Top 10 films which use London as a backdrop.

The gritty surroundings of King's Cross station (rather than "icons" like Tower Bridge) feature in a number of the best London-themed films (image credit below)

Passport to Pimlico.  Notting Hill.  The Lavender Hill Mob.  84 Charing Cross Road.  10 Rillington Place.  London’s geography resounds in the titles of films – and in many of them, you might say, the city itself is the hero.

London is one of the world’s great film sets.  It’s naturally at the centre of many Sherlock Holmes films (including the most recent one) since Holmes was himself a Londoner; but films of all genres have used it as a backdrop.

Here then are my top ten London films – that is, films that make imaginative use of the capital as their background.  I make no apologies for the fact that these are my personal favourites – many of you will disagree!

1. At the very top of my London film list is Shakespeare’s Richard III, directed by Ian McKellen who also plays the title role.  His London is an uncanny recreation of an altered reality – a sort of Nazi Art Deco London, in which we visit locations such as London University Senate House, Bankside Power Station, St Pancras Railway Station, and Shell Mex House.  The final scene (‘My kingdom for a horse!’) takes place in the post-apocalyptic, ruined shell of Battersea Power Station.  Fantastic!

2. The Thirty-Nine Steps, with Robert Powell in the role of Richard Hannay.  The denouement of this film takes place actually on the clock face of the clocktower of Big Ben, as Hannay tries to defuse the bomb placed by the villains – breaking the glass of the clock face to climb into the central chamber.  A thrilling use of one of London’s great icons.

3. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels – a wonderfully witty, chaotic multiple heist movie, set in the backlands of South London.  If you love the tatty, grimy surroundings of Borough Market, this is the film for you.

4. Mike Leigh’s bittersweet High Hopes is set in the hinterland of King’s Cross, where working-class flats and grubby terraced houses march side-by-side with the gentrified terraces of upper-class twits like the Booth-Braines.  It’s a movie that manages to be sweet despite its social satire and politics, and the highlight for any London lover is the scene where Cyril and Shirley treat Cyril’s old mum to a rooftop view of her neighbourhood.

5. The Ladykillers is also set around King’s Cross, but it’s a rather different view of the area: dominated by the railway, its tunnels, and the huge gasholders that were for so long leading characters in the area before they were removed for the Channel Tunnel rail link (vandalism in my view!).  It’s a wonderfully bleak and extremely funny film.

You can enjoy classic old and current films at the cheap and cheerful Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square (image credit below)

6. The Wrong Box is another black comedy – something London seems admirably suited for – and you can’t get better comedians than Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.  I love the evocation of a rather stuffy High-Victorian London; black-plumed horses drawing the hearse, high terraced houses, rooms full of natural history collections under glass domes and too much upholstery.  Yet the marvellous funeral-coach chase was shot in Surrey, and the tall London terraces are in fact those of Bath’s Royal Crescent.

7. Neverwhere.  I’m cheating here as this tale by Neil Gaiman was made for television, but I can’t not include it.  The Angel of Islington (a marvellous role for Peter Capaldi), the tramp-like Old Bailey, the Night’s Bridge, the Earl of Earl’s Court, and the Marquis de Carabas – these are all characters occupying a nightmarish underworld where real London locations meet myth and fairytale.  Full of in-jokes that only Londoners will understand – but watchable by non-natives too.

8. My Beautiful Laundrette, very much an evocation of the Thatcher era and the racial tensions of the early 80s – but also a surprisingly tender romance (with an amazing performance by the young Daniel Day-Lewis).  Filmed all over Battersea and Wandsworth, it’s real London as Londoners live it every day – railway bridges, newsagents and broken pavements and not a ‘London icon’ to be seen anywhere.

9. Hitchcock’s Blackmail ends with a marvellously subversive use of a London icon, as Tracey climbs the dome of the British Museum Reading Room to escape the police, then falls through the glass to his death.

10. And finally – A Hard Day’s Night, an engagingly ragged film in which the Beatles play themselves and both Gatwick Airport and Marylebone Station have supporting roles.  It’s a joyful film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, full of smart one-liners and snappy ripostes and a sort of innocent silliness; it feels like visiting London with a good friend and nothing to do but stroll around and poke your nose into things.  Lots of fun.

The Covent Garden Hotel is one of three Firmdale hotels with its own screening room (image credit below)

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If you’re staying in London for a weekend and fancy a classy and intimate movie-going experience, you might want to stay at one of the Firmdale Hotels which show films in their own screening rooms – the Soho Hotel, Covent Garden Hotel or Charlotte Street Hotel.  Their ‘Weekend Film Club’ lets you combine lunch, dinner or afternoon tea with a viewing.

Last but not least, a number of films featuring London hotels have been usefully and comprehensively summarised over at LondonTown.com.

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Photo credits: Ewan-M’s photostream, James Nash (aka Cirrus)’s photostream, Firmdale Hotels.

Tagged as: Charlotte Street Hotel, Covent Garden Hotel, Firmdale Hotels, The Soho Hotel