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London, London, London. What a wonderful place. There are millions of photographs taken of the city year upon year, from traveler to traveler, street to street – but what are the most famous streets in London? Which ones most often get to be the backdrop of those millions of tourist photographs?

Downing Street

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While you can’t actually get onto Downing Street itself, you can take picture of it through the guarded gates on Whitehall. It’s rare that you’ll catch a glimpse of the Prime Minister picking up his newspaper from the doorstep, but getting a snap in front of Number 10 is still as popular as it ever has been.

The Mall

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The colour of this paved avenue almost gives the effect that you’re walking down a red carpet to the home of the British monarchy, Buckingham Palace. Often lined with Union Jacks, it connects the 775-room palace with Trafalgar Square, so a picture at any point on this street is a picture worth taking.

Oxford Street

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London’s busiest shopping street stretches for one and a half miles from Marble Arch all the way to St Giles’ Circus, intersecting with Regent Street and Charing Cross Road. If you can find a convenient place to stop for a second without holding up the shopaholics, then you’ll have a snapshot to remember.

Regent Street

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If you get a photo on Oxford Street, you have to get one on Regent Street, too. It is the home to Hamley’s, the oldest and biggest toy store in Europe. The curving architecture of Regent Street is more than aesthetically pleasing, so it will be difficult not to take a picture here.

Piccadilly Circus

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This neon-flashing, full on frills central hub is a popular meeting place for many London nights on the town. The huge electric billboards overhead occasionally feature adverts that are specifically designed to provide the backdrop to visitors’ photographs – a bit like the ‘holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa’ effect.

Carnaby Street

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In the 1960s, Carnaby Street was the coolest street in capital, the Mecca to the Mods. They, along with the hippies, converged to the boutique and quirky shops that still stretch along the street that is widely accredited with defining the fashion of the swinging 60s.

Savile Row

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Tailors on Savile Row have been cutting suits for the likes of Winston Churchill and Napoleon for almost 300 years. It is world famous for the quality of its bespoke tailoring and, while you might need to win the lottery before you can buy a suit here, you can take a picture, keep it and dream on.

Abbey Road

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The Beatles (who actually played their last live gig on a Savile Row rooftop) immortalised Abbey Road with their final studio album by the same name. The front cover has probably become the most replicated photograph in London, but it’s not one you can do by yourself – if you’re heading to Abbey Road, take three or four friends with you and, like The Beatles did, suit up in Savile Row beforehand.

Old Compton Street

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London’s gay community have made Old Compton Street their own. Whether you’re gay, straight or bi, this is undoubtedly one of the most characteristic and charismatic streets in London, so, if you’re stopping for a drink or just passing through on your way to Soho, it’s worth getting a picture here.

Baker Street

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The famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes held residence at 221B Baker Street (an address that actually did not exist at the time of writing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 19^th century classic). Over one hundred years later, the number was assigned to a building on the street and a Sherlock Holmes museum was officially opened. Thus, it has become a popular attraction for picture-taking fans of the cunning detective.

John Benson

This article was brought to you by John Benson from LondonNights.com the simple way to book discounted accommodation in London. London Nights offer a broad range of specially selected hotels at discounted rates – making your trip to London a lot simpler to manage.

Sponsored post written by John Benson from Central London Apartments

A permanent resident of London, I decided to explore what was on my doorstep and have myself a mini London staycation (they’re all the rage now, I believe). We weren’t looking to do it especially cheaply, although we did decide to forego the opportunity to book into one of the copious luxury central London hotels around the city and instead stay in our respective victoria apartments and docklands apartments. We just had a look at what was on offer and, ever the diplomats, voted on the day’s itinerary.

My body clock well and truly trained to military standard, I started the day early. I got up at 6:30am (a whole half an hour lie-in) and was out of my flat by 7:30am to meet the girls. I hate calling them ‘the girls’, but for the purpose of this exercise, I’m afraid I’m going to have to bite the bullet and call them ‘the girls’.

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For a light breakfast, we headed to Bill’s in Covent Garden. A favourite of ours when we were students in Brighton, we were delighted to find out it had finally branched out into the city to dutifully feed its now grown-up patrons. For me, it had to be the playful vegetarian version of the traditional fry-up, consisting of two poached eggs (the only way to do eggs), mushrooms, sweet chilli sauce, guacamole and toast, garnished playfully with a couple of lush green basil leaves. It was just what my stomach was growling for.

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After a catch up and some light morning refreshment, we got the tube over to London Bridge and round the corner to the Floatworks on Thrale Street where we were booked in for an hour’s floatation session. All but one of us (not me) were floatation virgins, and we went on the strong recommendation that it was the most relaxing thing EVER. Warmed to body temperature (93.5 degrees, to be precise), the salty, salty water helps the body stay afloat; once you’re in there for a few minutes, it’s virtually impossible to feel the body-temperature water against your skin, which gives you the most wonderful sensation of floating in mid-air – well worth £45.

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An hour’s worth of wonderful weightless bobbing under our belts, we bravely soldiered on to Wandsworth for elevenses.  Although, by the time we sauntered at a leisurely pace along the Thames and through Battersea Park, it actually turned out to be more like quarter-past-oneses. We were heading for none other than French Master Patissier Eric Lanlard’s boutique cake shop, Cake Boy. And boy, does he do good cakes. I sampled his exquisite lemon meringue cupcakes accompanied by a deliciously creamy espresso pick-me-up. I was so engrossed in my own cake that I can’t for the life of me remember what the rest ate; I can, however, assure you that we were all suitably blown away by the standard of everything at this beautiful little Thames-side boutique.

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After a couple of glasses of the good stuff (yep, we saw fit to crack open the bubbly in celebration of our day off), we found that we’d effortlessly whiled away a whole three hours, so it was time to move on. Another on-foot jaunt, this time across the river and up into the north side, took us to Charing Cross where we were to meet up with those poor unfortunates among us who couldn’t get the day off work.

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Opened in 1890, Gordon’s Wine bar (right outside Charing Cross tube station), is the oldest wine bar in London, and has a wines-by-the-glass list that’s sure to make you dizzy (not least when you’ve had a few of them). With a devilishly dark décor, this candlelit cave of a tavern does its wine bar thing with matchless expertise, offering a whole host of delicious meats, cheeses and various other foodie titbits on the side to boot. It was the perfect end to a perfect day’s staycation in London, and it looks like Gordon’s has just acquired itself a few more loyal regulars.

John Benson

This post was written by John Benson from Central London Apartments, the home of serviced London apartment rentals. We specialise in providing short-stay apartments for leisure and business travellers who want more from their stay in city apartments London. Our clients enjoy spacious, comfortable, well-managed accommodation in some of London’s finest central locations, at up to 30% less than hotel rooms of equivalent standard.