Zombies in the Lake District: how locations from The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue look today

Something was in the water in 1970s Britain. Whether in post-swinging cities or hippy-ish rural vistas, the era found continental filmmakers being drawn to filming on these shores. Even more unusually, this applied particularly to horror and horror-adjacent cinema, with films such as Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971), Sergio Martino’s All the Colours of the Dark (1972), Massimo Dallamano’s What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) and José Ramón Larraz’s Vampyres (1974) and Symptoms (1974) all leading the charge. 

One of the most original and effective releases of this wonderful movement comes not in the form of a proto-slasher or vampire film, however, but in one of the most unique zombie movies ever made: Jorge Grau’s The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974).

Sometimes known as Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, and with more other alternate titles than there are actual zombies on screen, Grau’s film follows rebellious hippy George (Ray Lovelock) as he skips town on his motorbike. In the Lake District, he meets Edna (Cristina Galbó) after she damages his bike, and the two end up travelling together in her Mini. All is not well in the surrounding valleys, however, as a string of violent murders follows the couple around, raising the suspicions of local police. A strange new radioactive pest control is being applied to fields, something more esoteric is unfolding in the green hills, and the dead of the North West may not be resting peacefully for long.

Grau brings a fresh eye to Britain in the aftermath of the swinging 60s. He uses an array of distinctive and unusual locations, from inner city Manchester to National Trust-approved countryside, all of them shot with a fresh, excited eye.

Here are the key locations from Grau’s film as they stand today.

Although Manchester is named in the title of the film, Grau only really films the city in the opening moments. George is first shown leaving a hip and happening art gallery. The gallery was on Victoria Street.

The placement of the building can be measured by this surviving bit of ironwork seen from a shot out of the gallery’s window when George is heading towards his Norton Commando parked outside.

Unlike the view out of the window, however, the gallery building has long since vanished. Even the building that replaced it has since been knocked down, and all that remains is a grass verge.

The film’s opening titles are a quick-fire collection of various locations around Manchester and Greater Manchester. A whole article could be devoted to tracking down each shot, but the selection below show the greatest likeness between how they look in the film and how they look today. As George rides off on his Norton, we see a more detailed shot of Victoria Street marked by Manchester Cathedral on the left. Today, this part of the road has been pedestrianised.

The cathedral plays a role in one of the film’s more random moments, when a streaker runs from the doors of the cathedral into the oncoming traffic. This shot shows the huge wooden doors of the cathedral, which still survive intact.

As George rides through the town, he finds himself on the incredibly long Deansgate. This shot shows the railway bridge above the road, with Bridgewater Street to the right of the shot.

Grau follows the motorbike as it continues along Deansgate, this time looking north to the crossroads with Liverpool Road on the left and Great Bridgewater Street on the right.

Many of the film’s locations are shot around the rural town of Castleton in Derbyshire, far from the Lake District where the Grau’s film is supposed to be set – Cumbria only features briefly in a handful of shots. In particular, the town’s Market Place makes several appearances.

The exterior and interior of the groceries shop is used throughout. Today, the shop still survives, though as more of a tourist shop, and was appropriately adorned with horror-related paraphernalia during this visit.

We see the interior of the shop when George and Edna are inside looking at some developed photos. Although the shop has changed what it sells, it is architecturally pretty much as it was.

We see a closer shot of the exterior when George and Edna leave.

The pair get into their parked-up Mini and leave. This shot looks west of Market Place, with a distinctive building seen in the background. Today, said building is a shop selling equipment for outdoor exploring.

Another prominent location in Castleton is used in the film. The Old Owl Hotel is actually The Castle hotel and pub in the town. Before we see it, a shot shows George walking along Castle Street next to what was an old garage but what is now accommodation for the pub.

George and Edna park their Mini in the hotel car park next to the pub. Besides the fake sign, little has changed.

This shot of The Castle is a little unusual, simply because the sign showing the building’s real name (rather than The Old Owl) is clearly on view to the right of the shot. This whole area is now used for the pub’s outdoor seating.

This shot shows another fake sign for The Old Owl Hotel on the building’s first floor. The sign, including the hanging mechanism that kept it there, was likely just another add-on for the film.

In this final shot of the pub, the real sign is again on view, along with some of the houses on Cross Street. The house seen in the background is, today, another pub.

The most famous sequences in Grau’s film were shot at the National Trust site of Dovedale under the shadow of Thorpe Cloud, a limestone hill on the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border. The famed stepping stones across the River Dove make for particularly evocative location work.

Unusually, Edna and George seem to be able to drive their Mini right along to the stones. This shot is just to the left of the stones on the south side of the river.

Grau uses every side and aspect of the distinctive location. This shot is taken from the north side of the river, showing the huge stone-face next to the mini.

The steps are just out of sight in various shots. This one shows Edna looking back at the Mini with the stones on her left this time.

This is the location for the film’s first moment of horror and the introduction of the main villain, the zombie Guthrie (Fernando Hilbeck). His entrance is shot next to a pair of posts further up the path. They’re still standing today, where they mark the entrance to a nature reserve. Thankfully, no flesh-eating monsters are stumbling around.

Several shots on Winnats Pass, the hill pass through the gorge near Castleton, also appear throughout the film. This shot looks west along the road and shows the rock face on the right where a matte painting of a church was superimposed on the adjacent hillside.

The beginning of a path supposedly leading to the church was recreated at the bottom of the rock face. Though the imprint of a very slight path is present on the grass, the path was also likely a creation for the film.

Finally, another shot further up Winnats Pass is used later in the film, showing off the dramatic gorge.

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Thanks to Keith Scovell and Pauline Coathup.