It was in my to do list to go to central London on a Christmas day. It was a fantastic opportunity to observe exquisiteness of Christmas lights and historical city, with far less crowd.

We prepared our dinner as take away, thinking there will be no place open to dine. No parking restriction applies on a Christmas day, except at the bays restricted to residence. Free parking anywhere in Westminster is a huge bonus. I could park next to Harrods for free. The toilets are tricky to find. None of the public toilets were open on the day. We made use of the Cafes for biological requirements on a periodic basis. The cold weather does not work in favor in such circumstances.

Knightsbridge

First stop was the Knights bridge. There was not much Christmas charm. Harrods lights were turned off, there were minimul street-lighting expect private lights and decoration from super rich buildings and Harvey Nicholas. The shocking part was, it was really crowded, like any other day, few Cafes were open. Most of the souvenir shops were open too. I thought everything will be closed on Christmas day, I was so wrong. We hopped in for cakes and beverage in Cafe Concerto. It was an unanticipated treat.

The next stop was the Oxford Street. There was huge build-up of traffic, it took us 30 mins to drive 2.7 miles.

Oxford Street

The greatest shopping street in the capital was sparkling to the best of its glory.

The side roads connecting to the Oxford Street were equally impressive.
St. Christopher Palace

South Molton Street

New Bond Street

Regents Street

Carnaby Street

Carnaby Street shows off its ostentatious Christmas lights. Carnaby’s Christmas have a ‘Queen’ theme this year to mark the release of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

Seven Dials

Seven dials where seven streets converge was lit with chrismassy lights.

Covent Garden

Covent gardent was eerily quiet. I felt priviledge to be there.

Leicester Square

Piccadilly Circus

View of streets converge to Piccadilly circus.

We drove around Parliament House, London eye, Tower bridge. We did not find anything special for the Christmas, on the top of their usual glory. It was 1 AM, lights would have been turned-off. Parliament house, Tower bridge have had hardly any lights on. While walking back from Soho, I noticed some of the lights were switched off. Better to plan for the routes before mid-night. Light was still on at the main centres i.e Oxford circus, Regents Street, Leicester Square.

We had a such a great time walking through the sparkling streets of London. Despite of commuting to central London for work regularly, this experience was the totally exquisite from the view of daily commuter.