Three surprisingly British locations from around the world

Some places just make you do a double take.

Imagine being in the heart of China, then turning a street corner to find yourself somewhere that looks like a rural English village.

It’s nothing to do with wormholes or magic portals between two places - there are parts of the world where architects have deliberately tried to mimic the look of other countries. It can make for some head-turning buildings, as BBC Bitesize found out with some distinctly British-looking places that are thousands of miles from the United Kingdom.

Welcome to Thames Town, China

In Songjiang, just outside Shanghai, you can take a quiet stroll through mock Tudor streets, step inside a bright red telephone box and then navigate the cobbled streets to the nearest pub.

Thames Town - as it is called - was built as part of a programme called One City, Nine Towns. Each of the towns on the city’s outskirts was created in a different international style.

It’s not unusual for distinctive architectural looks from abroad to be seen in China. The country has its own versions of the Eiffel Tower, Stonehenge, London’s Tower Bridge and the Austrian alpine village of Hallstatt.

Thames Town was planned by Tony Mackay, a UK architect, who was hired in 2001 to give the area that authentic British feel. But Mackay told BBC News in 2013 that he wasn’t happy with the finished product, saying “It doesn’t look quite right.”

While he aimed for a traditional look more synonymous with a Cotswold village, he felt that elements such as six-storey Tudor buildings and the wrong stones and window proportions in the church left it looking more like a film set.

Despite Mackay’s concerns, Thames Town has been a popular destination for newly married couples who like it as the backdrop for their wedding snaps.

Enjoy a stroll through Little London, Rome

It may not be obvious on first sight, but there is a street in the Italian capital that was designed with a nod to its UK counterpart in mind.

Via Bernardo Celentano, a road in the Flaminio neighbourhood, has the affectionate nickname Piccola Londra (Little London). Two rows of terraced houses sit either side of a cobbled street illuminated by Victorian-style street lamps.

The terracotta and pastel finishes to the house fronts are perhaps not a stereotypically London look, but UK visitors to Piccola Londra have been known to comment on the similarity of its ambience to the UK capital - in particular, areas such as Notting Hill - with steps leading up from the street to the front door.

The street was deliberately designed that way via the collective vision of city planner Edmondo Sanjust di Teulada and mayor Ernesto Nathan, who was born in London. They wanted Rome - the capital of Italy since 1871 - to show it was an artistic and cultural hub for Europe. One of their plans was the 1909 Piano Regolatore di Roma (a metropolitan plan for the city) which looked at public transport, parks and different types of housing. This included villini - smaller, standalone homes which differed from the flats that families often lived in.

It was these villini that were built in Little London, from the mind of architect Quadrio Pirani, when the Flaminio district became the first part of Piano Regolatore to be realised. Even today, the street is popular with film crews and for photoshoots.

Take a hike to Pomander Walk, New York

New York City is perhaps a place we associate with tall, tall buildings, neon lights and an excitable buzz of life. But one of its more exclusive streets is a peaceful oasis, tucked away behind a pair of gates, its architecture based on the set of a 1910 Broadway play.

Pomander Walk - named after the show which inspired it - can be found in the city’s Upper West Side. In British writer Louis N Parker’s script, the action took place solely in a row of houses facing the River Thames in Chiswick, UK. The New York version is a more traditional set-up of two terraces facing each other across a narrow path, with a small garden in front of each house.

The private street of 27 houses and flats was conceived by Thomas Healy, a restaurateur and nightclub owner in the city who was originally from Ireland. In 1921, the architects King & Campbell were given the job of making Pomander Walk a reality, with mock Tudor stylings on some of the buildings and house colours which alternated between red, blue and green. To complement the ‘Britishness’ of the street, two iron lampposts were also installed in the middle of the car-free thoroughfare.

Inspired by the theatre, Pomander Walk became a popular residence for of the artistic community. It was listed by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1982.

This article was published in January 2025