London


<p>Love comes and goes, but for Muddy there&#8217;s one life-long passion that never dims: London. Yes our cosmopolitan capital&#8217;s expensive, grubby around the edges and <em>very </em>grey in winter, but it&#8217;s also energetic, bursting with culture and boasts some of the best restaurants in the world. Its multiple green spaces are a joy to escape into and don&#8217;t even get us started on the rooftop bars. If you need a reminder of why it&#8217;s the city for you, snuggle up on the sofa, watch these London-based, rewatchable rom-coms and fall in love all over again (even watching the trailers is making us swoon). Spoiler: Hugh Grant features heavily. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-notting-hill">NOTTING HILL</h2>



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<p>The classic. Starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, the romance revolves around American movie actress Anna Scott walking into a Notting Hill bookshop by chance and falling for its owner, divorcee Will Thacker (Grant). Released in the 90s, it&#8217;s still a great watch, from the pastel-coloured Notting Hill streets to the flat Thacker shares with scruffy Welshman, Spike (Rhys Iffans), on Westbourne Park Road and Anna&#8217;s glam scenes at The Ritz, it&#8217;s the locations we love even more than the characters. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bridget-jones-s-diary">BRIDGET JONES&#8217;S DIARY</h2>



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<p>As Bridget Jones fever hits the capital this week with the release<strong> (13 Feb)</strong> of&nbsp;<em>Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy,&nbsp;</em>the fourth and final film, why not take a trip down memory lane and watch them all from the very beginning? In the fist movie Bridget was your archetypal 00s Londoner, from wine-quaffing with mates in boozers to falling out of black cabs, strolls across Tower Bridge, kisses on cobblestone streets with Mr Darcy (Collin Firth) and Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and PJ-wearing nights in on the sofa of her Borough Market flat (it&#8217;s been transformed into a restaurant btw, <a href="https://london.muddystilettos.co.uk/eat-out/bridget-jones-restaurant/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">read more here</a>). In short, the backdrop&#8217;s a homage to the city and we love it. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-love-actually">LOVE ACTUALLY</h2>



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<p> Yes it&#8217;s a billed as a Christmas rom-com, but there&#8217;s no law that says you can watch it on Valentine&#8217;s Day, or any day for that matter. Another Richard Curtis classic which follows the &#8216;love stories&#8217; of various couples mainly based in London, including a widowed dad (Liam Neeson ) and his son Sam, a newly-elected Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) and his dazzling aide (Martine McCutcheon) and Juliet (Kiera Knightley), who has no idea her soon-to-be husband&#8217;s best friend Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is in love with her. Possibly the most memorable of all though is Karen (Emma Thompson), whose husband Harry (Alan Rickman) starts to fall in love with his secretary (IYKYK). Despite some heart-breaking scenes, London&#8217;s transfixing throughout, from 10 Downing Street to cobbled St Luke&#8217;s Mews, where Andrew Lincoln declares his love on cue cards. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-four-weddings-amp-a-funeral">FOUR WEDDINGS &amp; A FUNERAL </h2>



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<p>Another Richard Curtis movie starring Hugh Grant (shock) and it&#8217;s not all shot in the capital, and yet we still fall for the London scenes every. Single. Time. The movie follows the adventures of Charles (Hugh Grant) and his circle of friends as they attend a series of very English weddings. Andie MacDowell co-stars as Charles&#8217;s love interest Carrie, plus an amazing cast including Kristin Scott Thomas, James Fleet, Simon Callow, John Hannah, Charlotte Coleman and Rowan Atkinson. The locations that&#8217;ll make you swoon and want to get hitched in the city include the chapel at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, we wouldn&#8217;t say no to Charles&#8217; flat in Highbury either. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-love-at-first-sight">LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT</h2>



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<p>A feel good rom-com set in London that&#8217;s not directed by Richard Curtis, doesn&#8217;t star Hugh Grant and wasn&#8217;t filmed decades ago? Yes, we&#8217;ve dared to go there, but stay with us because this Netflix flick released in 2023 about a girl Hadley (Hayley Lu Richardson, <em>The White Lotus</em>) and guy (Ben Hardy) who meet-cute on a flight to London has got all the feels. Once the couple land and depart (after a kiss on the plane!), it&#8217;s over to the city to steal the show, with magical scenes filmed in the Bloomsbury Hotel (scene of Hadley&#8217;s Dad&#8217;s wedding), Queen&#8217;s House and Battersea Arts Centre. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-one-day">ONE DAY </h2>



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<p><em>One Day,</em> based on David Nicholls’ 2009 bestseller, follows the ups and downs of friends Dexter and Emma from the moment they meet at their Edinburgh Uni graduation ball to their messy mid-30s London lives. You could watch the 2011 film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, but we think last year&#8217;s Netflix adaptation starring Leo Woodall (<em>Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, The White Lotus</em>) and Amika Mod (<em>This is Going to Hurt</em>) is <em>waaaay </em>better. It&#8217;s SO dam good you&#8217;ll laugh and cry, but it also showcases London in a way that makes us want to go back in time and relive our youth. Like episode three when they hang out on Primrose Hill drinking in a bottle of wine and the views, or the cringy scene where Dex takes Em to a flashy restaurant (it&#8217;s <strong><a href="https://www.quaglinos-restaurant.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Quaglinos</a> </strong>in Mayfair). Later, Dex gets over his dodgy 90s big ego TV host era and sets up his own caff, Cafe Belleville. You can sip a latte there for real at <strong><a href="https://www.lamaisonhighbury.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">La Maison</a> </strong>in Calabria Street, Highbury. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-about-time">ABOUT TIME </h2>



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<p>Ok we&#8217;ll come clean, this isn&#8217;t our favourite rom-com ever, HOWEVER, its still a great watch and the London backdrop is easy on the eye and makes us feel warm and fuzzy. If you&#8217;ve never seen the movie about Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), a young guy whose father (Bill Nighy) reveals their family&#8217;s hereditary secret (time travel, yes really), then then settle in with some popcorn and treat yourself this 14 Feb. When Tim leaves Cornwall for London to train as a lawyer and falls for Mary (Rachel McAdams), their lives are thrown into disarray, but it&#8217;s the city scenes we really want to wallow in, from Paddington Station to Queen&#8217;s Park,  Lincoln Inn Fields, Dans Le Noir restaurant and the Old Vic Theatre. </p>


Love London: 7 romantic, rewatchable films set in the capital

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