St Paul’s Cathedral appears in Kentish Town. Kind of

Take a look at this slightly iffy image. Sir Christopher Wren’s 17th century English Baroque masterpiece, star attraction of London’s skyline and the city’s most famous WWII Blitz survivor, St Paul’s Cathedral seems to have taken up residence up the far end of our very own Wilkin Street.

The eight-story Princes Park development at Talacre may have riled locals for being out of scale with the rest of the neighbourhood, but the arrival of St Paul’s 111m high dome just next door surely requires some form of public consultation?

Fear not, residents of West Kentish Town, for this picture is – gasp – not all that it seems.

Nigel Smith’s hugely popular feature, Top 5 movie locations in and around Kentish Town provoked plenty of feedback and alternative suggestions. This area is quite the pouting silver screen star, it would seem.

One of the commenters alerted us to the inclusion of Wilkin Street in scenes from 2011’s blockbuster version of Cold War espionage classic Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The movie just happened to be getting its UK network TV premiere soon afterwards, when astute pause button specialist Richard Stokes managed to capture the moment, then tweet us (@stoksey73) the fruits of his dexterous Sky+ labours.

We see that the old Brinsmead piano factory on the left, (itself recently developed into a rather more sympathetic block of luxury flats) appears in the movie as the down-at-heel Hotel Islay. This is where the story’s central character Smiley, played by Gary Oldman, stays. The location is supposed to be Liverpool Street, hence the rather brutal cut ‘n’ paste job that sees St Paul’s looming slap bang where Talacre Sports Centre should rightly be.

The triple Oscar nominated film was shot at various locations around north London, including interior scenes at defunct army barracks in Mill Hill and a section where Smiley takes a dip in the ponds on Hampstead Heath – a favourite pastime of Gary Oldman himself, no less, as we’ve previously covered.

Just to allay the concerns of the local resident committees, here’s a shot of the Wilkin Street vista as it was last night – towering CoE monolith-free.

And finally, let’s draw this nonsense to a close with the Hotel Islay mood music from the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy soundtrack. Stick it on some headphones and walk down Wilkin Street after dark. It’s easy to feel transported, albeit fleetingly, into the shadowy underworld of a secret agent in a John le Carré page-turner. Probably.