Music Monday: Haim in Deptford

Haim are the quintessential Los Angeles band, so I wasn't expecting to be able to write them into the South London Hall of Fame any time soon. But they are over in Europe on tour and seemingly found time for a trip down to Deptford to film their latest video 'All over me'. If you're familiar with the Master Shipwright's House you will no doubt recognise its distressed decor and garden.

Update 25/6/2025: it seems the Master Shipwright's House is up for sale. A very interesting building dating back to early 1700s, with ten bedrooms and a garden backing directly on to the Thames. Very handy for the Dog and Bell pub too if you have £8 million to spare. 

David Lynch/Elephant Man in Shad Thames SE1

Shad Thames/Butlers Wharf has been used in so many films, evoking as it does to this day the lost world of dockside London with its warehouses and narrow streets.

It was memorably used in 'The Elephant Man' (1980),  starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins and directed by David Lynch, who was hired for the job by producer Mel Brooks.

David Lynch on set with John Hurt

As Mel Brooks recalled in his book 'All About Me': “The first day of shooting with David Lynch was in October 1979 on Butler’s Wharf on the South Bank of the Thames River just east of London’s Tower Bridge. It was a chilly day, and David Lynch had arrived earlier on the set without a coat. I sent somebody to Harrods department store with David’s measurements and bought him a warm, dark blue, brushed woolen English overcoat. He wore it every day — I’m not kidding. Every day! Whether he was indoors or outdoors, every time he directed a scene for The Elephant Man he was wearing that blue coat. I think he might have believed it was some kind of good luck charm.

Many years later in 2013, when I was awarded the American Film Institute’s prestigious Life Achievement Award, among the celebrated filmmakers that honored me that night was David Lynch. When he told the story of how we had met on The Elephant Man he actually brought out onto the stage with him the blue coat that I had bought for him at Harrods, which he had carefully tucked away in his cedar closet all these years. I can’t tell you how touched I was at the sight of that coat.” 

Anthony Hopkins

Update 22 Jan 2024 - I originally thought that the Anthony Hopkins picture above was in Shad Thames but it has been pointed out that it is probably Wapping High Street across the river. It seems that both streets were used in the film. According to  'Making the Elephant Man: a producer's memoir' by Jonathan Sanger (2016): 'Wapping High Street was a long cobblestoned road filled with wharves that dated to around the time of our story. It was right next to the famous Tower Bridge. The wharves were soon to be gutted and refurbished into high end condominiums but we still had enough time to capture them in their 19th century squalor. Shad Thames was also close to the river but on the opposite side from Wapping and also consisted of a series of cobblestoned alleys and dead ends that had not yet been prettified. We decided to center our opening sequences around these streets'

  Reelstreets has also identified some scenes being filmed in Clink Street SE1, round the back of Southwark Cathedral. And Vanessa Woolf has said that she believes the production used the Jacob Street film studios SE1, a little further along the river from Butlers Wharf.

A scene in Clink Street, according to Reelstreets

Wonder if Lynch crossed paths with film maker Derek Jarman at this time? The latter was living in Butlers Wharf in 1979.

Music Monday: Goat Girl - Ride Around on Dawson's Heights (and Nunhead)

Ride Around, the new single from Goat Girl, features scenes shot by Dawson' Heights Estate in East Dulwich...

...and inside our current favourite local pizza place, Dinner for One Hundred's Bar D4100 in Evelina Road, Nunhead.

Not sure about other locations - what do you reckon?

Ted Lasso at the Rivoli

Finally catching up with Ted Lasso, and pleased to spot a scene filmed at the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park.  In series one there's an episode based around an AFC Richmond charity gala and guess they needed somewhere with red velvet walls and chandeliers like many before them.

Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) gets a round in

Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and Keeley (Juno Temple)

Anthony Stewart Head (will always be Giles from Buffy for me)

See the many previous posts about the Rivoli - featuring Kylie, Lana del Ray, Elton John, Oasis, Rihanna, Idris Elba, Florence and the Machine and many more

 

'You and Me' - South London ITV Drama

'You and Me', first broadcast on ITV in February 2023, is a romantic drama series shot pretty much entirely in South London. It opens with a shot of Telegraph Hill Park, a location that features in many key scenes (top and bottom parts of park), then the set up scene is in Deptford High Street at a bus stop that isn't really there.  There are scenes inside and outside Skehans pub and the Hill Station Cafe, Kitto Road SE14, on the rainbow bridge in Avignon Road SE4, not to mention Peckham Levels, The Trafalgar pub in Greenwich, Brockwell Park Lido and the Bridge Theatre by Tower Bridge. 

The series starts Harry Lawtey, Jessica Barden, Sophia Brown and Julie Hesmondhalgh.

