London Filming Locations: Harry Potter & The Philosophers Stone (2002)

Only a few days ago did I see ‘Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone‘ (2002) for the first time. I’d never had an interest in this franchise whatsoever but having been to a couple of the London filming locations at the tail end of last year I was intrigued to see those places in the film itself. Of course I do usually only go to places seen in movies which I’ve seen but this was one exception due to its fame and the fact that they were basically right under my nose.

I was with my sister Lorna at Leadenhall Market one evening when we went to see the doorway of ‘The Leaky Cauldron’ which contains the entrance to ‘Diagon Alley’ where Hagrid takes Harry to buy his wizard school supplies. In reality its an optician’s shop (below) at 42 Bulls Head Passage.

A few days after that I was waiting for Richard Richard at St Pancras when I popped over the road to King’s Cross Station. I found Platform 9 3/4 (below) which was actually filmed under the arched wall between platforms 4 and 5.

I didn’t know at that time that there is actually a photo opportunity close to the real platform 9 itself of the ‘platform 9 3/4’ sign with a trolley lodged halfway into the wall to create the effect of it going through the wall en-route to Hogwarts.

I have to say that after I’d seen these two places in the films opening half hour I did lose a bit of interest and failed to follow what was really going on. For the record, the other London locations used were the Reptile House at London Zoo and Australia House’s Exhibition Hall with its marble columns and chandeliers was ‘Gringott’s Bank’.

For other London filming locations click on the links below:

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace    Trainspotting    Mission: Impossible    Lara Croft Tomb Raider    The Bourne Ultimatum   James Bond    About A Boy    Quadrophenia    Bridget Jones’s Diary    Goodnight Sweetheart    Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels    Basic Instinct 2    Batman Begins/The Dark Knight    The Italian Job    Snatch    Rom-Com Special    Skyfall    Notting Hill    The World Is Not Enough

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London Filming Locations: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

If twenty plus Bourne Supremacy locations in Berlin wasn’t enough I now present you with a few of the places in London that featured in ‘The Bourne Ultimatum‘ which is probably my favourite Bourne movie. Just over a year ago I went to Tangiers in the north of Morocco which played a major part in the third and final (?) part of the Bourne saga.

On 13 minutes we see a brief overhead shot of the The Guardian HQ at 119 Farringdon Road (below) in Clerkenwell. The rain was falling quite heavily when I was there so I didn’t p*ss about with setting up my tripod to get myself in the photo as is the norm. In fact I was getting so wet that I actually gave up on the location scouting as my flight back to Japan was that same evening and I didn’t want to be sitting on a 12 hour flight with soaking wet jeans. As it was I ended up with wet jeans on the plane anyway as the guy in front of me leaned his seat back so far that he spilled my drink over my leg. As it was I did get 2000 yen in cash from the airline for the inconvenience but I digress.

 

When we see ‘security correspondent’ Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) cross the road on his return to the Guardian offices it’s actually New Garden House (below) at 78-83 Hatton Garden.

      

Two minutes later, he exits his workplace and quickly hails a cab to go and meet Jason Bourne.

  

Meanwhile, assassin Paz is waiting at the Malmaison hotel for orders from Blackbriar’s director Noah Vosen who calls him to go and assassinate Ross who he has been tracking. Malmaison (below) is at 18-21 Charterhouse Square near Smithfield market.

  

Undoubtedly the most famous London location is Waterloo Station (above) which I first went to with my mate Richard Richard just before the end of 2010. Our hero arranges to meet Ross at the south entrance and tries to guide him through the overly-crowded station away from a few hitmen.

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Before entering the station, Bourne directs Ross around the York Road overpass area 18 minutes into the movie. The bus stop is still there although it has had a bit of a facelift since filming took place.

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This series of cleverly constructed events sees the two finally come face to face on 19 mins outside the newsagent stand just outside the south exit. The place is now called Sweet Express but its pretty much the same as briefly seen in the film. Just before that we see Bourne walking over the bridge which takes people from York Road through the Shell Centre building to the station.

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The crew were allowed to film at Waterloo during off-peak hours (i.e. mid-afternoon) so many of the people in the background are just normal people going about their normal lives.

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Bourne surfs the net on 27 minutes using Ross’ notes to find the address of Daniels which he does at a place running parallel to Waterloo Station on Lower Marsh at number 132. It’s called Scootercaffe and, as the name hints, is some sort of cool scooter themed café.

