Advertisement

Famous British Film Locations: Then And Now

The streets and fields of Britain have regularly featured in both independent UK movies and Hollywood blockbusters. But what happens when the movie stars leave?

We look at some of the most iconic uses of British locations – and what they look like now.

‘Full Metal Jacket’

image

Then: Director Stanley Kubrick was a notorious flight avoider, so when he needed to emulate Vietnam for this classic war movie, he obviously did it just down the road from his Hertfordshire home in Beckton, East London. An abandoned gasworks nearby was dressed to look like Hue, the bombed-out Vietnamese village, for the final battle scenes.

image

Now: It’s a retail park. Which for some reason is kind of depressing.


‘Shaun Of The Dead’

image

Then: Shaun and his crew managed to reach their favourite North London watering hole by pretending to be zombies. At the time of filming, the exteriors were shot at the Duke Of Albany pub in New Cross Gate.

image

Now: No longer a boozer, it was renovated and turned into luxury flats. Some lucky inhabitants probably look out of the same window that Dylan Moran was pulled out of while being eaten. Nice.

‘Notting Hill’

image

Then: In the 1999 film, William (Hugh Grant) managed a sweet but failing travel bookshop in the titular neighbourhood. It was in fact a real shop, but weirdly the actual local travel bookshop was round the corner. The shop used in the film was at the time Nicholls Antique Arcade.

image

Now: Despite a sustained campaign to keep it open, the Travel Bookshop shut in 2011. It was bought out by Book Warehouse and reopened as the Notting Hill Bookshop. Nicholls Antiques is now a shoe shop called, er, Notting Hill. With a blue sign, natch.

‘Goldfinger’

image

Then: A tense (and cheaty) game of golf between Auric Goldfinger and 007 takes place on an unspecified golf course. In reality, it was Stoke Park in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, near as ever to the Pinewood Bond set.

image

Now: The club still stands and has been poshed up no end. So fancy in fact, that both Sir Elton John and Katherine Jenkins are both playing concerts there later this year.

‘Withnail And I’

image

Then: When Withnail and his sidekick escape to Uncle Monty’s Crow Crag cottage in the Lake District, they actually headed to Sleddale Hall near Shap in Cumbria.

image

Now: The cottage has been almost been bought several times since the movie, with various buyers wanting to turn it into a residential home. Tim Ellis finally succeeded and now rents to a local farmer. It is said to have been restored “in a way that other fans of the film could approve of.”

‘The 39 Steps’

image

Then: This 1959 remake of the John Buchan book was partly filmed in Scotland, notably this scene, when a group of cyclists set out on a bike ride from the Gallows Café and Motor Mart. In fact, that was a road in the hamlet of Brig O’ Turk in the Trossachs near Stirling.

image

Now: It’s recognised for its peaceful lakeside church. And er, that’s about it. But it’s still very pretty.

‘The Railway Children’

image

Then: The iconic 1970 kids’ film starring Jenny Agutter was shot mostly at Oakworth station and on the Keighley and Worth Valley railway line in Yorkshire.

image

Now: As you can see, pretty much nothing’s changed. After the success of the film and the influx of visitors, the station and line have been kept like they were in the era the film was set. You can still visit and relive the experience. On a steam train.


‘The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness’

image

Then: Wales isn’t the most likely setting for a walled Chinese city. But that’s exactly what the filmmakers did for this 1958 Ingrid Bergman-starrer, turning the farmland around Nantmor, Snowdonia into period China.

image

Now: Still popular with walkers, the city is gone, but the area is packed full of scenic hikes, including Aberglasyn Pass.

‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’

image

Then: Mr Scrumptious’ confectionary factory – the outside at least – was housed in the slightly less delicious surroundings of the Kempton Park Waterworks in Middlesex.

image

Now: The site was shut down as a working plant by Thames Water in 1980, 12 years after the movie. It has since been turned into a steam museum, showcasing the impressive triple-expansion steam engines. No sweets though, apart from at the gift shop.


‘Get Carter’

image

Then: There aren’t many famous car parks in cinema, save perhaps the one where the heroes of ‘All The President’s Men’ meet Deep Throat. But everyone remembers the Gateshead multi-storey featured in Michael Caine’s 1971 classic – aka the Trinity Square car park designed by legendary brutalist architect Owen Luder – from which our anti-hero tips a property developer to his death.

image

Now: For many years a key, if ugly, part of the Tyneside skyline, the 12-floor structure was finally demolished in 2010 after being unused for ages due to legal disputes. The site is now part of a multi-million pound regeneration of the area.

Photos: Press Association/Rex/Moviestore/Warner Bros.