Sunday London Ride Goes To The Movies
You've seen it on the big screen, now see it for real. A ride which visits the locations of some iconic films. 23 miles, starting at Hyde Park Corner and ending at Trinity Buoy Wharf.
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The route (opens in a new window)
Route starts at Hyde Park Corner
STOP: Genevieve (1953)
LOCATION: 17 Rutland Mews South
The home of Alan and Wendy McKim (John Gregson and Dinah Sheridan). The mews were once stables for the grand houses in the area, and the name derives from the falcons that were kept there.
TRIVIA:
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John Gregson couldn’t drive;
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references to ‘spend a penny’ had to be removed for the US version;
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The car was originally called Annie, but was changed after the film
Number 10 was later home to June ‘George’ Buckridge (Beryl Reid) and Childie (Suzanna York) in The Killing Of Sister George (1968).
The Killing of Sister George clip on YouTube - walks into the mews at 4’30.
STOP: The Hole in the wall. Rutland Estate.
LOCATION: Steps from Rutland Mews East to rutland Street
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From 1853 the whole of southern Rutland Gate was built up, together with Rutland Mews East and West and a roadway linking Rutland Gate with his development on the Kingston House estate to the west. It was presumably at this time that the high brick wall along the south side of Ennismore Street was built, shutting off Brompton Road and its northern hinterland from the exclusive culs-de-sac opposite Hyde Park. Since the Second World War a footway has been opened between Rutland Mews East and Rutland Street, which goes some way to alleviating the isolation of Rutland Gate from Brompton Road and the area of Montpelier Square.
STOP: Skyfall (2012)
LOCATION: 82 Cadogan Square
This was M’s home in the 2012 film Skyfall. The house was John Barry’s actual home. Barry had composed the film score for this and several other Bond films, but he died before production began, so they decided to film some scenes here.
After the funeral of the victims from the MI6 building explosion, M returns to her house located at 82 Cadogan Square. Here, she finds James Bond who decided to come back from the dead after hearing about the attack.
TRIVIA:
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First use of the F word in a Bond movie.
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CocaCola was sprayed on the roads in Turkey to stop the motorbikes sliding over
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85 taylor made Tom Ford suits were used in filming the train sequence at the beginning.
STOP: Repulsion (1965)
LOCATION: 1-3 Pelham Street
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Catherine Deneuve was taken for lunch here in Dino’s cafe – now Muriel’s Kitchen.
Set in a bleakly grey London, Roman Polanski’s brilliant, cold and terrifying case history sees sexually repressed and mystifyingly psychotic Carole Ledoux killing off predatory males, while well-heeled South Kensington has never appeared so unsettling.
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TRIVIA:
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First female orgasm (sound only) to be allowed by the censor.
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Roman Polanski has a cameo role dressed as a woman
Repulsion clip on YouTube - walks through the area at 27’
STOP: A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
LOCATION: 69 Onslow Gardens.
Known as 69 Basil Street in the film (an ‘in-joke’ referencing Fawlty Towers), this is where Ken (played by Michael Palin) finally manages to rub out Patricia Hayes character after mistakenly knocking off her terriers one by one. He shoots from number 74.
TRIVIA:
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Archie Leach was Cary Grant’s real name. Cleese chose it in homage as they were both born in Bristol.
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The ‘chips up the nose’ scene was responsible for the death of a guy in Denmark who had a heart attack due to laughing too much
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A Fish Called Wanda clip on YouTube
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STOP: An American Werewolf in London (1981)
LOCATION: 64 Redcliffe Square/Coleherne Road
David Kessler (David Naughton) goes through changes in the flat of nurse Alex Price (Jenny Agattur).
TRIVIA:
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First film to get an academy award for best make-up
American Werewolf In London clip on YouTube
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STOP: Notting Hill (1999)
LOCATION: 280 Westbourne Park Road, Notting Hill
William Thacker's flat (Hugh Grant).
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The title is the setting, though the famously cosmopolitan locale seems to have been ethnically cleansed: the film is the whitest Notting Hill you’ll ever see. During the Fifties, Notting Hill was bedsit-land – cheap, rundown accommodation for the largely West Indian immigrants, and became the site of notorious race riots when locals clashed with racist Teddy Boys.
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TRIVIA:
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The ‘blue door’ flat was owned by the film's writer Richard Curtis.
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The original blue door was sold in aid of charity shortly after the film - this is a replacement.
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The restaurant ‘telling off’ off scene was ad-libbed - although Julia Roberts actually was paid $15m dollars for the film
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STOP: Notting Hill (1999).
LOCATION: 142 Portobello Road
William Thacker’s ‘travel bookshop’:
There is no ‘Travel Book Company’ on Portobello Road, the down-at-heel shop owned by William Thacker. The store was Nicholls Antique Arcade, then furniture store Gong, it’s now a souvenir shop, sensibly called – yes – Notting Hill, 142 Portobello Road (and rather cheekily replicating the film’s typeface).
