Being almost perfectly preserved as one of four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in London, Greenwich has created unparalleled demand as a location for film and television. Maritime Greenwich’s combination of spectacular London views, landscaped Victorian park-land and unspoilt neoclassical architecture, make the area a favourite among the biggest names in the business, from Disney and Marvel Studios to Netflix, and has attracted some of Hollywood biggest superstars to the area.
The Old Royal Naval College
The Old Royal Naval College is one of the most popular filming locations in the world, and when you visit, you’ll immediately understand why. The Christopher Wren designed iconic twin domes, the cobbled quadrants and courtyards and classic proportions framed perfectly by Portland stone columns and pillars instantly transport viewers to a bygone era of timeless glamour in London and indeed Britain, as seen through a Hollywood lens.
Hollywood first arrived at the Old Royal Naval College in the 1950s, with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant dancing in The Painted Hall in romantic comedy, Indiscreet, 1958. Although things really started to boom during the 1990s, with Hugh Grant delivering an era-defining performance over in the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, in classic romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994.
Since then, the Old Royal Naval College has been in continuous demand as a film and TV location. There are far too many titles to mention here, but below we’ve listed just some of a dizzying selection of Hollywood’s brightest stars that have filmed on site:
- Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes; Game of Shadows, 2011
- Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Nathalie Portman appeared in Les Misérables, 2012
- Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, 2001
- Keira Knightly and Ralph Fiennes in The Duchess, 2008
- Chris Hemsworth and Nathalie Portman in Thor: The Dark World, 2013
- Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria, 2009
- Johnny Depp in Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- Christian Bale and Michael Cain in The Dark Knight Rises
- Jack Black in Gulliver’s Travels, 2010
- Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Craig in James Bond: Skyfall, 2012
- Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson and Morgan Freeman in Now You See Me 2, 2016
And then that’s before we get into the Netflix era of more recent years, where the Old Royal Naval College has been location for some of the most successful productions, including Enola Holmes, 2020 plus all four series of The Crown, from 2016, who used The Grand Square, pillars and quadrants to represent Buckingham Palace.
The list is staggering, and we highly recommend you book one of the brilliant film tours run by the Old Royal Naval College to get a closer look at this phenomenal movie location.
Greenwich Park
The rolling hills of this beautiful Victorian landscaped park have been a popular choice as a film location.
The park naturally features in the historical drama, Longitude, 2000, which depicts the life of John Harrison, whose remarkable chronometers solved the problem of navigation at sea, which is the very reason that Greenwich was then nominated as home of the Prime Meridian Line of the world, the point of 0º Longitude.
Greenwich Park has also been used in a modern setting, notably the crime thriller, Layer Cake, 2004, which starred Tom Hardy, Sienna Miller and Daniel Craig (before he became 007).
However the subject in which the setting of Greenwich Park is most frequently cast is for adaptations of historical fiction and literature. It was the setting for The Secret Agent, 1996, based on the Joseph Conrad novel of the same name, starring Bob Hoskins and Gerard Depardieu; The adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, 1995 which starred Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson and The Go-Between, 1970, starring Julie Christie which was adapted from the book by L.P. Hartley.
Bridgerton (Netflix) - The Rangers House and the Queen’s House in Greenwich Park
The Queen’s House, situated near the river Thames, built in 1616, is the oldest building in Greenwich Park and The Ranger’s House, built in 1723 are both stunning examples of why Greenwich is such a popular location for film makers.
Both these locations were among a fairly long list of sites featured in the 2020 adaptations of the series of romantic novels by Julia Quinn. Netflix released Bridgerton on 25th December of 2020 and within a month it was their most-watched series of all time. In just under a month, the show had been seen by an incredible 82 million households!
Greenwich will of course always extremely popular with movie makers, however there have been films recorded all over the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Some of which we have listed below.
Charlton
Blow-Up, 1966, is a murder mystery thriller film, partly set in Maryon Park, near the Thames Barrier. An iconic piece of cinematic history, set in swinging 1960s London starring David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin and was directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.
David Hemmings’ character, the London fashion photographer (who was allegedly styled on legendary celebrity and fashion photographer, David Bailey) believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. Something resembling a dead body appears on a photograph in the dark room, and that particular scene was filmed at the top of Cox’s Mount, in Maryon Park.
Thamesmead
The brutalist 1960s stylings of Thamesmead’s 'Flat Block Marina' set among the man-made waterways around Southmere Lake drew Stanley Kubrick to film the infamous and bleak adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange starring Malcolm McDowell in 1971.
In stark contradiction, the irrepressibly optimistic gay love story in Beautiful Thing, 1996, takes place in the very same estate. An interesting aside here was that the local bar used in the film was a real gay bar, at the time known as The Gloucester, now The Greenwich Tavern next door to Greenwich Park.
Woolwich
Filmed on Calderwood Street in Woolwich, the futuristic science fiction thriller, Children of Men, 2006, is based on P.D. James' 1992 novel of the same name, starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine and Chiwetel Ejiofor. We say the futuristic, but actually it’s only set in 2027 which doesn’t seem so far ahead now!
to add an item to your Itinerary basket.
