MANCHESTER is known for many things, football, culture, music and of course, its growing film scene.
The city has even been called ‘Hollywood of the North’ thanks to blockbusters like Captain America, Peaky Blinders and The Crown that have all used Manchester for filming backdrops – and you can visit them all for absolutely nothing.
Manchester transformed into Manhattan for the arrival of Princess Diana in The Crown[/caption]
Manchester even doubled for Russia in this Paramount+ adaptation[/caption]
VisitManchester has put together a film and TV map with all the top spots around the city to see – and it’s completely free.
There have been a plethora of impressive movies filmed in the city, and some even required Manchester to be transformed into different places, like New York.
In the Northern Quarter lies Dale Street, which is where Captain America, as played by Chris Evans, filmed scenes in the ‘Big Apple’.
1942 Brooklyn was brought to life for scenes that saw Captain America running through from an underground laboratory after being injected with his superhuman serum.
When Netflix‘s series The Crown descended on the city, they made Stevenson Square look like 1980s Manhattan where Princess Diana (played by Emma Corrin), took her first trip without King Charles in the fictionalisation of their royal story.
New York isn’t the only city that Manchester has been turned into.
For the adaptation of A Gentleman in Moscow, the cast and crew filmed in Bolton Town Hall and Victoria Square, which doubled as Moscow Square for the production.
The film tells the story of Count Alexander Rostov (Ewan McGregor), who is spared immediate execution.
But banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the Hotel Metropol and threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside it.
Manchester has seen some big names hit the streets for filming – like Chris Evans[/caption]
Peaky Blinders turned Manchester into Birmingham[/caption]
Other hotspots around the city include Manchester Town Hall which has doubled as London‘s Houses of Parliament.
And there has been plenty of Hollywood royalty here too, Robert Downey Jr. played Sherlock Holmes here back in 2009.
Manchester Town Hall also welcomed Jude Law as Watson, then in 2015, Daniel Radcliffe stepped through the square as Igor in Victor Frankenstein.
Meryl Streep filmed at the town hall when she played Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady in 2011.
The Mancunian neighbourhood of Castlefield welcomed the Peaky Blinders cast when it became Birmingham‘s Small Heath for filming.
For any fan of Dolly Alderton’s and her memoir, Everything I Know About Love, St John’s Gardens found just off Quay Street doubled as Camden, London.
And Manchester’s Chinatown has seen the likes of Bill Nighy, Alexandra Roach, and Sam Claflin stroll down the street when filming a dramatisation of Harlan Coben’s novel, Lazarus.
There are plenty more too and you can visit them all with the help of VisitManchester where you can download a map and do your very own tour.
We also visited Bridget Jones’s actual flat in Borough Market – and it’s completely unrecognisable.
And here are more filming locations across the UK that you can visit for free.
We Also Had Insider Info About Hullywood
Here’s more about the ‘Hullwood’ film trail…
The riverside city of Hull earned the moniker “Hullywood” thanks to its blossoming film and TV industry.
According to Helen Thackeray, the film and location manager for Hull, the city deserves the nickname as it’s been used as the backdrop for Netflix productions like The Crown and Enola Holmes 2.
Helen told Sun Online Travel: “It’s one of those things where people look for nicknames.
“It was a little bit of locals saying we’ve turned into Hollywood and a little bit of our way of promoting ourselves. And some of the directors came in and started calling us it [Hullywood], it’s very much being used as the terminology, so it worked for us all really.”
In a bid to celebrate the city’s new-found nickname, a “Hullywood” walking trail has been introduced.
The new route helps locals and visitors stand in the footsteps of stars like Henry Cavill, Millie Bobby Brown, Peter Capaldi and Dev Patel who have all been spotted filming in the city.
It Must Be Hullywood is a free walking trail that can be downloaded via the Visit Hull website, here.
With Visit Manchester you can go through all the filming locations[/caption]
