London Christmas Lights: 2011 Edition

Unfortunately, the only central London cinema that was showing Moneyball today was in Leicester Square but I decided to take advantage of my walk home through the hoards of shoppers by taking a few photos of some of the Christmas lights. I didn't include my photos of the lights on Marylebone High Street or South Molton Lane, which have been the same for several years.

Earlham Street, Covent Garden. Quite pretty but hard to photograph, given all the super-bright street lamps.

Carnaby Street. The giant holly leaves and mistletoe are, perhaps more straightforward than last year's space Santas, but I like the style of this year's lights; unlike most of the others, they are bright rather than bling-tastic.

Regent Street. The giant stars (which usually feature on this street) are quite nice but it's a shame about the large sponsorship banners. The overall effect is a little too busy but that's probably a fair summary of this street at this time of year.

Close-up of one of the Regent Street stars.

Oxford Street. The street was mostly traffic free today (although apparently the ubiquitous pedicabs don't think they count as traffic) -- EDIT: this was an emergency measure, according to the BBC. I hate Oxford Street at the best of times, let alone when it's crazy busy and blinged to the max. I didn't make it as far as Selfridges today but their lights were probably the classiest of the department stores on the street.

St Christopher's Place. I was a bit disappointed with these lights after last year's (or maybe 2009's) bold strips of fluorescent colour and given the traffic and the street lamps, it was quite hard to take good photos.