Location, Location, Location – Part 2

We are fortunate to live close to areas of outstanding beauty and the area around Virginia Water is much in demand for rural film locations.

It provided a magical setting for Harry Potter to meet the Hippogriff and later to confront dementors in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban (2004). There were conversations between Harry, Neville, Ron and Hermione at the lake in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and a jetty and rope pulley system were built for the second Triwizard task.

Scenes of Professor McGonagall recovering from the effects of stunning spells were also filmed there for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), but were cut post-production.

When Into the Woods (2014) needed a waterfall which could be turned on and off, the film-makers chose the Virginia Water Cascades as the setting for the princes’ song Agony, sung by Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen.

Action film Angel Has Fallen (2019) starring Gerard Butler as secret service agent, Mike Banning, disrupted the peace with scenes of drone strike attacks around the shore of the lake, including a fiery explosion in which stuntmen were blasted into the air.

The area also featured as the Forest of Arden in As You Like It (2006).

Another open space, Runnymede, does not play itself in films, but has been represented by other locations as diverse as the Thames Embankment in London!

There are some local landmarks which no longer exist but we can see them on film:

Callow Hill, now grazing land, was used for sand extraction in the 1920s by W.G. Tarrant’s building firm before the sandpit provided an exotic location for Hammer films: The Camp on Blood Island (1958), The Stranglers of Bombay (1959), The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), The Pirates of Blood River (1962) and probably The Mummy’s Shroud (1967). It also featured both as an alien planet and for the showdown at the O.K. Corral in Doctor Who (1966).

After Holloway Sanatorium fell into neglect it attracted mystery and horror film-makers. The exterior was a disused school in slasher movie Slaughter High (1986) and the Main Hall was where Chief Inspector Abberline questioned beggars in the TV Mini Series Jack the Ripper (1988). The opening scenes of the first episode of Inspector Morse (1987) used the main staircase and dining hall.

The Sanatorium also provided atmosphere for music videos by The Cure, Adam Ant, Bucks Fizz, Ozzy Osbourne, Bonnie Tyler and Alphaville (1980s).

As if the local attractions were not filmic enough, film crews have sometimes created their own:

Englefield Green was given a bandstand for a few weeks in 1966 for comedy The Wrong Box.

Virginia Water Lake acquired the 13th Century Water Gate of the Tower of London for Robin Hood (2010), starring Russell Crowe, and a full-size steamboat ‘Adelaar’ for The Legend of Tarzan (2016).