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Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) and Noah Vosen (David Strathaim) have a breakfast meeting on 29 mins at a fancy restaurant in New York City but in reality its the CC Bar at Chancery Court Hotel (below) on 252 High Holborn which is now closed. The real New York locations for ‘Bourne Ultimatum‘ as well as those featured in ‘Bourne Supremacy‘ can be seen here.

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Crescent House on the Golden Lane Estate, Fann Road (below) supposedly features but I really could not find it when playing the DVD back!

You can see my ‘Bourne Supremacy’ Berlin filming locations here.

For other London filming locations click on the links below:

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace    Trainspotting    Mission: Impossible    Lara Croft Tomb Raider    Harry Potter & The Philosophers Stone   James Bond    About A Boy    Quadrophenia    Bridget Jones’s Diary    Goodnight Sweetheart    Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels    Basic Instinct 2    Batman Begins/The Dark Knight    The Italian Job    Snatch    Rom-Com Special    Skyfall    Notting Hill    The World Is Not Enough

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Berlin Filming Locations: The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

The second film in the Bourne trilogy begins in Goa (India) where Bourne (Matt Damon) and Marie (Franka Potente) are lying low. After that its mostly Berlin all the way albeit in a variety of guises as the German capital fills in for Naples, Munich, Amsterdam and Moscow.

Berlin makes its first appearance on 6 mins in The Bourne Supremacyby way of the Kantstrasse/Hardenbergstrasse junction next to Zoologischer Garten Station (below) which is where a deal is struck to expose the mole within the CIA but Russian agent Kirill sabotages it as he tries to frame Jason Bourne.

 

Kirill reports to Yuri (his control) at Motel Avus (below) at 51 Halenseestrasse.

  

Over the road from that is the ICC at Messedamm and the parking area beneath that doubles up as ‘Moscow’ Airport where they meet each other after 19 mins.

 

Nearby, at the northern entrance to the Berlin Exhibition Grounds at Messedamm 22 is the ‘Naples’ custom office where Bourne is held on his return to Europe

 

Next up on 35 mins is ‘Amsterdam’ but of course its Berlin and Walter-Benjamin-Platz in particular where Nicky (Julia Stiles) is found by Ward Abbott.

 

Bourne arrives in the German capital at Berlin Oestbahnhof (below) on 45 mins and walks past a souvenir shop inside the station.

     

He then puts his bag into the exact same locker pictured below in exchange for another bag he’d been keeping in there.

 

Its in this station that he phones a few hotels in the name of tracking down US agent Pamela Landy (Joan Allen). Before he tails her, he crosses the Oberbaumbruecke (below) on 46 mins which featured prominantly inRun Lola Runfeaturing his co-star Franka Potente as can be seen in ‘Berlin Pt II’.

 

The Westin Grand (below) is the luxury hotel where Landy is staying.

  

Bourne cleverly finds out at reception on 46 mins that she is staying in room 235.

      

He then watches her leave from his position on the 4th floor and then takes the stairs down and goes through the hotels revolving doors where he gets in a taxi and follows her to the CIA hub where he makes a phonecall to her whilst watching from a nearby rooftop.

        

Alexanderplatz (below) plays host to the next round of events in the movie after 53 mins. Bourne arranges to meet Nicky under the Weltzeituhr (world clock) on Alexanderstrasse amid a student demonstration.

     

The next location is over in West Berlin at Hotel Brecker (at Kurfurstendamm 288) where Bourne has flashbacks of his disastrous first mission to kill Russian politician Neski in room 645. I knew the hotel didn’t exist but wanted to find the building but, after a long walk, all I found was a pile of rubble as the place had been demolished.

 

Friedrichstrasse station provides some of the films most exciting scenes on 69 mins (in a movie jam-packed with action) when the police chase Bourne up some steps, over the bridge and on to the platform. Unlike most other films the train doors don’t magically close as soon as he gets on but he does use efficient German timing to his advantage in order to make his escape. He jumps across the track seen below narrowly avoiding an oncoming train and then he hops on over the bridge onto a slow riverboat, hooks himself back on to the brdige and hauls himself up and gets back on the train he’d originally intended to take. Classic!

