For me, no school holiday is complete without a trip to central London. It is easy to forget how lucky I am to live just half an hour away from this incredible city with it’s diverse culture, history and architecture.

Denmark Street

Just as no holiday is complete without a trip to London, no trip to London is complete without a trip to Denmark Street; the once famous ‘Tin Pan Alley’. This is a street near Tottenham Court Road which was once full of guitar and instrument shops and recording studios that were graced by some of the worlds most famous musicians including; The Beatles, Bowie, The Clash and The Rolling Stones. These stores are now making way for independent coffee shops and the Crossrail project and are dwindling not least because of the internet’s ability to undercut the prices of these shops. Everytime I visit the street another shop has closed down.  The staff in these shops have a phenomenal knowledge about their products and before buying my first ‘proper’ guitar, I remember being allowed inside a soundproof booth to try out the Fender Telecaster for about 3 hours! – something that can’t be done on the internet. Rant over.

Architectural contrasts

London adopts a whole new life at night. Shooting handheld in low light is never ideal but the bright lights of China town helped…As did finding any sort of structure to use as a makeshift tripod (including my wallet on the floor at one point!)

Peking a look at the duck in China Town

Light trails: because everyone loves light trails!