These days, Eastern State discourages filming – ‘It’s in a beautiful state of decay,’ says Kelley, ‘but it’s difficult to make it look like an active prison’ – but welcomes all comers for a wander and/or an IPA in a new beer garden that’s run with a socially conscious local brewery. ‘This photo shows cell blocks 210 and 211,’ says Eastern State’s senior VP Sean Kelley, ‘where the film’s main asylum scenes were shot.’ Eastern State has also stood in for a Malaysian prison in Vince Vaughn drugs drama Return to Paradise and Drago’s Russian gym in Creed 2, though the latter ended up on the cutting room floor. But as any 1 2 Monkeys stan will tell you, it also held Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt when it stood in for the movie’s psychiatric hospital. The obvious reason to stop in at this ex-prison-turned-museum in central Philly is to visit the surprisingly primly appointed cell where Al Capone once spent seven months. ?Discover more of the best things to do in London ? Read our review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Phil de Semlyenįun fact Platform 9¾ was actually filmed between platforms 4 and 5, where the Victorian brickwork is more substantial than on the real 9 and 10. Then you can hop on the Met line to Watford and see the whole platform recreated at the franchise’s studio tour.
It’s a cottage industry these days, with a professional photographer on hand to capture the moment and a Harry Potter shop nearby.
Neighbouring St Pancras Station, with its more striking gothic facade, was used for the station’s exterior shots – a decision that had Londoners grumbling about accuracy in a movie that also features a flying car and a bank run by goblins. Possibly to discourage people from attempting it, the station has its own magical Potter photo op: a luggage trolley embedded into a wall between the real platforms 8 and 9, providing the joyful illusion that you’re heading for Hogsmeade Station rather than, say, Leeds. Harry Potter famously left for Hogwarts by running through a King’s Cross Station wall and emerging at Platform 9¾.
Check with their official sites by clicking on the main images for the latest info.įrom Cape Town to Amsterdam: these are the 50 most beautiful cinemas in the world. NB: Most of the locations on this list are either reopening or planning to reopen. Oh, and you can check into the cinema hotel where you dial ‘007’ for room service.
And if none of that tickles your DVD collection, look out for the high school where Ferris skivved off and the Breakfast Club did detention. There are three lots of iconic staircases, a prison or two, a couple of boats, and at least one crashed train. It ticks off everything from legendary film locations, to studio tours, to movie museums, to delis where you should always have what Meg Ryan is having. With that sense of escapism in mind, we’ve mapped out 101 places around the world that offer something for every film fan, cinephile and pop-culture nerd. Remember the last time you went somewhere – anywhere – exciting? After a year parked on the sofa, movies have become our passports to strange, exotic places.