Lara Croft: Tomb Raider film locations
Film locations: London; Cambodia; Suffolk; Hertfordshire; Berkshire; Hampshire; Iceland
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider location: villain Manfred Powell’s London mansion: Trinity Court, London EC3
The exterior of Lara Croft ’s (Angelina Jolie) mansion is Hatfield House, Hatfield, north of London, a frequent location, seen as the interior of ‘Wayne Manor’ in Tim Burton’s Batman, though the lavish interior, where she practises her bungee ballet, is a studio set.
Lord Croft’s stone ‘tent’ tomb in the grounds was added for the film, inspired by the tomb of explorer Sir Richard Burton, which you can see in Mortlake Cemetery.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider location: the Council of the Illuminati: Painted Hall, Old Naval College, Greenwich, London
The council of the Illuminati appears to be held in the church of Santa Maria Della Salute, on the Grand Canal in Venice, but you’ll no doubt recognise the chamber as the Painted Hall of the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, another popular location, seen in The Madness of King George, The Avengers, Quills, Michael Winner’s 1983 remake of The Wicked Lady and The Golden Compass.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider location: Lara Croft’s mansion: Hatfield House, Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Lara rides her bike across Tower Bridge on the way to the auction house, and returns roaring through Leadenhall Market, EC3, at the foot of the Lloyds Building (tube: Bank, Central or Northern Lines). The market is seen in Brannigan, with John Wayne, and in it you'll find the entrance to ‘The Leaky Cauldron’ from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
The London home of villainous lawyer Manfred (Iain Glen) is the vast and elaborate office of insurance company Willis Faber, 10 Trinity Court (formerly the Port of London Authority building), looming over Trinity Square Gardens, near the Tower of London. The building featured in the 1960 Peter Sellers comedy caper Two Way Stretch, and in 1976, it became a suitably grand venue for the ‘Oil Producers International Conference’ at the opening of Sweeney!.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider location: Lara rides her bike through Leadenhall Market, London EC3
The exotic interior, with its Indian-style carvings, is Elveden Hall, a private house on the A11 about four miles west of Thetford in Suffolk, which you might recognise as the site of the eerie orgy in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.
The Cambodian temple complex, where Croft must retrieve the half of the triangular MacGuffin, is at Siem Reap in Cambodia, where she arrives, with game-style ease, onto Phnom Bakheng, a hill topped by a Hindu temple (though the site later became a Buddhist centre).
She tools up and scoots off in her Land Rover in front of the sacred Bayon temple, in Angkor Thon, its 54 towers, each bearing four enigmatic smiling faces. The most spectacular temple of all, entwined with enormous trees, where Croft encounters the mysterious girl, is Ta Prohm.
The most famous, Angkor Wat itself (the largest religious monument in the world and a World Heritage site), looms over the Cambodian village. It appears to be on a river It’s not. The village was no more than a set built around a small ornamental pond.
As Cambodia recovers from its troubled past, a modest tourism industry is beginning to blossom, learning to balance economic gain with inevitable concerns about the effect on the ancient buildings. There’s no public transport between the monuments, so check for guided tours.
The 1965 film of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, with Peter O’Toole, is one of the few other films to be shot at Angkor Wat.
Lara boards the ’copter for ‘Siberia’ at RAF Odiham, in north Hampshire. It’s not a terribly long flight – the arrival was filmed on Salisbury Plain in Hampshire (it’s costly to fly ’copters out to Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, Iceland, which was standing in for ‘Siberia’.
Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, formed by the retreating Vatnajokull glacier – the largest in Europe – is in the southeast of the country, about 40 miles east of Skaftafell National Park and 250 miles from Reykjavik. It's the same glacier seen in Bond movie Die Another Day.
Another bit of British fakery has Windsor Great Park, Berkshire, briefly standing in for the steamy Cambodian jungle as Lara sprints through the undergrowth.
All material Copyright ©2008 The Worldwide Guide To Movie Locations
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Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, 2001
Director
Cast
visit the film locations
London: Flights: Heathrow Airport; Gatwick Airport
Hatfield House (tel: 01707.262823, admission charge, rail: Hatfield, from London King's Cross)
Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich (rail: Greenwich; from London Charing Cross)
Cambodia: Tourism of Cambodia
Angkor Wat: Cambodia Angkor Travel Professional
Iceland: Iceland Tourism
Trivia
You can see Hatfield House in Greystoke, the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (as the interior of Floors Castle in Scotland), Tim Burton’s Batman (as the interior of Knebworth House), Sally Potter’s film of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Henry VIII and His Six Wives
The Iceland glacier is featured in Die Another Day