Piccadilly Circus
A familiar West End junction.
London webcams
London webcams. A closer look.
Begin with a bridge, a junction or a familiar frontage: fifteen London camera locations offer a place to start looking. Open a camera for a refreshed TfL image, then choose Play on its page to load a short clip.
Choose a London camera. Open its image, then Play a short TfL clip.
Westminster Bridge - Big BenOpen camera ↗
TfL image · Capture time is not independently verified. Refreshed images and short clips, rather than a continuous broadcast.
Find cameras on a map → · Explore the wider TfL road network →
Three starting points
A crossing. A junction. A frontage.
All fifteen locations
Choose your London.
15 of 15 cameras
An Albert Bridge studyOne city.
One city.
Two ways to see it.
How do the two approaches frame the same crossing?
Follow the road towards the span in each available frame. Notice what the near end conceals. The images do not establish a shared capture time.
Compare the approaches ↗Albert Bridge
Two approaches to Albert Bridge · schematic, not to scale.
The notebook
Explore the field guide ↗Behind the familiar face.
A penny still has a job to do.
Pre-decimal pennies adjust the Great Clock’s pendulum. Adding one makes the clock gain two-fifths of a second over twenty-four hours; the mechanism it regulates weighs five tonnes. A familiar coin has become an instrument of precision.
Source: UK Parliament’s clock facts and figures.
If the tower appears in the Westminster frame, begin with its public face. Then consider the working parts the image cannot show.
Read about the bell, clock and tower ↗Building and street
A frontage with work to do.
A long department-store facade must address the street and make its entrances legible. Look beyond the name above the door.
Read the Selfridges architecture guide ↗Understand the medium
What does a short clip tell you?
A still offers one frame; a requested clip adds a brief sequence. Neither makes this a continuous broadcast or verifies when the scene was captured.
Understand camera previews and clips ↗The illustrated field guide
A picture opens a chapter.
Explore the history and details behind these illustrated London scenes. These are artworks; camera coverage is listed separately in the camera collection.
Landmarks · 6 min read
Read the article →Big Ben: the bell, the clock and Elizabeth Tower
A familiar outline hides three different jobs. Look inside the clock and try its penny arithmetic.
Engineering folio · 6 min read
Read the article →Tower Bridge: the river gets a turn
Raise the roadway, reveal the counterweights and follow the balance beneath the towers.
Landmarks · 3 min read
Read the article →St Paul’s: a dome beyond the garden
A changing cathedral, an enduring silhouette, and the small framing decisions that help us see it.
Neighbourhoods · 3 min read
Read the article →Covent Garden: beneath the market roof
Follow the columns and roof of a market whose architecture outlasted its wholesale trade.
Neighbourhoods · 3 min read
Read the article →Notting Hill: terraces and the market street
Look past the pastel paint to repeated frontages, different neighbourhoods and Portobello’s trading history.
Neighbourhoods · 3 min read
Read the article →Little Venice: a junction made of water
Quiet reflections belong to a working network. Trace the canal routes behind the waterside scene.