I actually saw them filming some of this back in June 2022, bit disappointed not to feature in the scene where he jumps in cab outside Skehans as it drove past me! 

Film crew opposite Skehans, June 2022

Ben and Emma discover that they live in Telegraph Hill:

'You and Me' - TV drama filming at Skehans

 Lots of filming going on this week around Telegraph Hill locations for new ITV drama series 'You and Me', including at Skehans pub SE14 where one of the characters is seen getting into a black cab and heading off down Gellatly Road. The Hill Station Cafe has also been used. The series, with Russell T Davies as Executive Producer, is due to be broadcast in 2023.

[2023 update - the series is now out, more about its locations here]

'Close to Me' - Christopher Eccleston and Connie Nielsen in the Rivoli

Channel 4 drama 'Close to Me' is the latest to make use of the Rivoli Ballroom as a location. In the story a fundraising event for refugees in Hastings actually takes place in Brockley Road SE4.  Sometime Dr Who Christopher Eccleston and Danish actor Connie Nielsen - sometime Queen Hipployta in the DC universe - tread the boards and wander through the side bars alongside the dancefloor.

See previous posts about the Rivoli - featuring Kylie, Lana del Ray and many more

Music Monday: King Krule - more songs about Peckham Rye and Bermondsey

King Krule has a new album out, The OOZ. In a recent Gilles Peterson interview the East Dulwich/Peckham Rye raised artist mentions that he demo'd some of the tracks at Shrunken Heads studio in Nunhead (40 Nunhead Green), and also talks about a recent night out at the Royal Albert in Deptford.  Bermondsey gets a couple of references on the album too, with two short tracks entitled 'Bermondsey Bosom (Left)' and 'Bermondsey Bosom (Right)'.  He played a pop up gig last month at the DIY Space for London in Ormside St SE15, and is now out on a big US/UK tour.

The video for the first single from the album, Czech One, was partially filmed in Elm Grove/Holly Grove off Rye Lane SE15 - with a scene outside the Rye Lane Market entrance. 

We first featured King Krule back in 2013 when his first album came out, 6 Feet Beneath The Moon. We noted his interest in East Dulwich history (he was born in Dunstans Road), and use of Deptford Church Street as a video location.

In the mean time he put out an album A New Place 2 Drown (2015) under his own name, Archy Marshall, with an accompanying book of  poetry and art work by Archy and his brother Jack. The cover shot is of a bench round a tree on Peckham Rye, and the Nunhead Reservoir features in a short accompanying film (still below of Archy at Reservoir)

Music Monday: Otzeki - Falling Out on the New Cross Road

Yes I know this is not exactly news - Otzeki's Falling Out was released last year on Rough Trade. But the video starts with the message  'Thank you Ziggy for bringing freedom and happiness onto the streets of New Cross' and was seemingly shot outside the William Hill bookies at 174 New Cross Road (near to the junction with Queens Road)

Domino's advert in Fordham Park

A new advert for Domino's Pizza was filmed in New Cross Gate's Fordham Park. 'The Official Food of Squads' features a group of young guys trying and failing to look cool as they wander through the park to a soundtrack of P.Diddy's 'Bad Boy for Life'.

Walking through Fordham Park with Deptford Green School in the background

Music Monday: Joel Culpepper

SE London soul singer Joel Culpepper has been getting lots of attention recently on the back of his new Tortoise EP. He was on Gilles Peterson's BBC 6Music show a few week ago and gave a shout out to Lewisham.

His collaborators on the EP include legendary Chicago house producer Roy Davis Jr. (responsible for garage anthem Gabriel), with whom he has written 'Afraid to be King', newly released as a single this week and already getting lots of airplay from Lauren Laverne and others.



'It don't mean I'm in love' was produced by Jimmy Hogarth, who has worked with Duffy and Amy Winehouse among others. The video features Blackheath and the LP Bar in New Cross Road - and an implicit message that when a guy say 'let's take it slow' he actually means 'I can't commit as I have a string of women across town'.

Elle Fanning in Brockey?

Walking past Brockley Social Club yesterday I noticed that there was a film shoot in progress. Quick bit of investigation - OK I looked at the sign on one of the vehilces - and it transpires that 'Teen Spirit' is the movie in question. Directed by Max Minghella, the film stars US actor Elle Fanning

According to Hollywood Reporter: 'Teen Spirit tells the story of a shy Eastern European teen who dreams of pop stardom to escape her small town and shattered family life. With the help of an unlikely mentor, Violet (Fanning) enters an international singing competition that will test her integrity, talent and ambition. Fred Berger (La La Land) is producing alongside Brian Kavanaugh-Jones under their Automatik banner, while Jamie Bell, who helped develop the screenplay with Minghella, will executive produce'.

