Movies can inspire you to dream of yourself in their foreign locations, even falling in love with a place you have never experienced. That's how I felt about London before I first moved there. My fascination probably started with James Bond plus Monty Python, Black Adder and The Young Ones! If London is on your travel bucket list, be sure to check out these movies to get you and your travel companion in the mood. Trying to convince a group of friends to go with you? These movies might help!
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Floppy-haired Charles (Hugh Grant) is looking for The One in Richard Curtis’s sweet, soppy movie. The capital provides a picture-perfect backdrop as Grant and his band of twenty-something aristo Londoners date, flirt and consider settling for sub-standard partners in an effort to get down the aisle. Proof that spending every sunny Saturday at a friend’s wedding is not a modern affliction.
London location: Charles lives (and has that romantic, rainy reunion) on Highbury Terrace in Highbury Fields, the lucky sod. He also wanders along the South Bank and has a matrimonial meltdown at Smithfield’s St Bartholomew the Great.
A Fish Called Wanda
John Cleese hauled Ealing comedy legend Charles Crichton out of retirement to co-write and direct this acid-tongued shout-out to the classic comedy crime caper. Cleese plays a barrister swept up in a robbery plot; Michael Palin outraged stutterers worldwide as an animal-loving getaway driver; and two Yanks, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Kline offer scathing observations on British life.
London location: The iconic scene where Kline dangles Cleese out of a window was shot at New Concordia Wharf in Bermondsey.
Sherlock Holmes
Sir Conan Doyle’s sleuth gets a post-modern update, with Robert Downey Jr. playing a beefed-up version of Holmes.
London location: Shot in and around London (as well as Liverpool and Manchester), Ritchie’s London of yesteryear is a romantic place of heaving bosoms and ridiculously cool heroes.
Notting Hill
It’s from the same makers as out Love Actually, but Notting Hill is a funny, light-hearted fantasy romance that has its tongue pressed enough into its cheek just about enough.
London location: Notting Hill is one of London’s most multicultural hot spots, which means it’s odd that Curtis’ film doesn’t reflect that. Still, the area looks the best it ever has – though Portobello Road is where you’ll find Grant’s bookshop.
Bridget Jones Diary
Renée Zellweger stars as the perpetually-single Bridget in this canny update of Pride & Prejudice.
London location: Visit Borough Market and you’ll easily spot Bridget’s little flat near the pub, not to mention the restaurant that's the setting for Firth and Grant's hilarious dust-up.
Bend It Like Beckham
Two 18-year-old girls aspire to become professional football players in Gurinder Chadha’s gentle comedy.
London location: Chadha captures the city’s cultural diversity beautifully as Parminder Nagra rebels against her orthodox Sikh upbringing – with Hounslow providing the perfect suburban backdrop.
Oliver!
Carol Reed’s classic musical in which young orphan Oliver (Mark Lester) falls in with a gang of street urchins who’ve been trained as pickpockets.
London location: The city’s a smoggy place filled with danger in this movie adaptation of Dickens’ novel – you definitely believe somebody like Fagin could live here.
28 Days Later
Sci-fi horror from Danny Boyle in which an incurable virus sweeps the UK, transforming people into ravenous zombies.
London location: Trust me, it’s never this empty in London – not even at 4 am when the clubbers are all tucked up in bed. Which makes the sight of a deserted central London all the creepier…
The Bourne Ultimatum
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) continues his hunt for answers while dodging the CIA.
London location: Waterloo Station is a battlefield at the best of times, but it becomes a hustle-bustle setting for a fantastically tense action scene in Damon’s last Bourne film, as he attempts to protect Paddy Considine’s journalist.
Mary Poppins (1964)
Joyous musical romp starring Julie Andrews as the original titular nanny, who’s hired to look after two very unhappy children.
London location: This is London as envisioned by Walt Disney Pictures, where everybody’s smartly dressed, the townhouses are towering and gorgeous, and there’s not so much as a single turd in the parks. Dare to dream, Disney…
Brick Lane
A Bangladeshi woman arrives in London, leaving behind her family and friends.
London location: Cultural diversity is all part of London’s charm, and here we get a look at the East End’s Bangladeshi community, where the aftershock of 9/11 is strongly felt.
Harry Potter
Eight films adapted from JK Rowling’s bestselling book series, with Daniel Radcliffe as the lightning-scarred boy wizard.
London location: Sad to say, Diagon Alley doesn’t actually exist in our beloved capital. That doesn’t stop Columbus, Yates et al from lavishing the city with adoring screen time, whether it’s the Millennium Bridge getting destroyed in Half-Blood Prince or those gorgeous over-city shots in Phoenix. And, of course, there’s King’s Cross station…
The King's Speech
Oscar-nabbing historical drama starring Colin Firth as King George VI, who struggles with a debilitating stammer.
London location: Rush’s Harley Street practice should look familiar – it’s a Georgian townhouse 33 Portland Place, a popular location used in everything from Amy Winehouse’s ‘Rehab’ video to some less-well-known gay porn films…
Sliding Doors
A 1998 British-American romantic drama film written and directed by Peter Howitt and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah, while also featuring John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Virginia McKenna. The film alternates between two parallel universes, based on the two paths the central character's life could take depending on whether she catches a train, and causing different outcomes in her life.
London location: The bridge featured is the Albert Bridge between Battersea and Chelsea. The late-night scene when Paltrow and Hannah walk down the street was filmed in Primrose Gardens (formerly Stanley Gardens) in Belsize Park.
Ready to head to London? I’d love to help you plan that trip for you and the people who star in your life's story. Reach out and contact me!
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