70 years of The Ladykillers: how the locations look today
As the classic Ealing comedy turns 70, we went walking around King’s Cross to see whether Alec Guinness and his motley band of robbers would recognise it today.
Released 70 years ago on 8 December 1955, Alexander Mackendrick’s morbidly witty crime caper The Ladykillers follows a rag-tag band of London criminals as they try to pull off a heist. The group consist of mastermind Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness), hired muscle One-Round (Danny Green), disgraced army man Claude (Cecil Parker), nervous spiv Harry (Peter Sellers) and dangerous villain Louis (Herbert Lom).
Together they hatch and carry out a plan to steal money transferring from a bank via King’s Cross station. Only one thing stands in their way: the octogenarian widow whose house they’re using as a base, Mrs Louisa Wilberforce (Katie Johnson). As Mrs Wilberforce discovers that the men are responsible for the high-profile robbery, and are not the classical string quintet they professed to be, how long will she last in a house full of desperate villains in hiding?
As the caper unfolds, Mackendrick’s film makes fascinating use of its London locations, in particular the area around King’s Cross, which has changed dramatically in the intervening years. Here are five locations from The Ladykillers as they stand today.
Mrs Wilberforce’s street
The road where Mrs Wilberforce lives is an illusion created from two locations. When looking north away from her house, the road seen is Argyle Street in King’s Cross. We see it properly when Professor Marcus arrives.
Later, when things begin to go wrong, Harry and Claude bump into each other just off the road. This location is the junction between Argyle Street and St Chad’s Street.
This shot taken dead centre in the road shows how close it is to the beautiful frontage of St Pancras Station. In spite of the developments over the years, the road is very close to how it’s seen in the film.
Finally, this shot zones in on an admittedly suspicious looking telephone box. The box was very likely a prop.
King’s Cross
The gang’s somewhat convuluted plan involves extensive use of King’s Cross station, so a huge number of locations around the station appear, especially during the film’s masterly robbery sequence. This includes the use of platform 1.
We see various shots of the station’s first four platforms, both in the planning and execution of the robbery.
The distinctive arches seen in this shot are still present in the station’s interior, in spite of many alterations and modernisations.
Professor Marcus is seen variously milling around outside the station in a manner that is definitely in no way suspicious. He first arrives in a taxi.
His taxi drops him in what was then the station’s taxi rank at the front. Today, the rank has been entirely pedestrianised.
To show how extensive these changes are, this shot shows how cars used to be able to drive right up to the entrance of platform 1.
Finally, this shot looks out to the busy street layout in front of King’s Cross. The building in the middle of the crossroads was also used by Ken Russell for Harry Palmer’s flat in Billion Dollar Brain (1967), while the layout as a whole has largely gone unchanged.
Waiting
Part of the gang’s plot involves some very tense waiting for a telephone call in another of the film’s fake call-boxes. This occurs in several vehicles parked around Vernon Rise not far from King’s Cross.
This shot shows the distinctive curve of the road as well as the pub on the corner which is still standing today.
A steeper shot showing the incline of the road appears when the dummy lorry used in the robbery is waiting for the signal to depart.
This shot shows the taxi used in the robbery parked up on the adjacent Vernon Square.
Finally, this shot shows the cars driving down the road on their way to pick up the loot with the railings of Vernon Square seen on the right-hand side.
Robbery
The main robbery takes place around the industrial warehouses that once sat behind King’s Cross. As vast changes and development has taken place, exactly recreating these shots is difficult. However, using old maps of the area, many shots can be roughly mapped. This one, for example, looked out from Goods Way which still exists as a road in the new layout.
This shot shows the convoy of vehicles on Battle Bridge Road about to turn into the long vanished Cheney Road. The road has become part of the vast array of glass buildings to the left-hand side of King’s Cross.
The actual heist takes place further down Cheney Road. The road ran roughly through the pedestrianised area among where the office blocks now lie.
This shot shows Clarence Passage. The building on the left is one of the few to survive, though the distinctive curve of St Pancras has since been hidden by glass and steel.
The other side of this building also still exists, and is seen in the dramatic shots when the gang initially attack the van. The shot can be recreated thanks to the distinctive curved brickwork on the edge of the surviving building marking the right angle. This is now Battle Bridge Place, named after the earlier mentioned demolished road.
Finally, a policeman tries to stop a car getting away. This is also in what is now Battle Bridge Place. The shot can be mapped thanks to the survival of the distinctive old buildings to the left of the shot, though they can barely be seen behind the array of developments at King’s Cross Station.
House
As we’ve seen, Mrs Wilberforce’s house and road are melded from two locations. However, unlike the earlier Argyle Street, little remains of the location used for the actual house. Again, however, its location can be roughly ascertained from period maps. The road has been entirely demolished in the intervening years but was where the modern Conistone Way now lies today.
This closer shot shows the last house’s proximity to the railway lines behind. Today, such proximity to the railway is hidden as the road entirely masks the lines behind.
Because of such changes, the many shots taken behind the house – where much of the film’s later scenes are filmed – can only be approximated (and taken from a car park off Tileyard Road on the other side of the railway lines). This shot is looking towards the bridge of a bisecting railway lines and can still be seen standing today.
Finally, this shot looks towards the tunnel that runs under the road right behind the houses of the street. This is where all of the bodies end up being thrown from. The tunnel is still there today and marks the beginning of a timber yard.