The real Travel Bookshop, on which William’s establishment was based, was around the corner at 13-15 Blenheim Crescent. It really was called The Travel Bookshop but rising costs in the area (ironically bumped up by the success of the film) and the continued rise of online selling meant that the shop closed its doors in 2011. The premises has since reopened as a book store once again.
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STOP: Alfie (1966)
LOCATION: 29 St Stephen’s Gardens, Chepstow Road
Alfie started out as a stage play by Bill Naughton, and it was a bold decision of director Lewis Gilbert to break naturalistic conventions and film the monologues and asides straight to camera: ‘I suppose you think you’re goin’ to see the bleedin’ titles now…’.
Alfie's rather seedy bedsit hasn’t really changed at all, apart from the inevitable gentrification and pedestrianisation of the area, which means that Annie (Jane Asher) would no longer be able to run out of the flat jump straight onto a convenient bus.
TRIVIA:
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End credits song was sung by Cilla for UK release and Cher for US release
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But Dionne Warwick had the hit
Alfie clip on YouTube at 5'00.
Alfie clip on YouTube at 4’40
STOP: About A Boy LOCATION: 1 St Stephen’s Crescent
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Rachel Weisz’s flat opposite St Stephens Church where Hugh Grant asks Nicholas Hoult to be his son.
STOP: Hard Day’s Night (1964)
LOCATION: Marylebone station
Marylebone station was a substitute for Liverpool Lime Street during the opening credits of the film and the scene when The Beatles arrived in London was also filmed at Marylebone.
TRIVIA:
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The only Beatles film to be filmed in B&W
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The George Harrison's fall at the beginning of the film was accidental, but they decided to keep it in. George needed a new suit afterwards
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The film was originally a wheeze to allow the producers to release a sound track in the UK, it became one of the highest percentage grossing film.
STOP: Kings Speech (2011)
LOCATION: 33 Portland Place
In London, the Duke (Colin Firth) and Duchess (Helena Bonham Carter) lived at ‘145 Piccadilly’, near Hyde Park Corner. The actual house was destroyed in a bombing raid during WWII, but the house seen in the film is 33 Portland Place - a remarkable Robert Adam house, dating from 1775, which has had a colourful history – including once being home to the embassy of the Government of Sierra Leone.
The interior of Logue’s practice, though, the extraordinary consulting room with striking windows and wonderfully distressed wallpaper is, amazingly, part of the same elegant Georgian house at 33 Portland Place that provided the royal couple’s ‘Piccadilly’ home. The same room featured in the 2006 Amy Winehouse video for Rehab. The house has recently been used as one of London's most idiosyncratic party venues.
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TRIVIA:
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First Australian film to win an Oscar for best picture
Geoffrey Rush visits his agent and meets his fourth wife here in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. And Emelda Staunton descends these steps to the basements as Vera Drake.
STOP: Batman Begins (2005)
LOCATION: Senate House, Malet Street
‘Gotham City’ (recreated on sets for the Tim Burton films) is a mix of sinister art deco locations around Chicago and London, knitted seamlessly together, as well as some pretty impressive sets at Shepperton Studios and in one of the two gigantic airship hangars at Cardington, a couple of miles southeast of Bedford.
The ‘Gotham courts’ lobby, in which Chill is gunned down by one of Falcone’s lackeys before a vengeful Bruce Wayne can do the job himself, is Senate House, part of the University of London. It is also seen as ‘New York’ in Tony Scott's vampire flick The Hunger and as the CIA HQ in the same director’s Spy Game, as as well as the king’s bunker in Richard Loncraine's Richard III, with Ian McKellen, and more recently as ‘the best restaurant in Moscow’ in Kenneth Branagh’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
The location is revisited for sequel The Dark Knight.
Its brutalist exterior is said to have inspired the look of the ‘Ministry of Truth’ in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and indeed it is used in Michael Radford’s 1984 film version. It’s not normally open to the public.
TRIVIA:
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Christian Bale did all promo interviews in an american accent
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Wayne Manor is Mentmore Towers in Bucks (Rothschild’s former home) and also features in Mummy Returns, Brazil, Eyes Wide Shut, Johnny English and many more
STOP: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001)
LOCATION: The interior of ‘Gringott’s Bank’: Australia House
Scenes for Gringotts Wizarding Bank (the only known bank of the wizarding world) in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone were filmed in the grand interior of Australia House. A major landmark on this famous street, Australia House was officially opened by King George V in 1918.
