Left hand tucked into a trouser pocket, Jackson beamed and waved to the crowd as a barrage of camera flashes lit up the night.
After briefly posing for the press and fans, he turned and entered the theatre - almost taking a side door until directed through the main entrance - for the biggest night of his career.
Flaming rings stood atop the Odeon verandah, with music from the film playing as actors and celebrities arrived.
John Rhys-Davies, who plays the dwarf Gimli, was first there.
Anne Burn, 33, of Manchester stood squashed against temporary railings to get a glimpse of the stars.
She told NZPA she was pleased Jackson directed the movie of a book she first read 20 years ago.
"Peter Jackson is an amazing director. I really have high hopes for the film. If it was a Hollywood director it could have been messed up big time.
"I'm really looking forward to the movie," she said, admitting she had waited three hours in the cold to see the stars arrive.
Burly though he is, Jackson was still overshadowed by the trio of tiny actors who played Hobbits in his trilogy.
Billy Boyd, who played Pippin, Dominic Monaghan, Merry, and Elijah Wood, who was the hero of the story, Frodo, arrived one after the other.
They were colour-coordinated, with Boyd in a green suit, Wood a matching brown suit, and Monaghan, purple.
After an extended stint signing autographs, they embraced, then stood arm-in-arm as photographers let fly.
Some fans waited for more than four hours in a bid to catch a glimpse of those who turned J.R.R. Tolkien's tale of Middle Earth into movie magic.
A range of British glitterati attended the film's long-awaited unveiling.
A Metropolitan policeman told NZPA tonight's event was not as well attended by fans as the recent Harry Potter premiere had been.
Supermodels Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer, Jodie Kidd, fashion designer Stella McCartney, and actor Jude Law were reported by The Times to be among the invited guests.
Secrecy was intended to ensure maximum media hype for The Fellowship of the Ring, the first in the three-part adaptation of Tolkien's mammoth novel.
Only a glowing Newsweek review last week has given much more than a glimpse of what was expected on screen. British critics finally saw a first press show this morning in London.
Usually films hold their press previews well before the premiere, but Lord of the Rings studio New Line Cinema has kept everyone guessing until the big day.
Select critics have seen high-security screenings in America.
Newsweek said it had "real passion" and rated it above its most obvious box office rival, the already released Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Starring Sir Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood and Christopher Lee, the Lord of the Rings trilogy cost £210 million ($736 million) to make, surpassing Titanic and Pearl Harbour.
Australian Blanchett, who played elf queen Galadriel, was expected at the premiere, despite giving birth to her first baby last Wednesday.
The first big chunk of the footage from The Fellowship of the Ring was shown during the Cannes Film Festival in France last spring.
Websites have offered rumours and snippets about the film, while its official website claims to have had more than 500 million hits.
Set designers from New Zealand have reportedly been in London for two weeks rebuilding three Middle Earth-style locations for the post-premiere party at Tobacco Dock, in East London.
The Fellowship of the Ring will go on general release on both sides of the Atlantic on December 19.
Editing on the second movie, The Two Towers will begin shortly for release in December 2002. The Return of the King was due out in late 2003.
Lord of the Rings has in Britain so far failed to reach the hype levels of Harry Potter, but was still expected to give its rival a Christmas box office battle.
The Lord of the Rings - which owes something to Wagner's operatic cycle The Ring - took 16 years to write and was published in 1954 to mixed reviews. But as the 60s rolled around it was picked up by the emerging counter-culture, which saw not just an escapist fantasy but also an alternative society, complete with its own language and codes of conduct.
The epic has sold more than 100 million copies in 40 languages.
It follows the fortunes of Frodo, a small hairy-footed creature called a Hobbit, who takes harrowing journeys through Middle Earth under the guidance of Gandalf.
Frodo encounters legions of fierce goblins, giant trolls and wizards in his quest against evil that is threatening the region's many different peoples. In the end, Frodo must destroy the all-powerful ring that the dark lord Sauron covets.
- NZPA
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