Last week we look at the 10 Top London Movies, so here are the 10 best landmarks and locations in the capital which have been featured in movies.
10) King’s Cross Station – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
How many tiny little bonces have been bruised in an attempt to pass through one of the walls at King’s Cross to get to platform 9¾? Probably quite a few. And while the romance of the steam era may still be longed for by visitors, it is arguably much nicer in its contemporary form, where you can get a scalding hot latte and pay 30p to do a wee.
9) Crystal Palace National Sports Centre – The Italian Job
While the race track on which the Mini drivers were trained in this iconic film is no longer there, you can still see the football ground in which Michael Caine’s character famously reprimanded an associate for using too much explosive. We’ve all seen doors left ajar, but this is RIDICULOUS!
8 ) Notting Hill – Performance
Forget the charming, middle class Notting Hill found in the Richard Curtis film. Performance portrays the place as swarming with gangsters and lowlifes, which adds some of that much needed grit to this famed London neighbourhood and portrays it as it was at the tail end of the 1960s.
7) Heygate Estate – Attack the Block/Harry Brown
Attack the Block and Harry Brown both take very different approaches to the problems of inner-city violence and wasted youth, although both were filmed on the now defunct Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle. Another difference between the two is that one featured an alienated creature on a murderous rampage…and the other was Attack the Block. BOOM!!!
6) The Palace of Westminster – V for Vendetta
People will forever remember the sight of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue getting the shit blown out of it in Independence Day. London got its own monumental ‘splosion treatment courtesy of the masked revolutionary V in the cinematic adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel. Anyone who’s annoyed at the renaming of the clock tower, commonly referred to as Big Ben, following the Queen’s Jubilee might like to see its twirling face fragmented by a series of massive explosions at the movie’s climax.
5) Waterloo Station – The Bourne Ultimatum
Seeing people pull out guns and go at each other in London always feels a little weird, since most Brits have only ever played with firearms that shoot pellets made of spud. But watching Matt Damon lay down some quick-thinking justice while Paddy Considine gets his geeky journalistic ass capped in Waterloo Station feels surprisingly natural, given the chaotic nature of the place on a normal day.
4) Brick Lane – Brick Lane
The cultural diversity of London is something that is all too often missed out of films which are set there. Brick Lane puts this right with a tale of arranged marriages, affairs and racial tensions.
3) Westminster Abbey – The King’s Speech
While the production team actually had to use the interior of Ely Cathedral rather than the actual abbey during filming, this movie still does a decent job of representing one of the capital’s top tourist destinations. Old buildings are ace, even when they’re not being exploded.
2) Camden Town – Withnail and I
Shabby, borderline alcoholic hipsters roam the streets of Camden Town to this day. But Richard E. Grant was doing it before it was cool.
1) The Millennium Dome – The World is Not Enough
While it may no longer go by its original name, some of us out there will have visited the Millennium Dome back when it was a massive, rubbish exhibition. Not even James Bond could sex it up by sliding down the side of it after falling from a hot air balloon, but it’s still there; an indelible beauty spot on the EastEnder’s map, and our hearts.