The Social Club has been used a location before for its 1970s decor. I saw some filming there last year which I think was for the TV series Guerrilla, starring Idris Elba, which also has scenes shot in Deptford High Street.  I assume on this occasion it is standing in in this film for an East European small town drinking den.  

Elle Fanning in 20th Century Women (2016)

The end of the world comes to Telegraph Hill

There was a strange light at Telegraph Hill upper park (Kitto Road SE14)  earlier this week, with the night artificially brightened with floodlights to create a hyperreal landscape. The reason was that filming was taking place of a new BBC drama, Hard Sun, set in a pre-apocalypse world with only five years left. The series stars Agyness Deyn and Jim Sturgess - did anybody spot them?

Telegraph Hill Festival

I understand that the production company made a donation to the Telegraph Hill Festival, which opened yesterday and runs until April 9th. As always there lots of music, comedy, arts and other events taking place, check out the programme.

Andrew Clarke's sculpture in the grounds of St Catherine's Church, Kitto Road, SE14 as part of the 2017 Telegraph Hill Festival. Thanks to Andrew too for the photos of the floodlit Telegraph Hill Park.

United Kingdom: David Oyelowo & Rosamund Pike in the Rivoli

'United Kingdom' is a new movie starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, based on the true-life interracial romance between Seretse Khama (first president of Botswana) and his wife Ruth Williams. The couple first met in London in the 1940s, and the film seems to have used the Rivoli Ballroom as a location for some of their courting scenes

See previous posts on the star-studded Rivoli Ballroom

Brockley Launderette Closing in Endwell Road (update: features in David Bowie video)

The Launderette in Endwell Road, Brockley, SE4 is to close. A sign in its window gives a closing date as Sunday 18th September 2016. I don't know why, businesses close and indeed open all the time for all kinds of reason, but as Dave Hill highlighted earlier this year launderettes in London are vanishing fast.

Of course the need for launderettes has diminished since their heyday, as domestic washing machines have became more widespread and even student accommodation nowadays usually has access to one. But as with the also disappearing high street banks and post offices, the fact that many people no longer need or use them is no comfort to those who still rely on them.   

Not sure what the plans are for the place - it's actually an unusual and quite grand building, anybody know anything about its history, or for that matter its future?

'Back in the mid-1980s, launderettes - or laundrettes? - became fashionable in a very mid-1980s way. A TV commercial set in one famously rescued the ailing sales of Levis and the film My Beautiful Laundrette captured a London mood of the time: a blend of cultural tensions, economic change and sexual possibilities. Shot on a shoestring in south London, it contains a scene in which a crowd of customers gathers outside, impatient to be let in. It’s hard to imagine any screenwriter dreaming up quite such intense demand for a London launderette today' (Dave Hill, London's launderettes are closing but their value and beauty remains, Guardian, 24 January 2016)

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) - filmed around Battersea and  Wandsworth

Update (January 2017): Bowie video filmed in the Brockley Launderette

The Brockley Launderette features in the video for David Bowie's No Plan, released posthumously in January 2017 on what would have been the singer's 70th birthday. The video, directed by Tom Hingson,  has the launderette rechristened Newton Electrical with a group of passers-by gathering to watch a bank of TVs showing a rocket launch,  Thomas Newton was of course the character played by Bowie in the film 'The Man who Fell to Earth', directed by Nicholas Roeg (whose son Nico used to live - and maybe still does - just up the road from the launderette). The sharp eyed may notice the 'Foxgrove Road' street sign placed outside the shop - the name of a road in Beckenham where Bowie once lived.

'Miss you Already' - Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette in The Lord Clyde SE1

'Miss you already' (2015) stars Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette as life long friends dealing with breast cancer and infertility in London. Good film with some lovely moments, and some sad bits obvs.

A lot of the filming took place around Southwark, including the great Lord Clyde pub in Clennam Street SE1

I think this scene was shot in The Lord Clyde

According to FilmFixer: 'Southwark Forge on Lant Street was used extensively and Bankside Open Spaces Trust Eco house on Ayres Street plays the workplace for one of the characters. In Pattison House gardens on Ayres Street, a space is cleared for a community garden; you’ll see the stars walking through Mint Street Park; the boutique Joy on Sumner Street features; GP Studio on Great Suffolk Street hosts dancing and celebrating..

The production expressed their gratitude to locals through a generous donation to the Lant & Bittern Tenants and Residents Association... And during the shoot the stars helped Breast Cancer Campaign host an afternoon tea at The Goldsmith Pub in Southwark'

Lucky Man at the Rivoli

Stan Lee's Lucky Man is the latest TV/film production to feature the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park as a location. For the purposes of the Sky One show, it is transformed into the Pleasure Palace pole dancing club visited by detective James Nesbitt.