            

After this, Bourne takes the train to Moscow on 81 mins. The ‘Moscow’ disco, where Yuri finds Kirill and informs his that Bourne is still alive, is of course in Berlin. It’s the aptly named Cafe Moskau on Karl Marx Allee 34 although we don’t see the front of it in the movie. Instead, the Kino International complex across the road is seen from under the cafe on 81 mins.

 

The ‘Moscow’ street where Bourne arrives by taxi on 83 mins in search of Neski’s daughter is actually Scharrenstrasse (below) near Spittelmarkt U-Bahn station.

  

On foot he turns into Friedrichsgracht (below).

 

He walks under a bridge and is shot by Kirill next to the river below which was frozen over when I was there. Kirill is temporarily arrested before a car chase ensues.

 

As well as actual Moscow this car chase was also filmed in Berlin with perhaps the most notable part being the final crash at the Potsdamer Platz exit of Tiergarten Tunnel (below) on 93 mins.

 

You can see my Bourne Identity & Bourne Ultimatum location photos here & here.

Click here to see the London filming locations for ‘Jason Bourne (2016)’ 

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Berlin Filming Locations: Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) (1998)

If you were to ask me what my favourite German film was I’d have to go for ‘Lola Rennt‘ (UK title: ‘Run Lola Run‘) due to the fact that it’s probably the only one I have ever seen!

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Other than that, it’s actually a very good film using the streets of Berlin in a clever edit which makes it seem as if all the locations are near each other. That’s far from the case though as it took me a couple of days to get round them all unlike the flame-haired Lola (Franka Potente) herself who has to run it in 20 minutes……..three times!

When she gets the all important call from boyfriend Manni during the movies opening moments she rushes out of her apartment, down the stairwell and out of the apartment block at 13-14 Albrechtstrasse (below) near Friedrichstrasse railway station. This was my first port of call and maybe the most important one and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was so accessible as I thought I’d probably just have to poke my camera through the gates railings.

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The phone box (below) specifically erected in front of the Apotheke (drug store) for the movie was on the corner of Osnabruecker Strasse and Tauroggener Strasse.

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Below is the Deutsche Transfer Bank which is located at Behrenstrasse 37. It’s a hotel now and stood in as a fictitious bank.

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Oberbaumbruecke (below) is the train overpass which features just before Lola dashes through its turrets and picturesque brick arcades.

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The casino’s exterior (below) is on Unter Den Linden opposite the Deutsches Historisches Museum.

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In front of this museum (below) on the corner of Hinter Dem Giesshaus is where Lola runs in front of a lorry.

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Just after Strausberger Platz on Karl Marx Allee is where Lola wishes for Manni to arrive. The fernsehturm (TV Tower) is obscured by the trees in the film and it’s the cloud which hides it in my photo (below) although if you look hard enough you can just about see it above my left shoulder.

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The square tile pattern pavement Lola runs across is Gendarmenmarkt (below) and its Konzerthaus features but all of this was under construction when I was there or it might just have been that it had been used for a New Years Party a few days prior to my arrival. Across the road from there is the shop underpassage. This is on the corner of Charlottenstrasse and Franzoesische Strasse and is where Lola runs in Run 1 of the film.

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23-24 Wallstrasse (below) features in all three runs and is where Herr Meier comes out of his garage. Its not really recognisable now in any way as its now a hotel.

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Cuvrystrasse (below) is where Lola gets shot at the end of the first run.

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Franzoesische Strasse U-Bahn station (below) is the station which is in the middle of the road and the path that Lola runs is slightly different on the three takes during the film before she encounters the Nuns.

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Those Nuns appeared on Mauerstrasse (below) in all three runs with very slight variations as Lola runs through them. The cyclist appears from Franzoesische Strasse which is just round the corner and slightly further south from the nuns. Sadly these two photos were taken at night (I hadn’t originally deemed them important enough to bother with them but decided that I might as well complete things at the end of a long busy day) so they are not so clear.

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Click here to see the Berlin filming locations for ‘The Bourne Supremacy‘ (2004) 

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Berlin 2011: Meine Zwei Nächte In Berlin

After two nights in Prague I took an early morning 4.5 hour train ride to Berlin Hauptbahnhof which I arrived at just after 11am on January 3rd. It took me a while to get my bearings which was down to my guidebook being old and having a different name for the main station which I was at. Once I’d asked where I was on the train map I headed straight out on foot across the road and within moments found myself at Reichstag.

