Filming Locations for Alfie (1966)

“I've got a bob or two, some decent clothes, a car, I’ve got me health back and I ain’t attached. But I ain’t got me peace of mind – and if you ain’t got that, you ain’t got nothing.”

The sixties were in full swing, Michael Caine shot to stardom as a callous Cockney womaniser, and London was the centre of the Universe.

Alfie started out as a stage play by Bill Naughton, and it was a bold decision of director Lewis Gilbert to break naturalistic conventions and film the monologues and asides straight to camera: ‘I suppose you think you’re goin’ to see the bleedin’ titles now...’.

Despite establishing shots of Westminster, Alfie delivers the line on Camley Street, NW1, behind King’s Cross Station, with the famous Victorian gasometers much in evidence in the background. The industrial buildings, where Alfie’s steamed-up car is parked, have gone, and the site is became Camley Street Natural Park, a wildlife preserve. There's a massive redevelopment of the Kings Cross terminal area, and even the gasometers have been removed.

Better luck in Notting Hill Gate, where you can still see Alfie's rather seedy bedsit, at 29 St Stephen’s Gardens off Chepstow Road, W2 (tube: Royal Oak). It hasn’t really changed at all, apart from the inevitable gentrification and pedestrianisation of the area, which means that Annie (Jane Asher) would no longer be able to jump straight onto a convenient bus.

There's lots to see in this area. Nearby you'll find Caine's campy sixties pad from The Italian Job; the hideaway of Turner Purple (Mick Jagger) in Performance; as well as sites from About A Boy, Withnail and I and, naturally, Notting Hill.

(Alfie location, St Mary's Church, Battersea)

Alfie location: the christening: St Mary's Church, Battersea

South of the Thames, opposite World’s End, Chelsea, you can see the green spire of St Mary’s, Battersea Parish Church on Battersea Church Road, SW11, where Gilda (Julia Foster) spends her lunchbreaks with nerdy but dependable bus conductor Humphrey (Graham Stark), and Alfie later balefully watches her baby’s Christening.

Alfie location: the Sanatorium: York House, Twickenham

The sanatorium where Alfie recuperates after a shadow is found on his lung, and where he seduces fellow patient’s wife Lily (Vivien Merchant), is York House and Gardens, York Street (the A305), Twickenham, conveniently close to the film studios. The seventeenth century mansion, alongside the new Civic Centre, now houses council offices, but the ornamental gardens are open to the public.