While we’re all still dithering about whether it’s too early to get our trees up – do it!
We’ve been well and truly beaten to the jump by a sparkling collection of Christmas trees starting to crop up around the capital for public consumption.
Wrap up warm, get your selfie-sticks at the ready and let’s Insta the heck out of these beauties…
Check out our selection from around London below.
Aqua Shard
When you’re located in a huge Christmas tree-shaped building, you don’t have to go very far for inspiration, which is no doubt why designer Lee Broom and design brand Nude have come up with the tree of glass, a 10-metre sculpture made from blown-glass LED pendant lights, also Shard-shaped. Taking all the attention in their 31st-floor restaurant, the tree follows creations by everyone from Vivienne Westwood to David Attenborough.
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Leadenhall Market
The masterpiece of Victorian architecture is a drop-dead beauty any time of the year but when they knock up that huge tree with its traditional decorations right in the middle, under the glass roof, it becomes nothing short of magical… no wonder that this is the place that provided some of the locations for the Harry Potter movies then. Fun fact!
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Covent Garden
Is it just us or is the Christmas tree in Covent Garden getting more spectacular year on year. Loaded with lights, set in a lovely wooden tub – huge! – and big as you like, it’s become the one to see in a trip up west. It doesn’t hurt that the rest of Covent Garden Market is blinged up pretty spectacularly too and that some of the best shopping and dining in London is at your fingertips.
St Pancras Station
They have a lot to live up to when it comes to Christmas trees at St. Pancras station. In the past they’ve had trees by Fortnum & Mason, Disney, Tiffany and Cirque du blinking Soleil. No pressure, then. This year it’s the turn of The Prince’s Trust, who have taken inspiration from the London skyline that St. Pancras is such a part of, with a tree like a building with stuff going on through lighted windows.
Trafalgar Square
There’s been some controversy about the traditional tree in Trafalgar Square over recent years because it’s not, well, Christmassy enough. But that’s because it’s decorated in the traditional Nordic style seeing as it’s a gift from Norway, one they’ve been sending since 1947 as an act of friendship for being allies in the war. So quite rude to criticise. The vertical strings of lights may not dazzle but there’s no being under-impressed by the sheer size of the thing. Tree goes up December 1.
The Connaught Hotel
Now you wouldn’t expect a hotel as delicious and fancy as The Connaught to slack on the old Christmas tree front, would you? And you’d be dead right. Positioned right outside the hotel, this year’s specially commissioned creation is from acclaimed artist Suzy Murphy, whose nine-metre tree is covered in lights made from sketches of the dog she had as a kid, Toby. ‘My vision was to create a tree that symbolises my childhood,’ she says. And it’s beautiful!
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Claridge’s
Freshly unveiled, this Christmas tree in the lobby of the most delicious old-school hotel in London/England/The World has been designed by Sandra Choi of Jimmy Choo (yes, the man who does the shoes) who has foregone the usual greenery to sculpt her tree from mirrors with lights used to make it feel like you’re looking directly into a diamond. A little greenhouse-y, you certainly can’t accuse Claridge’s of being stuck in the past with a tree like this.
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