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The place was covered in snow and ice which added to the beauty of the place for me as my image of Berlin is as a cold place. What wasn’t so nice was the mess of the place from the New Years party with fireworks and glass bottles lying all around which was a surprise as I thought the Germans were supposed to be efficient! Moments later I was at the Brandenburger Tor which is perhaps the most iconic landmark in Berlin and a place I visited with friends back in the Summer of 2003 when I was working and living in Hamburg. Apart from this place I didn’t remember too much else about the city or what exactly we did when we were there.

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A good thing about travelling very light (just a small backpack) is that you don’t need to go to your accommodation on arrival to dump your bags. With that n mind I moved on to the next landmark which was the Berliner Dom with the Alexanderplatz Fernsehturm lingering in the background. What I love about Berlin is that the main sights are all within reasonably close walking distance along Unter Den Linden (Berlin’s equivalent of the Champs Elysees in Paris) and just beyond that. The city has a good mix of culture, sights, architecture and of course its history.

I arrived at Checkpoint Charlie just as daylight was disappearing and I was rather annoyed that a huge Christmas tree had been erected right next to the guard house. Unlike 2003 I actually coughed up the $12 fee to go into the Hause am Checkpoint Charlie museum which was fascinating with photos and exhibits relating to escape attempts from the Eastern side using hot-air balloons, getaway cars, chairlifts, and even a mini-U-Boat.

   

It had been a very long day though and I soon got tired (as I always do in museums which is why I don’t often go to them) and ripped round the remainder of what I hadn’t seen. Below are some random photos taken the following day showing the conditions of the city.

     

‘Berlin Pt II: Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) Filming Locations’ can be seen here.

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London Filming Locations: Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001)

It certainly won’t be remembered as a classic film but ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ (2001) will be remembered. One reason is of course down to Angelina Jolie’s great portrayal of the video game heroine and another is the plot, it’s depth and the character development! Naturally, I am joking about the latter. Maybe one other reason it is remembered is because of the Continue reading

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London Filming Locations: Mission Impossible (1996)

With the Mission Impossible locations in Prague in the bag Tokyo Fox now brings you the ones used in London though in reality I actually did them a few days before I even went to the Czech Republic! Having met up with Richard Richard in London between Christmas and New Year I had a bit of time to kill before returning to my parents house so went in search of a couple of locations. This certainly wasn’t an impossible mission (do you see what I’ve done there?!) as they were very easy to find.

The story properly moves to London on 72 minutes and Liverpool Street Underground station (below) is seen with the safe house right above it being the place where Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Pilot Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) hide away. It’s seen again six minutes later as Hunt heads across the road to the railway station.

  

Hunt meets up with Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), who he had presumed was dead (having fallen off Charles Bridge in Prague), by a row of telephones under the stairs (below) by the Liverpool Street Railway station exit. Since filming took place in 1995 the phones have been replaced by cashpoint machines following a makeover of the station.

 

The interior of County Hall (below), next to the London Eye, became the ‘Langley, Virginia CIA Headquarters.

Tower Bridge (below) is prominently in the background of the helicopter landing on 88 minutes. My shot was taken from the other side of the river.

  

The final London location to feature (104 minutes) is the Anchor Tavern pub (below) at 1 Bankside by Southwark Bridge. It’s where Hunt and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) unwind in the films final moments.

     

For other London filming locations click on the links below:

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace    Trainspotting    Lara Croft Tomb Raider    The Bourne Ultimatum   Harry Potter & The Philosophers Stone   James Bond    About A Boy    Quadrophenia    Bridget Jones’s Diary    Goodnight Sweetheart    Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels    Basic Instinct 2    Batman Begins/The Dark Knight    The Italian Job    Snatch    Rom-Com Special    Skyfall    Notting Hill    The World Is Not Enough

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Prague Filming Locations: Mission Impossible (1996)

The 1996 re-make of the TV series was mainly set in Prague and London and I certainly wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to scout out the filming locations while I was in the former. Once I’d done a couple of Casino Royale spots I found myself at Hotel Evropa (yes that is the correct spelling!) at Vaclavske namesti 25 (below) which was the headquarters of mysterious arms dealer Max.

  

A bit further down the same road and just past Wenceslas Square is the National Museum (below); the ‘American Embassy’ where the teams first operation commences as they infiltrate some fancy reception.

