Film and TV productions

Napoleon – Dir. Ridley Scott (2023)

The production captures the tale of Napoleon Bonaparte’s (Joaquin Phoenix) rise to power, and it features intense battle scenes in our colonnades and military confrontations in the Painted Hall. 

Praised for its spectacular visuals, the film earned Academy Award nominations for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects.   

Image © Apple Studios

Bridgerton – Dir. Chris Van Dusen (2020–present)

It has been hard to miss the phenomenon that is Bridgerton in recent times. The colonnades and Grand Square have appeared in several seasons, and the greatly anticipated wedding of Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) took place in the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul. 

Image © Shondaland

Cruella – Dir. Craig Gillespie (2021)

The site doubled as Regent’s Park for the filming of Cruella in 2019. King William Lawn, along with College Way, was embellished with temporary railings and vintage vehicles. 

Image © Walt Disney Studios

The Crown – Dir. Peter Morgan (2016–2023)

Many episodes of The Crown have been filmed here.  

In Seasons 1 and 2, a portico was added to Queen Anne Courtyard to resemble the entrance of Buckingham Palace, with Winston Churchill (John Lithgow), Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy), and Prince Philip (Matt Smith) arriving in style. 

Season 3 featured the Chapel of St Peter & St Paul for Camilla Parker-Bowles’ wedding, while Queen Anne Courtyard stood in for Dartmouth College as Lord Mountbatten (Charles Dance) inspected troops. 

Season 4 recreated Michael Fagan’s 1982 Buckingham Palace break-in, filmed on College Way. In Season 5, Queen Elizabeth II delivers her famous ‘Annus Horribilis’ speech in the Painted Hall. 

Image © Sony Pictures Television

Thor: The Dark World – Dir. Alan Taylor (2013)

In one of the most iconic scenes filmed here, an alien spaceship lands here, tearing up and destroying the entire site. An epic battle between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Malekith ensues.

For this scene, practical effects were combined with green screen to ensure that it looked realistic. Hydraulic rams and concrete blocks were used for big action scenes, and dust ‘squibs’ were used to recreate the effect of gunfire without the actual risk that accompanies the real thing. 

Image © Walt Disney Studios

The Dark Knight Rises – Dir. Christopher Nolan (2012)

At the end of The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), Selina (Anne Hathaway) and Alfred (Michael Cane) cross paths in a café in Florence, Italy. However, the café was not in Florence, instead our colonnades in Greenwich were dressed up to look Italian! 

Image © Warner Bros Pictures

Les Misérables – Dir. Tom Hooper (2012)

Les Mis fans are in luck because a large portion of the film was shot here. Most memorably, Grand Square was used in the storming of the barricades scene with Marius (Eddie Redmayne) and company bravely defending against the dragoons. A 7-metre-tall statue of an elephant was built here to represent a real Parisian monument. The original Elephant of the Bastille (24m), completed in 1814, was plaster but the replica built here was made of polystyrene and resin.  

At the end of filming, there was no time to re-turf before Queen Elizabeth II visited to mark Greenwich becoming a Royal borough. The grass had to be painted green to cover the bald patches so all would look great as she whizzed through in her royal Range Rover.  

Image © Relativity Media

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – Dir. Rob Marshall (2011)

In an iconic scene in Pirates of the Caribbean, George II (Richard Griffith) grills Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) in the Upper Hall. Most of the scene was shot on location, but the dramatic breaking of windows was filmed in Pinewood Studios, where they even made their own version of the painting on the wall to depict the king from the movie. 

As part of his exciting escape, Sparrow can be seen on College Way sliding into an unsuspecting lady’s carriage (played by Dame Judi Dench), and riskily straddling two carriages – or is he? At the time of filming there were five Johnny Depp body doubles. 

Image © Walt Disney Pictures

Sherlock Holmes – Dir. Guy Ritchie (2009)

Sherlock Holmes – Guy Ritchie (2009)   

On Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr can be seen walking down Queen Anne Courtyard, which was dressed as a circus, complete with gaily dressed camels, performing dogs, and fire-eaters – quite the transformation from what is usually a quiet student hub.   

Image © Warner Bros Pictures

The Duchess – Dir. Saul Dibb (2008)

In one iconic scene from The Duchess (starring Keira Knightley as the Duchess of Devonshire), Knightley’s character Georgiana walks down the colonnades, a powerful walk that signifies her support for the political nomination of Lord Grey.    

It took two hours every day to get Keira Knightley fully costumed, including being sewn into her corsets. Once she was fully dressed and wigged, it was practically impossible for Knightley to go to the toilet in the production trailers. 

Image © BBC Films

The Golden Compass – Dir. Chris Weitz (2007)

In this fantasy adventure film, Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) can be seen meeting Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman) for the first time during an elegant dinner party taking place in the Painted Hall, which features as Jordan College in Oxford. 

Nicole Kidman originally turned down the role of Marisa Coulter, as she did not want to play a villain. She changed her mind after receiving a personal letter convincing her to take the role from Sir Philip Pullman, the author of the book the movie is based on. 

Image © New Line Cinema

Four Weddings and a Funeral – Dir. Mike Newell (1994)

The Chapel of St Peter & St Paul famously graced the silver screen as ‘St Mary of the Fields’ for Bernard and Lydia’s wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral. This scene features the incomparable Rowan Atkinson as the bumbling trainee priest who makes the famous ‘awful wedded wife’ gaffe.   

The movie was a sleeper hit – grossing $245 million worldwide over 6 months against a $4m budget and launching the nascent career of Hugh Grant.  

Image © Channel Four Films

Indiscreet – Dir. Stanley Donen (1958)

Although not filmed on site, Indiscreet, contains a dance sequence with two of the finest actors of all time, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, waltzing down the hall.  

This movie is rare in that the scenes are based around a ball at the Royal Naval College rather than the building doubling as somewhere else. However, ironically, due to restoration works at the time, the Painted Hall itself couldn’t be used, and a full-scale set of the Painted Hall was made at Elstree Studios. 

Image © Warner Bros Pictures

Sons of the Sea – Dir. H. Bruce Woolfe (1925)

The first production filmed here was a silent feature film that tells the tale of two young men who join the Navy. In the film, the Royal Naval College training college features as itself. 

The film was made by British Instructional Films, a production company that was very prolific in the 1920s and 1930s. While not direct government propaganda as such, they were certainly patriotic in nature. Sons of the Sea is also notable for the fact it was the first purely fictional film for which the British Admiralty allowed its vessels to be used. 

Image © British Instructional Films