The Apple TV+ filmBlitzrecreates 1940s London as it depicts the city’s bombing by the Nazis in World War II. Directed by Steve McQueen and starring Saoirse Ronan,this historical dramafollows a mother and son in London as they try to survive and reunite with each other as their city endures the Germans' aerial bombardment.
2024’sBlitzfeatures several notable locations throughout the United Kingdom. However, the filmmakers used actual sites in England during the production to bring the story to life, creating an authentic presentation of London at the time of the bombings forBlitz’scast of charactersto thrive in. Such realism makes theBlitz’s filming a sprawling and immersive portrait of London during one of the darkest chapters in its history.
Blitz Used Modern London To Present The War-Torn City On Film
Blitz Was Filmed In Several Districts In The City Of London
Naturally, most ofBlitz’s filming took place in London. According to4filming, production took place around such notable sites as the Houses of Parliament and the River Thames in Westminster.Blitz’s Supervising Location Manager Jonah Coombes said toFilm LondonthatRoupell Street in the city’s Waterloo district was an essential filming site, as it was used to create the fictional Clifford Lane, which is where the main characters live, due to the street’s many 1800s-era homes.
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Filming also took place in the London Docklands,with the filmmakers using the warehouses and docks on-site to depict one of the areas bombed during the Blitz. In addition,Blitzfeatured scenes filmed in the East End, the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, Wicklow Street in Kings Cross, the Mildmay Club in Newington Green, and the historic Ward of Cornhill.
Blitz Used Yorkshire To Recreate London In The 1940s
Yorkshire Was The Site Of Blitz’s Most Lively And Action-Packed Scenes
Filming forBlitz’s various wartime scenes occurred in Kingston upon Hull. Located in the East Riding of Yorkshire,this port city was heavily hit by the German bombing in real life.Blitz’s production team captured footage in Hull Old Town, the Hull Paragon Railway Station, and the Hull Paragon Interchange. The latter two sites were used to film the movie’s lively train station scenes, complete with a classical steam locomotive.
Hull is already famous for hosting TV and movie productions forThe CrownandEnola Holmes, so it was a prime location for this historical war epic.
Likewise, the crew used the Hull Waterside & Marina to film Blitz’s waterfront war scenes. Though these sets weren’t located in London,they served as excellent doubles for the filmmakers as they brought 1940s London to life. Hull is already famous for hosting TV and movie productions forThe CrownandEnola Holmes, so it was a prime location for this historical war epic.
Kent and Waterford Were Also Crucial Filming Sites For Blitz
Blitz Used Real Sites and Studio Replicas To Film This Historical Drama
TheKent Film Officestates thatBlitzwas also shot at the Historic Dockyard in the coastal town of Chatham. This proved to be one of the more challenging parts of the production. In his interview withFilm London, Jonah Coombes explained the difficulties of filming such an elaborate, fiery, and dramatic action sequence scene on film:
“We had a huge fire sequence, horses running around, and lots of actors in the scene, so it was the choreography of all those components whilst trying to get the fire to the scale that we had it and convince Chatham that it could all be done very safely. It was definitely challenging, but a great feat to pull off.”
Since it has over 100 buildings from the Georgian and Victorian eras,this Dockyard was a perfect location to recreate 1940s England. For instance, the production team used the Ropery buildings and Museum Square as doubles for London as they simulated the Blitz on film.
Additionally,Film Londonreports that the Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden building in Watford, Hertfordshire, served as the production’s base of operations. There,the film’s crew built a replica of Clifford Lane on a soundstage in the studio backlot. The production team even invited some of the city’s locals to witness them filming scenes forBlitz.
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Steve McQueen and his team clearly made the most of their resources in and outside London to present an expansive, realistic adventure through the city in World War II. SinceBlitzuses several real-world locations in England, many of which were affected by the actual bombings, this movie presents itself as an engrossing display of London’s perseverance through such a devesting period almost a century later.
