As my wife wasn’t with me on my recent trip back to the UK, I hardly spent any time in London outside the airports I flew in and out of. However, I still wanted to visit there so decided to embark on a day trip squeezing all that I could into the 12 hours I would be in the capital.

It was actually snowing when I left my hometown in the early hours of the morning on January 2nd to get the 7:20 am train down to London St. Pancras station. On arrival I headed off straight away to the Barbican Centre. The brutalist architecture is a sprawling residential and commercial district with some beautiful outdoor spaces including ponds.

My main reason for visiting this Performing Arts Theatre was to see some of the filming locations from the critically acclaimed Star Wars streaming series ‘Andor‘. The harsh, grey and imposing cylindrical architectural structures appear in a scene set on the Imperial capital planet of Coruscant. More details here.

The nearby Guildhall was next on my agenda for the same reason. This was actually my first time to see this place albeit only the west wing of the courtyard. It was really impressive and easy to see why it was chosen to portray the cultured, civilised and “old-world” style planet. More details here.

My walking tour continued on to the financial district of London where the classical pillared frontage of the old Royal Exchange Building stands opposite the Bank of England in the area of the city appropriately called Bank. 

The 88-metre high architectural wonder known as the Lloyds Building (1 Lime Street) was nearby. It’s innovative for its exterior possessing the staircases, lifts, electrical power conduits and water pipes thereby leaving an uncluttered space inside. The building has featured in many movies including ‘Entrapment‘ (1999) where it portrayed a New York” high-rise. The phallic-looking gherkin can be seen in the distance!

From there I headed south to Southwark over the River Thames and had a good view of the iconic Tower Bridge in the distance.

There was some more architecture that caught my eye after that along Blackfriars Road due to its shape but I haven’t been able to identify what it is exactly so maybe it’s just a regular high-rise apartment block.

Something new to me was The Graffiti Tunnel that is located beneath Waterloo station. It is full of vibrant street art and murals and there were quite a few people present to see this legal graffiti shown off in a positive and well-managed way.

It was then to cross back over the Thames but via Westminster Bridge this time. Famous sights aren’t something I usually pay too much attention to but maybe I was feeling a little nostalgic as I wandered around this area of London.

I may have seen Big Ben numerous times but I don’t think I’ve taken any note of Nelson’s Column since I was a child.

As lunchtime approached, I travelled over to west London to meet my friend Mostyn for lunch which was followed by a visit to the quirky museum known as Upside Down House. More details here.

Another museum followed and it was a much more famous one. Baker Street Underground station was the destination for my second ever visit to Madame Tussaud’s which is a place I can’t say I ever expected to return to! More details here.

As with my last visit to London in 2020 I saved the best for last as I met up with friend and former colleague Marina for dinner. Despite not making any plan in advance we just seemed to naturally gravitate towards the same Wetherspoons pub we went to six years previously.

After a very unhealthy dinner we parted ways outside another pub with a slightly amusing name!

That wasn’t quite the finale in the nation’s capital as there was enough time to briefly see the mysterious Platform 0 at King’s Cross station, a place which is no stranger to mystery given its association to Harry Potter.

Just under a week later I had to return but it was only for the purpose of flying from Gatwick back to Tokyo. The majority of my fortnight in the UK over the festive season was spent in Leicestershire so it was quite nice to break that up a bit with this little side trip to London.

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