London hasn't changed, but the people have changed, the traffic's changed. It's got harder, but the place is the same.
I've been driving a London taxi since 1966, which makes it 45 years this year.
You can imagine how many miles I've covered during that time.
Every day is the same, but every day is very, very different.
You've got the Millennium Bridge, the Wobbly Bridge, that used to be called the Wobbly Bridge.
And of course you can see St. Paul's Cathedral, all the old city churches in the background.
You've got The Gherkin over there.
When I first started driving my cab,
these were all working wharfs -- lots and lots of barges and it was busy, busy.
Right now, it's more of a tourist river.
I always get a buzz, always get a buzz coming down here.
London was founded on the river Thames.
Without the river Thames there wouldn't be no London, and there'd be no cab drivers, so... (chuckles)
Here we go. It's our second stop. And Primrose Hill, I'm sure you'll love it.
It's a fantastic view of all over London.
Just look at the skyline.
It's, it is, it's quite remarkable how much it's kind of grown, but not outwards, necessarily, but upwards.
It's amazing, absolutely amazing.
And you can see St. Paul's Cathedral in the distance, how it's been virtually dwarfed by everything around it, but it still looks magnificent.
Just it's hard to believe that you're no more than a mile or so from the West End of London.
Wonderful view. Wonderful panorama. I love it.
So the first stop on my tour of Soho today is a really wonderful bookstore.
If you come to London and you're interested in art or fashion, anything like that to do with the creative industry,
you should definitely come here.
It's an amazing store.
You can find really rare editions, really special books,
and it's just a pleasure to sort of browse here for hours. So, come through with me.
As you can see it's not huge, but it's not huge, but it is absolutely packed to the rafters with some of the best art books in the world,
and the range is just incredible.
It basically goes back to very rare antique ones to very new books
like this one here by Hedi Slimane, for instance.
For me, this book shop is absolutely iconic and really, really brilliant.
This bar has been here longer than anybody would care to mention.
It's one of the absolutely iconic bars of Soho,
and you can get the best cup of coffee here, the best foccacia and the best sort of sandwiches,
and the staff all authentic.
And it's just a great, great place and I love it.
Hi, I'm Tom Aikens. I'm a chef. I work in London and I have two restaurants.
One is Tom Aikens and one is Tom's Kitchen.
We're here to day in New Covent Garden Market, which is, as you can see, a vegetable market.
All the vegetables that come into London, they're distributed through wholesalers, and they go to different restaurants and locations throughout London.
So, I'm going to take you throughout the Covent Garden Market now.
In terms of, sort of, the food scene at the minute, we're obviously coming into spring, so you're starting to have pees and raw beans and new-season spring broccoli.
[You've] also got good English rhubarb. That's come into season now, so great for your crumble.
I think London has a definitely a diverse culture in terms of the restaurants.
You know, the ranges of cuisine, from Indian to Chinese to French to Spanish.
And all of those different restaurants obviously get most of their produce directly from New Covent Garden Market,
and that's because it is so diverse.