The Flash | 2023
Set in DC's 'Gotham City' and 'Central City', it's all very American so it may come as a surprise to discover the movie was filmed in the UK – London, Glasgow, Hertfordshire and Lincolnshire. Find out where.
The film didn't do too well at the box office – maybe negative publicity surrounding the star, sub-par FX or maybe a surfeit of Multiverses - but I thought it was pretty good.
Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) is trying to get some breakfast in 'Central City' when he's called to help save a collapsing hospital (I love that the working title was 'Baby Shower'). The diner, surrounding streets and the hospital were all huge outdoor sets built at Warner Bros Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire.
The job falls to Barry because Batman (Ben Affleck) is otherwise engaged chasing Falcone (who else?) through the streets of 'Gotham City' – aka central Glasgow – riding the Batcycle east along Cochrane Street, where he throws down a spike strip forcing Falcone to swerve through the arch of Glasgow City Chambers into John Street.
John Street is extended into an endless series of arches via the magic of CGI (it has only one at each end).
The chase bursts out onto George Street, continuing along the southern side of George Square onto St Vincent Street, which is where the cop car gets flipped over at the junction with Hope Street.
Back to 'Central City' where the ‘Research Center' in which Barry works is – despite the spelling of 'center' – in London. It's Senate House, the administrative centre of the the University of London Union in Bloomsbury though this is the less seen entrance on the southwest side of Russell Square, WC1, rather than the more familiar Malet Street side. There's also a bit of digital twiddling which moves the centre a little closer to the street. This really confused me when it came to getting photos.
Here he's approached by one-time crush Iris West (Kiersey Clemons), who's covering the appeal of Barry's father against a murder conviction – so we get the dark backstory of the killing of Barry's Mum.
For the flashback scenes, the Allen house was constructed on an already tree-lined street but the supermarket, where everything hinges on whether his mother remembers to pick up a can of crushed tomatoes, is TFC Supermarket, 99 High Street, Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, north of London.
When Barry realises his superspeed allows him to travel through time, he makes the cardinal error of trying to fix the present by changing the past.
Inevitably things go awry and Barry is literally punched into another universe where he's stuck with his annoying (pre-powers) younger self.
Wandering through the city and noticing a crowd gathering, the two Barries curiously look into a bar only to discover that General Zod (Michael Shannon) has taken over TVs to announce that he's about to invade earth.
Since subsequent exteriors are around Smithfield, you might assume that’s where the bar is – but it’s not.
It’s Flight Club, 2A Worship Street at City Road in ever-trendy Shoreditch EC2, one of a chain of bars celebrating the traditional old pub sport of darts. You don’t have to play – you can just drop in for a drink. And, yes, the rings of light and window decorations are for real.
BTW, only a couple of minutes away along Worship Street you'll find the spot where Tom Cruise spots the sinister man following him in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.
As Barry [Prime] attempts to explain the problems to young Barry [Alt], they're walking along Smithfield Street in Smithfield, EC1, beside the famous meat market, before turning into Cowcross Street.
In this Universe Barry [Prime] discovers that there are no meta-humans to fight back – but there's always Batman. The Barries head off to 'Wayne Manor' for help.
That damn mansion is always changing and it's rarely simple.
It seems simple at first. The magnificently Gothic gates topped by rampant griffins at which they arrive are those of Knebworth House, Knebworth in Hertfordshire.
Knebworth is a familiar screen location (Oscar-winners Anastasia (1956) and The King's Speech (2010), as well as Wilde, Transformers: The Last Knight, Lair of the White Worm, Haunted Honeymoon and the deliriously daft schlocker Horror Hospital) but most famously was used as the exterior of Bruce Wayne's abode in the 1989 Tim Burton Batman.
But this time, once past the famous gates, the exterior of the manor becomes the similarly Gothic Burghley House, Stamford, Lincolnshire, in the East Midlands. It turns out this house has a larger roof space that's needed for a later scene.
Burghley is seen also in The Da Vinci Code, Joe Wright's 2005 film of Pride And Prejudice and the Merchant-Ivory film of The Golden Bowl (while getting cut from the final version of Elizabeth, The Golden Age)
This is only the start. The interior of 'Wayne Manor' is – as it was again in the Tim Burton movie – mainly Knebworth's neighbour Hatfield House. Hatfield also in Hertfordshire.
Are you keeping up? Good. Because the grand wooden staircase is that of Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, Mansion Drive, Tring again found in Hertfordshire.
Dating from 1685, the mansion itself was designed by Sir Christopher Wren though it's interior was remodelled in the 18th century.
The school was established in 1939 and is quite a prestigious institution, the likes of Julie Andrews, Glynis Johns, Thandie Newton and Daisy Ridley having learned their craft here.
We definitely seem to be in the Burtonverse when Bruce Wayne turns out to be Michael Keaton, though shaggy, bearded and apparently retired.
Of course he reluctantly dons the old outfit to help look for Superman. Although the search is fruitless, they do turn up Supe's cousin Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle) whom they free from a secret 'Russian' site (another set at Leavesden). She, of course, is destined to become Supergirl.
They team up to fight Zod and we're plunged into another confusion of CGI multiverses where – well – lessons are learned.
One of those is that Barry learns not to try and manipulate the past – apart from one tiny but crucial detail which makes a huge difference to the outcome of his Dad's appeal.
The courthouse in which the appeal is heard is the Great Hall of Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, in Bloomsbury, London WC1, not far from the Senate House location. The college is an educational charity that provides residential accommodation for postgraduates and their families studying in London.
The exterior – apparently chosen to have the imposing feel of 'New York County Courthouse' – is the entrance to St Paul’s Cathedral, St Paul's Churchyard, EC4.
Yeah, it's not that well known. Nobody will notice.
It's in front of the Cathedral that Barry gets to meet his third Batman, alongside the statue of Queen Anne (she was the monarch portrayed by Olivia Colman in The Favourite). The monument is given a bit of a digital tweak to look more like a green bronze Disney princess. Maybe some old Queen of Gotham City?
