London is the most filmed city on earth, and this video by Mostly Walking proves it in cinematic style. Their famous movie locations walking tour London covers both the James Bond MI6 building at Vauxhall Cross and the Harry Potter sites around King’s Cross and Bloomsbury in glorious 4K HDR — two of the most beloved film franchises in history, united by the city that has served as their shared stage. Whether you are a spy thriller devotee or a wizard enthusiast, walking these streets in person is genuinely thrilling.
About This Walking Tour
Mostly Walking has built a substantial following by combining high production values with genuine knowledge of filming locations, and this London film tour is among their most accomplished videos. The 4K HDR format does full justice to the city’s extraordinary visual range — from the brutalist SIS building on the South Bank to the ornate Victorian ironwork of King’s Cross station, from the Georgian squares of Bloomsbury to the grand Edwardian facades that doubled as Whitehall departments in countless Bond films. The video moves at a pace that allows viewers to properly take in each location and understand its cinematic context, with on-screen identification of which scene was shot where. For travellers planning their own walking route, the video provides an invaluable overview of the geographic spread of these locations — roughly from Vauxhall in the south to King’s Cross in the north, with Westminster, Southwark, and the City of London in between. A self-guided version of this walk covers approximately seven to ten kilometres and can be completed in a single long day, with early morning departures recommended to capture the near-empty streets that give the locations their cinematic quality. The video is a compelling argument that London’s film history is not just a tourism niche but a genuine lens through which to understand the city’s architecture, neighbourhoods, and character.
Highlights of London’s Film Locations
King’s Cross Station’s Platform 9¾ installation draws over a million visitors annually, with queues forming each morning outside the Harry Potter Shop where the iconic trolley-through-the-wall photo opportunity awaits. The actual filming for the early Potter movies used platforms 4 and 5 at King’s Cross, with the exterior shots taken from the station’s Victorian Gothic facade. A short walk south through Bloomsbury leads to Australia House on the Strand, which served as Gringotts Bank, and to Lincoln’s Inn, used for Ministry of Magic exteriors. The SIS building at Vauxhall Cross — the real headquarters of MI6 — has been destroyed or attacked on screen in multiple Bond films including GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough, and Skyfall, yet still stands in reality. Westminster Bridge and the surrounding Parliament Square have appeared in Bond, the Bourne films, and 28 Days Later. Notting Hill’s blue door at 280 Westbourne Park Road became one of the most photographed doors in the world after the 1999 Richard Curtis film, though the door colour has since changed. Borough Market appears in numerous productions and is also worth visiting for its food.
A Brief History of London on Film
London has been a film subject since the very earliest days of cinema: early Lumière brothers actualities captured Victorian London streets in the 1890s, and Alfred Hitchcock made the city a character in films from The 39 Steps onward. The post-war decades established London as a global film backdrop of choice — the Ealing comedies, the James Bond franchise (which began filming in London in 1962 with Dr No’s London sequences), and the British New Wave all drew on the city’s extraordinary architectural and social texture. The Harry Potter series, filmed largely at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire with extensive location work across London, introduced an entirely new generation of film tourists to the city from 2001 onward. Today London supports one of the world’s largest film production industries, with the British Film Commission estimating that the UK capital hosts hundreds of feature film and television productions each year, many of which use its streets, parks, and public buildings as locations.
Practical Tips
An Oyster card is essential for navigating between film locations across the city; individual Underground journeys add up quickly without one. The most useful stations for this walk are King’s Cross St Pancras, Westminster, Embankment, London Bridge, and Vauxhall. Early mornings between 5am and 7am offer near-empty streets ideal for photography at iconic locations. The Platform 9¾ trolley photo at King’s Cross operates on a ticketed basis and queues form from mid-morning; arrive early to avoid waiting. Regency Café on Marsham Street, used in multiple film productions, serves excellent traditional breakfasts. The walk is best split across two days if you want to do justice to both the South Bank Bond locations and the Bloomsbury Harry Potter sites.
Watch & Explore More
There is no better city to explore on foot than London. Find more walking content on the @walkingtoursvideoscom YouTube channel, and see our full guide to the London walking tour from Tower Bridge to Westminster for an architectural complement to this film location route.