Baby it's cold outside, which means Christmas, and love, is all around. So are bingeing sessions in pajamas watching classic Christmas movies. If you polled people on their favourite feel-good Christmas film, Love Actually would be in the top five. The 2003 film starred the who's who of Brit and American mainstream cinema, including Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The global hit had different couples from largely white upper class backgrounds negotiate romance and family, weddings and airports during the Christmas season. Certainly not everyone's cup of tea, especially in these times when socialism is making a comeback in the West. But if it is your Christmas fix and if 'Love Is All Around' is your motif for the festive season, we suggest you bookmark this list of filming locations of iconic scenes in London where this Christmas classic was shot.
The pastel colours of St Luke's Mews in Notting Hill, London, is the location for the cult scene featuring Mark where he professes his love to Juliet, with cue cards (though lately folks have been questioning the stalker-ish vibes of the whole thing). The West London neighbourhood has also featured in another popular rom-com that was named after it, Notting Hill. It is popular on the tourist map due to the colourful mews houses, antiques stores, excellent café culture, and farmer's markets.
The scene in which Alan Rickman's character Harry buys the necklace for his secretary Mia was shot in Oxford Street's famed department store Selfridges. He also meets his wife Karen (Emma Thompson) in this neighbourhood, at adjacent St Christopher's Place, a little shopping plaza behind Selfridges.
The film's opening and closing sequences are set in Heathrow, London's largest and most famous airport, overlaid with Hugh Grant talking on the pervasiveness of love. His lines are now known to everyone who's seen the film. ‘Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport,’ he says. ‘General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling love, actually is all around.’
At the beginning of the film, Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Juliet (Keira Knightly) marry in Grosvenor Chapel on South Audley Street, near Hyde Park. This historic Anglican church has served the parish of Mayfair since 1730. More about it here.
One of the film's mini stories revolves around Colin Firth's writer character Jamie, who begins learning Portuguese after falling in love with his maid. He practices whenever and wherever he can, including while walking down a crowded escalator at London's Canary Wharf underground station in East London after his Christmas shopping. The name 'Canary Wharf' is derived from the dock where vegetables and fruits from the Canary Islands were unloaded. It is a popular tourist destination with a variety of excellent restaurants, bars, and cafes.
