First of two posts from my busy day in London on Wednesday 28 June when I took part in two film and cinema related walking tours. By the end of the day I'd done 26,743 steps!
After grabbing the number 13 bus from Victoria I headed to North West London for my first planned event, a walking tour around Hampstead Garden Suburbs as part of the Proms at St Jude's series of guided walks. This one was led by Paul Capewell from the Hampstead Gardens Suburb Trust, and had a focus on Films and TV filmed in the Suburbs.
Hampstead Garden Suburb was founded in 1907 by Henrietta Barnett to be a model community where all classes of people would live together in attractive surroundings and social harmony. The focus of many of the films/TV was, unsurpisingly, St Jude on the Hill (consecrated in May 1911) designed by Edwin Lutyens to be the centre piece of the Suburbs.
Its most popular screen appearance is in the opening minutes of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010, David Yates) as Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) leaves her family house on Heathgate and walks up the road towards the church. The house used went on sale in 2016, and attracted much media attention.
Just round the corner you will find the home of Dr Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011, Lasse Hallström). You will also spot Central Square, St Jude's and the Free Church in the film. Despite shooting in a wet August the production team still weren't taking any chances and brought along rain machine suspended high up above the square on a crane. You can read more and see some behind the scenes photos via HeyGuys.
Paul hopes to return to this topic in future Proms, so I won't reveal all of the Suburb's screen appearances! I am hoping that he will be able to show clips next time, as I am particularly keen to see The Clicking of Cuthbert (1924) based on PG Wodehouse's short stories and appears to have been filmed extensively in the Suburbs.
For fans of Robert Donat, there's a blue plaque on his former home at 8 Meadway.
And finally, if you want to know more about the Suburbs, check out this 45 minute documentary of the Suburb's history, architecture and community life, Hampstead Garden Suburb: a Documentary (1975), narrated by Sir Donald Sinden & Timothy Neal.
As the starting point for the next walk was Angel tube, I walked back to Golders Green, stopping off to walk through Golders Green Crematorium's Garden of Remembrance.
Amongst the stars of stage and screen commemorated there are:
Barbara Windsor, Vivian Stanshall and Larry Adler
Marc Bolan, Keith Moon and Steve Conway.
Before jumping on the tube, I popped to Sainsbury's recalling my past visits there in the late 80s and 90s when it was the Golders Green Canon Ionic.
And then round the corner to the Grade II Golders Green Hippodrome, which was bought by Hillsong Megachurch in 2021. Read more about its controversial purchase in The Guardian, 21 October 2021.
And then on the tube to Angel for Nigel Smith's Islington's Big Screens - a cinematic walking tour. Read more about my Islington adventures here.