Christmas Day in the City

In preparation for our first Christmas in London, I had read some articles online that said the city is practically empty on Christmas Day. All the buses and tubes shut down so there are less people in the city, less cars on the road, and you can get photos of a post-apocalyptic looking London. I was so looking forward to seeing the city this way and getting some really good photos without any people in them. Unfortunately, there were still tons of people out! I still took some good photos and was able to crop out the people for the most part. I think we would need to go earlier next time to see an empty London.

We went to Buckingham Palace which is typically swarming with tourists. There were still quite a few tourists but way fewer than a typical day. 

There were also way fewer people near the Houses of Parliament. It was actually pretty easy to walk across the bridge when typically it is such a hassle to try to get through. 

I have wanted to take my photo with one of the horse guards but there are always so many people around!

I love this view of the Shard (the tall building on the right). You can really see how massive it is when you compare it to Tower Bridge toward the left of the photo).

At Tower Hill the grass is still recovering from all those poppies that had been on display. I thought this little Christmas tree looked kind of sad all alone in the moat. 

The Christmas tree at Somerset House looked much more festive. They also have an outdoor ice skating rink there. 

This next photo is at Charing Cross station. I love this building in person but it is hard to capture it in a photo. 

This is definitely the least amount of people and cars that I have ever seen on Regent Street!

Marble Arch is also usually packed with people and so many buses come around this corner. It was uncharacteristically peaceful on Christmas. This arch was originally designed for Buckingham Palace but Queen Victoria thought it was ugly. So she had a carriage made for her that was too wide to fit through the Marble Arch so they had to move it elsewhere. 

This area of Marble Arch was formerly called Speaker's Corner and it is where they did public executions for a long time. Before being executed people were allowed to make a speech as long as it did not start a riot or offend the royal family. To this day on Sundays people come to make speeches or to protest. We came past here on a bus on a Sunday a few weeks ago and here is a photo I took of the protest going on that day.

This statue, called Still Water, is also at Marble Arch.

We also went to Trafalgar Square but there were a lot more people there than I expected for Christmas Day. 

This is the least crowded I have ever seen Oxford Circus. This is a major shopping area and the tube station is always packed. It was nice to walk down the street and see the store displays without so many people around. 

Even though it wasn't quite what I was expecting as far as an empty London it was still a great Christmas in the city. The weather was really nice and we had good company with some of Warren's coworkers.