The London Marathon 2018 took place on Sunday 22 April, but this Roberts London film was published a few weeks later, on 13 May. It is a spectator’s record rather than a guide to the full course: a walk from the London Eye towards St James’s Park, Birdcage Walk, Buckingham Palace and the finish on The Mall.

Marathon crowds beside the London Eye

The film begins on the South Bank beside the London Eye. Runners, supporters and event staff fill the riverside area, giving the opening scenes the busy, slightly improvised feeling of a city on race day. The camera does not attempt to follow one competitor. Instead, it records the scale of the crowd and the continuous movement around one of London’s most familiar landmarks.

The 38th London Marathon was unusually hot. Temperatures reached about 24°C, making it the hottest edition of the race recorded at that time. More than 40,000 people took part, while Queen Elizabeth II officially started the event from Windsor. Those facts sit behind the film, although its attention remains on ordinary street-level details and the experience of joining the spectators.

Walking towards the final mile

Crossing towards central London, the route of the film gradually meets the ceremonial setting of the race’s final section. The red roadway, barriers and flags announce the approach to The Mall. Runners appear in ones and small groups, each receiving encouragement as they continue through the final mile.

At the front of the race, Eliud Kipchoge won the men’s elite event and Vivian Cheruiyot won the women’s race. David Weir claimed his eighth London wheelchair title. The film arrives after those headline moments, preserving the longer rhythm of the day when thousands of runners were still making their way to the finish.

St James’s Park on race day

The pace changes in St James’s Park. Lake views, spring foliage and people walking between viewing points create a quiet contrast with the barriers and loud encouragement nearby. This section is part of the spectator journey: London’s park paths becoming informal corridors between different glimpses of the race.

Back beside the course on Birdcage Walk, individual runners are close enough to see clearly as they pass. By this point the finish is near, but the effort remains visible. The crowd’s role is simple and important: keep applauding, calling out and helping competitors through the last stretch.

Buckingham Palace and the finish on The Mall

Buckingham Palace provides the unmistakable final landmark. Runners turn around the Victoria Memorial before entering The Mall, where the finish line waits a short distance ahead. For spectators, this is also the point where the race and London’s ceremonial geography come together most dramatically.

A Roberts London record from May 2018

Published on 13 May 2018, the video looks back at an exceptionally warm marathon day and the atmosphere around its closing mile. Its value is in the sequence: the London Eye crowds, the walk through St James’s Park, runners on Birdcage Walk and the turn at Buckingham Palace. Together they form a compact archive of how central London looked and felt when the marathon came through in 2018.

The footage also shows how much of the London Marathon is experienced away from television coverage. Spectators choose a place, walk between landmarks and wait for a fleeting view of runners whose personal stories they may never know. On a hot day, every cheer mattered. The resulting film is modest but revealing: it records the spaces between the famous race images and follows the city as it shifts from riverside crowds to parkland, palace railings and the long home straight. That everyday perspective gives this short archive its character.