above C tube station’s bomb shelter) is burned into my mind.
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) – Now I know where Hounslow is.
Georgy Girl (1966) – One of the very best movies from Sixties London, with Lynn Redgrave charming the pants off everyone.
The King’s Speech (2010) – Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and London. Need I say more?
Hope & Glory (1987) – A fantastic look at one family’s attempt to survive the Blitz.
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) – Stephen Frears takes us south of the Thames to see Day-Lewis play a lower-class gay ex-skinhead in love with an ambitious Pakistani businessman in Thatcher’s London. A classic piece of ’80s British film.
Love, Actually (2003) – Richard Curtis must love London as much as I do. From Selfridges, to Waterlook, to Whiteley’s, to the Thames, to Downing Street and Heathrow, he really covers the gamut of the city as he sprinkles his Christmas spirit over London.
Children of Men (2006) – P.D. James’s look at a terrifyingly dystopian 2027 London still manages to register some notable locations, particularly Battersea Power Station pictured here.
About A Boy (2002) – Hugh Grant’s best film with locations smattered around London from Clerkenwell to Kentish Town to Regent’s Park to Maida Vale.
The Long Good Friday (1980) – Bob Hoskins means business.
A Fish Called Wanda (1988) – If you can remember anything other than the awesomeness of Kevin Kline in this, it’s K-K-K-Ken trying to spit out locations around the city to a desperate Archie (Cathcart Towers!) or desperately trying to kill an old woman in Kensington.
Waterloo Bridge (1940) – If you can see past Vivien Leigh’s radiant beauty, you’ll find the film does a bang-up job capturing the ambient atmosphere of a foggy night in the city, war or not.
About Time (2013) – Yes, it’s treacle. But it’s Richard Curtis treacle with Rachel McAdams, Domnhall Gleeson and Bill Nighy. I can’t resist. Lots of Maida Vale in this one.
Pride (2014) – One of the best movies of the year spends a good deal of its time in Wales, but it gets you to West Hampstead and Victoria too.
Skyfall (2012) – James Bond heads home and races against time from Vauxhall to Scotland and back.
Closer (2004) – If you can get passed the emotional angst, you’ll see London provides a pretty spectacular backdrop to the heavy drama. It also introduced me to one of my very favourite spots in London – Postman’s Park – the odd little turn of the century shrine to good samaritan sacrifices. It’s an incredibly moving place, quite near St. Paul’s and St. Bart’s Hospital.
Four Weddings and A Funeral (1994) – It all begins for Richard Curtis, Hugh Grant and my obsession with modern London. From Southbank rendezvouses to St. Bartholomew-the-Great, it’s all pretty recognizably great.
Blow-Up (1966) – Follow David Hemmings from Maryon Park to Chelsea to Notting Hill to Regent Street to Greenwich. And I dare you not to wish yourself back to Sixties London.
Layer Cake (2004) – Matthew Vaughn does Guy Ritchie one better in this tale of London’s drug underbelly. Though the film’s most gorgeous scenes are at the Stoke Park House in Buckinghamshire. The Regency Cafe gets a memorable moment too (also appearing in Pride).
My Fair Lady (1964) – Yes, like Mary Poppins, this isn’t actually filmed IN London but that didn’t stop me from wanting to discover Covent Garden the second she pondered on what exactly would be loverly.
Sliding Doors (1998) – I can’t help it, I love everything about this movie…not to mention it’s leagues better than Notting Hill. Just saying. But it also happens to be filmed on location throughout the city and is probably the first film that made me take note of “regular” neighbourhoods/locations as opposed to London landmarks. No idea why, but it did.
Alfie (1966) – While not exactly Michael Caine’s big break, that came via Zulu a few years prior, Alfie made Caine a cinema icon and forever tied him in people’s minds to the city he was born in.
101 Dalmatians (1961) – It may be animated but the city is a full character in this, one of my favourite Disney films. And there are few things as great as Roger and Anita’s meet-cute in St. James.
And though I’ve not touched on documentaries at all, if you have any interest in London at all you MUST see Julian Temple‘s London: The Modern Babylon. Must.
If the above list isn’t not enough film fodder for you Londonphiles, here’s a few more to check out:
The Great Mouse Detective, Flushed Away, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, Finding Neverland, Brief Encounter, Stage Fright, Maurice, A Clockwork Orange, Fierce Creatures, Secrets and Lies, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, From Hell, The Lodger, Vera Drake, To Sir, With Love, Snatch, Dirty Pretty Things, The Elephant Man, Match Point, Maybe Baby, Croupier, V for Vendetta, The History Boys, The Mother, The Queen, The Italian Job, Look Back in Anger, Wimbledon, Withnail and I, The Young Victoria, An Education, Bridget Jones, Fish Tank…
