20 years of Children of Men: how the London locations look today
Two decades after the premiere of Children of Men, we track down the exact spots where Alfonso Cuarón filmed his modern dystopian classic.
Dystopian London has often made for a great visual subject in cinema. Think of the Nazi takeover in Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo’s It Happened Here (1964), the brutalist nightmare of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971), the dilapidated portrayal in Michael Radford’s adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) or the empty streets of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002). Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men (2006), which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, belongs with this sombre tradition.
Adapted from P.D. James’s 1992 novel, Children of Men follows Theo (Clive Owen), a bureaucrat who’s seemingly accepted the fate of a world in which pregnancy is no longer possible after an epidemic some years previously. Resources are scarce and an authoritarian regime is controlling the populace. He is soon kidnapped by a militant group run by his ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore) in the hope that he can obtain transit papers for refugee Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey). Miraculously, Kee is pregnant, but this means rival groups and the state are soon also interested in tracking her down. It’s ultimately down to Theo to help her escape the country.
Considering the modern costs and logistics of closing off such huge swaths of capital, Cuarón’s use of real locations is impressive; it helps to ground this story in a recognisable reality. The result is some of the most effectively cinematic shots of Zone 1 filmed in recent times.
Two decades after the film’s premiere, here are some of the key locations from the film as they stand today.
Whitehall
Central London plays a vital role in Cuarón’s film, lending it a sense of visceral realism. The following shots are all centred on Whitehall. Theo is being driven in a car along Great Scotland Yard.
The car continues through the masses of people, showing the façade of Admiralty House at the end of the road. Ironically, as this area is the home of government, Cuarón needed few additions to the area to make it seem dystopian as high security means there are cameras and barriers everywhere.
Further up from this, Cuarón shoots a protest in Trafalgar Square, though the shots aren’t taken in the square itself but on one of its large traffic islands. This shot looks right down Whitehall and is today largely as seen in the film.
This shot looks towards Admiralty Arch as the car heads underneath it and towards The Mall. Today, the entire arch is undergoing restoration work and is fully covered.
The car is shot driving through the arch and onto The Mall. As the arch is covered, the main aspect of the building is currently hidden.
Fleet Street
In the film’s famous opening, the scene is set for the viewer on a busy London street. This is Fleet Street looking west, with the shot marked in particular by the ornate lamp of Dr Johnson’s favourite pub, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, albeit with the name removed. Today, the street is undergoing major building work with most of the buildings seen either demolished or undergoing change.
Theo comes out of a café and walks east with a view of St Paul’s Cathedral in the background.
He then stops outside the art deco building which was once The Daily Telegraph newspaper offices, before he is rocked by an explosion.
Undershaft
Near a shrine for the dead, Theo is abducted in a van. This shot is in the heart of The City in the rather unfortunately named Undershaft.
Theo walks down the steps before a van pulls up and he’s bundled inside. The steps that he walks down are still there though both buildings seen in front have since been changed, one of which is now the skyscraper at 122 Leadenhall Street, also known as the ‘Cheesegrater’.
The final shot of the area looks along Undershaft in the direction of St Mary Axe.
Cable Street
After a secret meeting, Theo is dropped off in east London. In this shot, the overhead rails of the Docklands Light Railway are seen running along the join between Royal Mint Street and Cable Street. This shot is looking in the Royal Mint direction.
In another shot, the camera looks east along the beginning of Cable Street. The combination of both shots shows that the camera is placed on Dock Street.
Hoxton
In one of the film’s most effectively dystopian shots, Cuarón films a number of blocks of flats in Hoxton in east London. The sequence begins with Theo walking alongside a graffitied wall. The road is Ravenscroft Street and the building in the background is still standing.
Beyond a row of older houses, cages of people stand in an open space in front of what we later see are flats.
As the shot moves, the cages give way to the concrete blocks of flats. The layout of the area is still as it was in the film.
Cuarón concludes the sequence with a great shot of the flats. The block is James Hammett House and is today exactly as it’s seen in the film.
Cheshire Street
In another sequence, Theo is walking with Julian to a car. As they talk, they go across a railway bridge before coming out in a tunnel on the other side. The sequence starts in Cheshire Street.
The camera follows the pair as they begin to walk up the steps to the bridge.
The camera then looks back down the steps towards Cheshire Street before moving on.
On the bridge, Theo and Julian stop to talk again. Eagle-eyed viewers may recognise the overall location from a number of films and television series. The sequence here is remarkably similar to one seen in Antonia Bird’s Face (1997).
This shot looks back in the direction of Cheshire Street before Theo walks out of shot.
Theo follows Julian down the old brick steps on the other side of the bridge. Today, most of the dark brickwork is famously hidden by endless layers of graffiti, making it a common spot for fashion shoots.
