What’s your quintessential London film? For some people it’ll be Alfie, the 1960s version; for others, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, or perhaps Notting Hill.
Each of these films has its own feel - and that’s in many ways down to the selection of locations.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels uses mainly locations in north and east London, particularly the Kray Brothers territory of the East End. Grimy, rather run down areas for the most part, with a feeling of gritty realism.
Compare that to the rather newly painted feel of Notting Hill, which does exactly what the title implies and sticks around the unevenly gentrified territory of West London. Plane trees and stuccoed house fronts, rather than the dirty brick and concrete of the gangster movie, are the leitmotifs of the film.
In both of these films, the neighbourhood comes strongly to the fore. That’s something that happens in Mike Leigh’s films, too - he’s a director who works a lot with improvisation to achieve realism, and his films use back roads of the outer boroughs, rather than tourist hotspots, to give a feeling for ordinary London life.
London neighbourhoods are all very different. So here, drawing on the excellent book ‘Movie London’ by Tony Reeves, are a few suggestions for a tour of London in film.
- The East End - The Krays; Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
- Hampstead and Highgate - Scandal
- Notting Hill - at risk of being obvious, Notting Hill!
- Camden - Withnail and I (though a lot of it was actually filmed in Notting Hill)
- Southall - Bend it like Beckham
- Central London - 102 Dalmatians, and V for Vendetta - including a fantastic scene showing the Old Bailey being blown to bits, and a masked demo marching down Whitehall.
I’m sure there are more - I’ll be interested to know what are people’s favourites.
Photo credit - Reinis Traidas on Flickr
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