   

Liechtenstein Palace (below) is just a stones throw from Kampa Park (as featured in The Bourne Identityand mentioned in ‘Prague Pt II’) and was not where I thought it was. I’d actually given up on finding it but on my descend from Prague Castle I found it by chance. It was actually this place that provided the exterior shots of the ‘American Embassy’ as the real embassy was no doubt deemed to not be glitzy enough for the movie.

 

Undoubtedly the city’s (and indeed the films) major attraction is the world heritage Charles Bridge (below) which connects the Old Town with Prague Castle. It’s here that things really go wrong with controller Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) plunging into the Vltava having taken a bullet on the bridge. This famous bridge was also used music video’s by Linkin Park (Numb) and Kanye West (Diamonds From Sierra Leone) as well as ‘XxX‘ (2002). It’s here that Vin Diesel comes up with an out-of-this-world stunt to save the bridge and the city of Prague from a deadly bomb!

       

London Pt III: Mission Impossible Filming Locations can be seen here.

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Prague Filming Locations: Casino Royale (2006)

The 2006 re-boot of the 007 franchise begins in black and white with James Bond (Daniel Craig) earning his licence to kill. This was shot near to my hostel in the Karlin district on the banks of the Vlatva River in Prague. I had almost given up on trying to locate Danube House (Karolinska 650/1), the fairly new office block where it was filmed, when I found it almost by accident and mightily relieved to find it I was as it had been a slow start to my morning.

 

However, that wasn’t my first Bond location of the day as before that I had ascended Vitkov Hill which wasn’t too easy due to the very icy paths and steps and also because it was actually roped off but as no-one was around I ignored that and climbed up to find the Vitkov monument under reconstruction. Scaffolding and work being done on buildings seems to be the bane of my life which can be annoying when one has gone to a certain place to see that landmark. Luckily I didn’t go to Prague just to see this monument which was home to the ‘Miami Body Worlds’ exhibition for a short scene involving ‘M’ and Bond before the film moved onto ‘Montenegro’ which was yet another case of the Czech Republic filling in for another place but that one was outside of Prague.

Next up was Strahov Monastery (found at Strahovske Nadvori 1/132) at the top of the hill in Petrinske Sady. The picture below is the exterior of the place but it was the library interior that was used but I wasn’t interested enough in the place, which was the committee room in ‘London’s’ House of Commons, due to the cost of entry and a pressing need to move on to the next locations in order to maximise daylight hours.

 

You can see my other ‘Casino Royale’ Como & Venice filming locations here and here.

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Prague Pt II: Bourne, Amadeus & The Sex Machines Museum

Most of the main Prague locations will be mentioned in ‘Prague Pt III’ and ‘Prague Pt IV’. This entry will include the rest and we start with Kampa Park across the river from the Old Town which featured in the opening 11 minutes of ‘The Bourne Identity‘ (2002) and is where Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) duffs up a couple of Zurich policemen (as Prague was used as a substitute for the Swiss city) after they wake him up from his sleep on a bench by the Certovka stream near Charles Bridge. He then runs away through the park (below) passing the tree which I am lurking behind in the next shot.

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Nearby were a trio of sculptures which were just crying out for this type of photo (above) to be done!

It seems that Prague is rarely ever used to portray itself as it fills in for Vienna in the 1984 film ‘Amadeus‘. I’ve not seen it but it features in a lovely book I got from my parents for Christmas. Maltese Square was supposedly the setting of a lively market scene but when I was there it was far from lively. Almost empty in fact! St. Giles’ Church at Husova 8 was where Mozart and Constanze got married in the film. Hopefully that will mean something to someone!

 

Mid afternoon I found myself in Old Town Square and from there I went down Melantrichova (that’s the street name by the way) to the Sex Machines Museum. I didn’t even know about this place until Richard (not to be confused with Richard Richard!) and Mizuki told me about it only hours before I left them in London to fly to the Czech capital.

 

This place was quite expensive by Czech standards but I thought I better take up the opportunity to go to such a unique museum and very amusing it was too. Spread out over three floors there were over 200 weird and wonderful objects and mechanical appliances on view but don’t worry as I am not going to detail any of them! The place included a cinema with some very old erotic films playing and so exciting was it that I actually fell asleep briefly as I hadn’t taken a break all day.

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