These Movie and TV-themed Day Journeys From London Take Followers Into the Worlds of ‘Bridgerton,’ ‘Peaky Blinders,’ and Extra

Blessed with photogenic attractiveness and no scarcity of primary character vitality, Britain has change into a first-choice filming location for all the things from cortisol-spiking spy thrillers to plush interval items. In keeping with knowledge from Social Movies, 220 characteristic movies have been made in Britain in 2022, and movies shot right here have received extra Oscars than every other nation aside from the U.S.. It’s simple for vacationers to get in on the motion, as lots of the hottest filming places are inside simple attain of London, making for picture-perfect day journeys from the British capital.

Oxfordshire

Famed for its quintessential English countryside allure and historical collegiate metropolis, the county of Oxfordshire sits lower than 60 miles northwest of London, making it a no brainer for movie followers. The county’s solely metropolis, Oxford, is about an hour from London’s Paddington Station by practice and feels just like the set of a moody, darkish academia movie with aristocratic structure lifted from antiquity, shadowy lanes, and bookish college students flitting off to tutorials. With such moody attract, it’s no shock that the charming metropolis has loads of on-screen credit, together with “Saltburn,” which was filmed in Radcliffe Sq. — with its pebble-paved streets and iconic domed library — in addition to in entrance of the Divinity Faculty, the oldest constructing within the college constructed for instructing, relationship again to the 1420s. (The constructing was additionally used within the “Harry Potter” movies because the infirmary and ballroom.) Open for guests, Brasenose Faculty, one of many 36 faculties that make up Oxford College, was utilized in “Saltburn” as nicely, as the principle characters’ faculty. It’s been reported that filming even passed off in precise dorm rooms, “lent” to manufacturing by real-life pupils.

The current “Wonka” film was additionally filmed in Oxford, utilizing backdrops like Hertford Bridge, higher often called the Bridge of Sighs as a result of it resembles the famed bridge in Venice. Throughout filming, Timothée Chalamet, who performs the top-hatted younger chocolatier, was apparently staying on the trendy new nation lodge, Estelle Manor, situated a few half-hour’s drive away within the rolling Oxfordshire hills. 

One other wildly well-liked filming location, the magnificent Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, can be a few half hour away from Oxford. Over 300 years outdated with a wooded property stretching over 12,000 acres, this UNESCO World Heritage Web site has hosted movie crews from “Harry Potter” — take a look at the traditional, gnarled Cedar of Lebanon tree, to the left of the Grand Bridge, utilized in Professor Snape’s childhood flashbacks — in addition to “Spectre” within the “James Bond” collection; “Mission: Unimaginable – Rogue Nation;” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Future;” and most just lately, “Napoleon.” (Director Sir Ridley Scott was on location for the epic movie for almost a month.) The places and filming backstories for all the large hits at Blenheim are handily marked on the self-guided Lights, Digicam, Motion! Path, which could be adopted through a QR-code map. 

Birmingham

Situated about two hours by practice from London’s Euston station, the UK’s second largest metropolis and the nation’s one-time industrial and manufacturing hub, Birmingham has change into synonymous with the Peaky Blinders tv present, quickly to be a serious movement image in 2025. 

In keeping with the West Midlands Progress Firm, Birmingham’s customer numbers have grown by over 1 / 4 since Peaky Blinders first aired in 2013. For followers of the present, which was impressed by an actual Twenties road gang in Birmingham, the open-air Black Nation Museum in Dudley — a “residing” museum utilizing unscripted stay actors — is a should. Spanning over 26 acres and together with over 100,000 authentic objects sourced from the group, historic buildings, and restored cars, the museum tells the story of the so-called Black Nation (the sooty web site of Birmingham’s iron foundries that rose to significance throughout the Industrial Revolution) from 1700 by means of 1968.

For historic accuracy, all six seasons of Peaky Blinders have been partially filmed on-site, utilizing museum places just like the canal-flanked scrap metallic yard, the Blacksmith’s constructing, Canal Road bridge, and St. James’s church faculty. “It helped us get on the map,” Claire Packer, the museum’s Head of Audiences & Communications, advised Journey + Leisure. “We began reaching folks we in any other case might not have reached.”

Die-hard followers may additionally like to take a look at the hip-and-gritty neighborhood of Digbeth in Birmingham, which runs alongside the Fazeley Canal. A one-time hub for warehouses and factories now coated with vibrant road artwork, the world — particularly Fazeley Road — is the soon-to-be-home of the brand new Peaky Blinders movie studio, normal by Peaky Blinders creator (and Birmingham native) Steven Knight, who desires to carry the world again to life. 

Bathtub

The elegant, refined Georgian metropolis of Bathtub, an hour practice trip from Paddington, is actually one massive romantic backdrop for the Regency-era-drama Bridgerton. With season three having simply premiered, key on-screen websites embody The Holburne Museum, a fantastic artwork gallery used as Woman Danbury’s mansion, and No. 1 Royal Crescent, used as the outside for the Featherington household dwelling. The true-life property is a townhouse museum and is lacking the lion statues and different ornamental thrives, nevertheless it’s nonetheless undeniably photogenic. Used as a stomping floor for a lot of characters in road scenes in addition to a proxy for London’s Covent Backyard, Bathtub’s picture-perfect metropolis sq. Abbey Inexperienced — with a 200-year-old London airplane tree at its heart and Abbey Deli (The Modiste Store onscreen) — is one other recognizable spot. 

Whereas a lot of the filming was executed at a soundstage in Ascot, Bathtub continues to be wealthy with historical past, the place fiction and nonfiction meet. For instance, A.H. Hale pharmacy on Argyle Road is the place Queen Charlotte — the one actual character within the Bridgerton collection — would have her prescriptions stuffed, and you’ll nonetheless see her royal crest of arms on high of the store.