North London Food & Culture

Top 5: Movie locations in and around Kentish Town

Did you know Liz Taylor once pulled pints in between takes at the Assembly House on Kentish Town Road? And four other classic films shot in our neighbourhood

Richard Burton and Liz Taylor at the Assembly House
Richard Burton and Liz Taylor at the Assembly House

 

Villain (Michael Tuchner, 1971)

The most intriguing discovery in Kentish Town’s filmic A to Z is a movie I had previously never heard of. Villain is Dick Clement’s and Ian La Frenais’ thinly veiled take on the Ronnie Kray story starring Richard Burton. And this remarkable photo is of Mr and Mrs Burton at the bar of Assembly House on Kentish Town Road, where the pub scenes were all filmed; in between takes Elizabeth Taylor was known to pull pints for the cast and crew.


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Venus (Roger Mitchell, 2006)

otoole_cabinNo film showcases as much of Kentish Town as Hanif Kureishi’s portrait of horny old actor Maurice (Peter O’Toole) whose best mate’s great-niece Jessie (Jodie Whittaker) sets his ageing ticker a-flutter. Maurice’s flat is 61 Athlone Street while pal Leslie Phillips lives at Heathview Apartments on Gordon House Road. The Cabin Cafe on Willes Road is where the pair hangout. Maurice persuades Jessie to model at a life drawing class at Westminster Kingsway College on Holmes Road (now the French School) and buys her earrings at Dawson & Briant on Kentish Town Road (now the much less attractive Albemarle). The pawn shop also features in Woody Allen’s execrable Cassandra’s Dream.

Backbeat (Iain Softley, 1996)

MSDBACK EC052 Where better to re-create the fleshpots of Hamburg than our corner of north London? That’s not the Reeperbahn where the Fab Five make their debut in Iain Softley’s re-telling of Beatles: The Early Years. The Top Ten Club is actually The Dome in Tufnell Park. Another ‘Hamburg’ location, the cinema where Stu Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) and Astrif Kircherr (Sheryl Lee) watch Les Enfants Terribles, is the Odeon on Parkway. The other nearby location you’ll glimpse in Backbeat is Berthold Lubetkin’s modernist masterwork, the Highpoint. The 1930s apartment block in Highgate doubles as the ‘Polydor Record Company’ in the film.

High Hopes, Career Girls & Happy Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)

highhopes_highgateMike Leigh, our city’s most prolific cinematic chronicler, has regularly turned his lense towards postcodes beginning with N. Closest to Kentish Town are the two flats in Career Girls. When we’re introduced to Annie (Lynda Steadman) and Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge), Hannah’s living in the top floor flat at 72 Caversham Road. The film flashes back to their student digs at 40 Rousden Street near Camden Road. One of the most memorable moments in High Hopes is the scene where Cyril and Shirley (Phil Davies and Ruth Sheen) pay their respects to Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetry and in Happy Go-Lucky Sally Hawkins endures many exclamations of “En-Ra-Ha!” during driving lessons from Eddie Marsan around Tufnell Park.

Notes on a Scandal (Richard Eyre, 2006)

notesonascandal_gospeloak You know the area’s getting gentrified when Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett make films here. Actually, while you see Kentish Town Road and Royal College Street in the film and the Gospel Oak bridge is noticeable, Richard Eyre shot most of Notes on a Scandal on the periphery of Kentish Town. Still, many locations are familiar. The house of Blanchett’s character, Sheba, is at 20 Upper Park Road in Belsize Park while her confidante/nemesis Dench’s residence just nudges into Zone 3 at 2 Wembury Road. ‘St George’s High School’ is Islington Arts and Media School (formerly Tollington Park Secondary School) in Stroud Green.

Supporting Features

Owl Bookshop FrontOther productions shot in the area include Monty Python and The Holy Grail, whose opening scene (with the coconuts) is on Hampstead Heath. Before Damien’s true nature reveals itself in The Omen, his ‘parents’ take him on a stroll up Parliament Hill and in the largely forgotten Bad Behaviour (Les Blair, 1993), Sinead Cussack’s character Ellie works at our beloved Owl Bookshop.

Nigel Smith programmes Tufnell Park Film Club, every fortnight at the Lord Palmerston. Next up is Taxi Driver (10 Sep) and on 17 September the Orson Welles’ classic Touch of Evil as part of the UK-wide Scalarama festival. More info and membership details here.

25 thoughts on “Top 5: Movie locations in and around Kentish Town”

  1. My flat on Caversham road was once used to film some scenes in New Tricks so you can add that to your list! haha! Nowhere near as good as Liz Taylor and Burton, Amanda Redman and Dennis Waterman! These are fantastic though, thanks.

  2. Bad Behaviour was filmed in the Owl when we were located next door (now Ladbrokes), It would be wonderful to see any photos of the old Owl. Even better if there are any of the first Owl in 1974 which is now Cafe Renoir.

  3. tinker taylor sodier spy – wilkin street, although in the film they super-impose st pauls behind the railway bridge.
    new tricks also in wilkin street
    the henry holland / ri-ri fashion show all filmed in fleet house on corner of wilkin st and grafton road although on air they said it was hoxton!

  4. Not a film, but several of the episodes of ‘Look Around You’, the spoof education series from Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, feature Prowse Place and Bonny Street near Camden Road Station. Also the irritating new Lotto advert has a rather nice shot of Hartland Road off Chalk Farm Road.

  5. And don,t forget flame in the street John mills in hartland road Clarence way hawley street lebourne road back in 1961 I know I was there and they nicked our bonfire and put it in the film never gave as a farthing

Leave a Comment

25 thoughts on “Top 5: Movie locations in and around Kentish Town”

  1. My flat on Caversham road was once used to film some scenes in New Tricks so you can add that to your list! haha! Nowhere near as good as Liz Taylor and Burton, Amanda Redman and Dennis Waterman! These are fantastic though, thanks.

  2. Bad Behaviour was filmed in the Owl when we were located next door (now Ladbrokes), It would be wonderful to see any photos of the old Owl. Even better if there are any of the first Owl in 1974 which is now Cafe Renoir.

  3. tinker taylor sodier spy – wilkin street, although in the film they super-impose st pauls behind the railway bridge.
    new tricks also in wilkin street
    the henry holland / ri-ri fashion show all filmed in fleet house on corner of wilkin st and grafton road although on air they said it was hoxton!

  4. Not a film, but several of the episodes of ‘Look Around You’, the spoof education series from Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, feature Prowse Place and Bonny Street near Camden Road Station. Also the irritating new Lotto advert has a rather nice shot of Hartland Road off Chalk Farm Road.

  5. And don,t forget flame in the street John mills in hartland road Clarence way hawley street lebourne road back in 1961 I know I was there and they nicked our bonfire and put it in the film never gave as a farthing

Leave a Comment

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The award-winning print and online title Kentishtowner was founded in 2010 and is part of London Belongs To Me, a citywide network of travel guides for locals. For more info on what we write about and why, see our About section.