TRIVIA:
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J K Rowling insisted in a British and Irish cast - even turning down Robin Williams who requested a part
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Dumbledor is old English for bumblebee
Gringott's Banks clip on YouTube
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​STOP: Batman Begins (2005) - ‘Gotham City Police Station’ – and the ‘Shanghai’ warehouse
LOCATION: The Farmiloe Building, 28-36 St John Street, Clerkenwell
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The first floor offices of the The Farmiloe Building were transformed into ‘Gotham City Police Station’, in which Sergeant Gordon (Gary Oldman) works and, with an eye to economy, the film’s ‘Shanghai’ warehouse was filmed in the same building. Both sequels, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, return to the location.
Christopher Nolan also used the Farmiloe as the pharmacy in Inception. You might have seen the Italianate Victorian frontage of the building as the ‘Trans Siberian’ restaurant of ruthless patriarch Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.
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STOP: Skyfall (2012)
LOCATION: Smithfield Market car park
Entrance to standby underground facility after MI6 is blown up.
With the Vauxhall HQ out of action, Bond is taken to the standby underground facility, apparently entered by the underground Smithfield Car Park in West Smithfield, alongside the famous Smithfield Meat Market. The subterranean interior is, as you might expect, a different locale.
The brick corridors and training area are the Old Vic Tunnels, 30,000 square feet of disused railway vaults hidden beneath Waterloo Station on the South Bank, which were recently acquired by the Old Vic theatre as a performance space.
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STOP: Four Weddings and a funeral (1994) - Wedding number four
LOCATION: St Bartholemew The Great, Smithfield
Wedding No. 4 (the non-wedding), at ‘St Julian’s’, the church where Charles has second thoughts, is St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, hidden away behind its gatehouse.
TRIVIA:
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Andie McDowell waived her fee in return for a percentage. She earned $2m compared to Hugh Grant’s $100k
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Budget was tiny and extras had to bring their own clothes to the weddings
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The F word is used 28 times
Four Weddings and a Funeral clip on YouTube
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​The interior of the church can also be seen in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, where it stands in for Nottingham Cathedral; in Neil Jordan's The End Of The Affair; Shakespeare in Love; The Other Boleyn Girl; Amazing Grace; as the site of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in Elizabeth: The Golden Age; and even as St Paul’s Cathedral in Guy Ritchie's 2009 Sherlock Holmes.
STOP: Batman Begins (2005)
LOCATION: CityPoint, Ropemaker Street
Bruce Wayne arrives at the ‘Gotham City’ restaurant. The exterior of the restaurant isn’t Docklands at all, but CityPoint.
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The same striking ‘eyelid’ entrance stands in for Docklands as the quarantined area in 28 Weeks Later and is also where Woody Allen and Scarlett Johansson spy on Hugh Jackman in Scoop.
STOP: Children of Men (2006)
LOCATION: Junction of Dock Street and Cable Street
This is where Clive Owns is released by the kidnappers in Children of Men.
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STOP: The Krays (1990)
LOCATION: Wilton’s Music Hall, Grace's Alley
Wilton's is a nightclub in The Krays (1990).
In Chaplin (1992) Geraldine Chaplin is boo-ed before her 5-year old son (Charlie) takes over and turns the audience around.
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Also featured in Importance of Being Earnest (2002), Nicholas Nicely (2003), Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang) (2000).
TRIVIA:
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Originally five separate houses built in 1690s
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Combined by John Wilton in 1860s
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Largest house was originally an ale house which secured a performance licence
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STOP: Sparrow’s Can’t Sing (1963)
LOCATION: Narrow Street
Barbara Windsor, pushing a pram, gets caught on the swing bridge on Narrow Street. Barbara was nominated for a BAFTA for her performance. The film's portrayal of immigrants into the East End has not aged well.
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TRIVIA:
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First English language film to be released in the US with sub-titles
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Baby in the pram is co-star James Booth’s real daughter
STOP: 28 Days Later (2002)
LOCATION: St Anne’s Church, Limehouse
Jim (Cillian Murphy) is attacked by the priest with bodies strewn all over the place and he escapes by running down the steps to St Anne’s Passage.
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TRIVIA:
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Film was shot entirely in sequence
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Storyline is a mirror of Day of the Triffids
STOP: The World is not Enough (1999)
LOCATION: Glengall Bridge, Pepper Street
Bond dives under the closing bridge.
West of the Dockland Light Railway’s Crossharbour Station, in the shadow of the London Arena, is Glengall Bridge across Millwall Inner Dock on the Isle of Dogs – the great loop in the Thames, which Bond appears to use as a shortcut.
TRIVIA:
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35 boats were used in the chase down the Thames
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It took 7 weeks to film
The World Is Not Enough clip on YouTube​ at 3’
STOP: Da Vinci Code (2006)
LOCATION: Orchard Place, Trinity Buoy Wharf
Remy is betrayed here.
The ride ends at Orchard cafe at Trinity Buoy Wharf