The whole show foregrounds London, Nesbitt always seems to be driving across a bridge and Bermondsey Street and Southwark Park are due to feature in the series among other Transpontine settings.

See previous posts about the Rivoli here - there's a lot!

The Kooples at the Rivoli Ballroom

French clothing line The Kooples is the latest to take advantage of the splendour of Crofton Park's Rivoli Ballroom for a film shoot. Their latest advert features a glamorous couple meeting up amidst a northern soul dancefloor.

For loads more at the Rivoli, including Lana del Ray, Jimmy Page, Oasis, Florence and the Machine etc. see the Transpontine round up.

Bob Hoskins RIP - by the river

Farewell Bob Hoskins, a great London actor, so here he is (mostly) by the River Thames:

By Tower Bridge in the Long Good Friday

with Helen Mirren in The Long Good Friday

with Helen Mirren by St Thomas Hospital SE1 in Last Orders

with Michael Caine in Last Orders... scene shot in the Larkhall Tavern in Clapham

on the South Bank in the video for Jamie T's Sheila

with Helen Mirren in the Duchess of Malfi at the Roundhouse in 1981
- went to this on a school trip, it was amazing

See also: Shiraz Socialist; Dangerous Minds

Derek Jarman on the South Bank

Twenty years last week (19th February) since the death from AIDS of Derek Jarman (1942-1994), film-maker, artist, writer, gardener and queer activist  There wasn't too much to mark the tenth anniversary of his passing, but back in 2004 me and some friends lit some candles and left flowers at Butlers Wharf SE1 where he once lived. Ten years later, there's a whole Jarman2014 season with events at the British Film Institute, Somerset House and elsewhere.

On Friday February 28th, Deptford Film Club is having a special showing of Jarman's 1991 film Edward II at St Nicholas Church in Deptford. A very special location, at the film is an adaption of Christopher Marlowe's play and the playwright is buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard there, having been killed in Deptford in 1593. The film showing marks his 450th birthday, as he was born in February 1564. Further details at Deptford Film Club who say:

'Before the film starts, there’s radical 16th century pop from Deptford violinist Daniel Merrill, plus plenty wine and spirits. And we’ll be joined by Jody Graber, the child actor who played King Edward’s son, who will end the evening with a short Q&A. Based on Marlowe’s dramatisation of a true story. When King Edward II takes a male lover, Piers Gaveston, both his wife (Tilda Swinton) and palace officials are enraged – and plot to violently dethrone the king and dispatch Gaveston. Adapted by the radical British filmmaker Derek Jarman, the film contrasts the lavish 16th century text and setting with modern imagery of gay activists, riot police, yuppies and an unforgettable cameo from Annie Lennox'.

Jarman on the South Bank/Bankside

Jarman lived for most of the 1970s on the south bank of the River Thames, much of it then semi-derelict.  He had his first taste of riverside living in 1968 in  a house on the South Bank awaiting demolition, where he shared studio space with Peter Logan and the painter Tony Fry. Shortly afterwards he moved to a warehouse at 51 Upper Ground, near the corner of Blackfriars Road, a place that was to become 'a Mecca for London's avant-garde' with its parties thrown by Jarman with Peter and Andrew Logan. Guests at the farewell party in the summer of 1970 included Tennessee Williams and 'Ossie Clark, dispensing joints on the stairs'. Shortly afterwards the building was demolished to make way for the IPC Tower.

Next stop was 13 Bankside on the top floor of a riverside warehouse alongside Southwark Bridge. To cope with  the cold in the warehouse, Jarman famously set up a greenhouse for his bedroom. Bankside too became famous for parties, and for film showings as Jarman began experimenting with Super 8. In summer 1972, Jarman had to move again to make way for another demolition, filming a final walk of the area called 'One Last  Walk One Last Look'.

Jarman in Bankside studio

The following year, Jarman moved to a new home/studio in a semi-derelict warehouse at Butler's Wharf, next to Tower Bridge. Jarman lived on the third floor of Block A1, with neighbours including Andrew and Peter Logan. On the waste ground next door Jarman filmed the ritualistic fire scenes for 'In the Shadow of the Sun', with a fire maze, candles and flashing mirrors. The finished film was finally released in 1981 with a soundtrack from Throbbing Gristle. 'Jubilee' was also filmed locally in Southwark and Rotherhithe, and at the former dockside in Deptford where Jordan was filmed dancing round a fire including a burning Union Jack.

Parties at Butlers Wharf included the 1975 Alternative Miss World, which Jarman took part in as 'Miss Crepe Suzette' and one in 1978 when Adam and the Ants played. Jarman moved out in 1979. Revisiting the area in 1991, Jarman noted 'The money has gilded the heart of it... everything else is scrubbed all the fun vanished'.

Source for most of the above: 'Derek Jarman - A Biography' by Tony Peake