London’s Chinatown is compact but dense — a few streets in Soho centred on Gerrard Street that pack in an extraordinary amount of colour, smell and noise. The red lanterns that hang in long strings across the pedestrianised street create an instant sense of arrival, and at night or around the Lunar New Year they give the whole area a glow that makes it one of the most naturally photogenic corners of central London.
February is an excellent time to visit because the Lunar New Year celebrations transform the area entirely. Dragon dances, lion dances, firecrackers, enormous crowds, and a general atmosphere of genuine festivity rather than tourist performance. The restaurants were packed and the streets were standing room only, but that’s rather the point.
Gerrard Street itself is worth shooting at different times of day — the lanterns look completely different at noon versus after dark, and the ornamental gates at each end of the main street frame views back along the red-and-gold corridor nicely. The area has been Chinatown since the 1950s, when the community relocated from the original Limehouse settlement in the East End, and it still functions as a genuine neighbourhood centre for London’s Chinese community as well as a visitor destination.