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10 SPOTS FOR A LONDON WORLD TOURIn these austere times, it may not be as easy as it once was to take that getaway break. No problem. There’s an easier (and more economical) way to see the world. No passport required. A few years ago, Stanley Kubrick – and his art department – managed to convince us that the disused Beckton gas works in East London was war-torn Vietnam for Full Metal Jacket. For years, the movies have been finding exotic locations within a reasonable cab ride of the studios. Why not follow in their footsteps and take a world tour without leaving the UK capital? Grab your Oyster card, hop aboard and start globetrotting. |
Lawrence Hall, Royal Horticultural Halls, 60 Vincent Square, Westminster, London SW1P 2PE (tube: Victoria – Circle, District and Victoria lines) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 1 | BERLIN
First stop is, naturally, the airport and the brutalist grandiosity of Thirties Berlin, as Indie (Harrison Ford) and his dad (Sean Connery) rush to catch the next dirigible out of town. Although the name of the Royal Horticultural Hall conjures up nothing more threatening than compost and begonias, the interior is a disturbingly comfortable setting for the film's billowing Nazi banners. Its soaring concrete arches are still awesome – this was award-winning stuff back in 1927. If you want to take a look, pop in to one of the regular antiques fairs. Not convinced? The hall took to its new role so well, it was ‘Berlin Tempelhof’ airport for The Saint, with Val Kilmer. |
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Somerset House, The Strand, London WC2 R 1LA (tube: Temple – Circle and District lines; Charing Cross – Northern and Bakerloo lines) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 2 | ST PETERSBURGAfter picking up James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) from St Petersburg airport in his faltering blue Moskovich, Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) takes the no-nonsense CIA approach to motor repair – a sledgehammer – in a wintry Russian square. To follow him, knock back a shot of Stolichnaya and head for the Edmond J Safra Fountain Court of Somerset House on the Strand. The court was still a car park in 1995 when it was passed off as Russia. You can't say those fountains haven't made a difference. When Aishwarya Rai dances ecstatically through the illuminated waters in Bride and Prejudice, we're supposed to believe it's Beverly Hills. |
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Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St Sophia, Moscow Road, London W2 4LQ (tube: Bayswater – Circle and District lines) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 3 | MOSCOW
Staying in Russia, it’s to Nineteenth Century Moscow, where conflicted gay composer Peter Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) ill-advisedly marries the naively romantic Nina (Glenda Jackson) in Ken Russell’s magnificently overheated The Music Lovers. The church isn’t Russian, but Greek Orthodox (it was built in 1882 for London’s sizeable Greek community) – though you’ll find it in Bayswater’s Moscow Road. Nevertheless, the cathedral is a cinematic go-to for Russia: the same interior becomes the St Petersburg church where sneaky Boris (Alan Cumming) sets a trap for Natalya (Izabella Scorupco) in GoldenEye. |
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White City Bus Station, Dimco Building, Ariel Way, London W12 7SL (tube: White City – Central line) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 4 | LOS ANGELESTo Hollywood, and the Acme warehouse on the border of Toontown, where PI Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) investigates odd goings-on, and the sinister Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) gets his just desserts. Grab a skinny decaf grande mocha latte from the Westfield London shopping centre and gaze on the Dimco Buildings, now part of the White City Bus Station, around which the vast shopping mall had to be built (they’re Grade II-listed). Sadly, nobody seemed to feel the ‘Acme’ neon sign and palm trees were appropriate for a bus terminal. So many quintessentially ‘English’ films (Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady) have been made in LA that it’s nice to return the compliment. |
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Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, London W1J 7BX (tube: Green Park – Piccadilly and Victoria lines) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 5 | SHANGHAI
OK, we understand if you feel Shepherd’s Bush lacked a little of the glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Age, so how does the louche decadence of the pre-war Far East appeal? Dressed up to the nines and sipping a Singapore Sling in the elegance of this Twenties gem on Piccadilly, you’ll gasp with delight as you recognise the Sheraton Park Lane’s Silver Gallery, a glittering art deco dazzle of mirrors and glass, as Shanghai’s Zig-Zag Club from the seminal Eighties Madonna-Sean Penn masterwork. |
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St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, Pancras Road, London NW1 2AR (tube: King’s Cross St Pancras – Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines)) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 6 | GOTHAM CITYSo where is Gotham City exactly? In the comics, it was a lightly disguised New York. The 60s TV series plonked it firmly on the Warner Bros backlot and Tim Burton created the city from scratch in the studio, but Christopher Nolan conjured it from an imaginative blend of Chicago and London. Whatever. It’s in the States. After standing empty for years, the old Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station has been restored to its Victorian splendour, so you’ll still recognise its amazing Gothic Revival staircase as the lobby of Arkham Asylum, invaded by a flock of bats and a SWAT team in Nolan’s reboot of the franchise. Or perhaps you’ll always nurse of soft spot for it as the location for the first Spice Girls video, Wannabe? |
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Broadgate Arena, Broadgate Circle, City of London, EC2M 2RS (tube: Liverpool Street – Central, Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 7 | TURIN
Did somebody mention the Spice Girls? If you’re beginning to feel a tad jet-lagged, pep up with a cappuccino, extra shot, alongside Liverpool Street Station. Bathed in golden sunlight, the Broadgate Arena, Broadgate Circle, simply reeks of continental elegance, si?. You hadn’t noticed? Why else would it have been chosen as the venue for the Spice Girls’ Italian TV special in timeless classic Spiceworld – The Movie? |
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Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London SE10 9LW (rail: Greenwich) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 8 | VENICENow we’re in that Italian mood, grab yourself a Cornetto and take a leisurely cruise down the Thames to Greenwich. The overwhelming trompe l’oeil decoration of the Old Royal Naval College’s Painted Hall – all flouncing drapery and floating cherubs – may be just a little extravagant for English tastes, but seems entirely fitting as the interior of the Venetian church in which the council of the Illuminati meet. Not surprisingly, the Hall is a screen favourite (for Quills, with Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade, it’s moved to France, to become the Palace of Versailles). |
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Westminster Cathedral, Victoria Street, London SW1P 1QW (tube: Victoria; Circle, District and Victoria Lines) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 9 | MADRIDIt’s tough to replicate the beaches of the Costa del Sol in London, but you can experience the darkly glittering interior of El Escorial, the royal palace outside Madrid where King Philip II of Spain (Jordi Molla) plans his ill-fated naval assault on the England of Queen Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), a mere stone’s throw from Victoria Station. Shekhar Kapur’s epic transforms the Byzantine Catholic cathedral – while carefully avoiding sculptor Eric Gill’s very Twentieth Century Stations of the Cross. |
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 Madame JoJo’s, 8-10 Brewer Street, London W1F 0SE (tube: Piccadilly Circus – Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines) |
LONDON WORLD TOUR | 10 | NEW YORKTime to relax, beer in hand, in funky Greenwich Village jazz club Sonata Cafe – just like distracted doc Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) in Stanley Kubrick’s final film. Soho nitespot Madame JoJo’s was home, in the 1980s, to troupes of chaps in big frocks and ostrich feathers, it lives on as a heady mix of kitsch cabaret, club nights and burlesque. It’s journey’s end – though if someone slips you the password to an exclusive country house party, well, that’s entirely at your own risk. |
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