London is a cosmopolitan city, that’s a well known fact. But it’s rarely been as multicultural as it was required to be in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. As location manager Jamie Lengyel explains, “There was a very keen ambition to take The Avengers global, so it’s a globetrotting story, but if you’re moving a crew of 400 around the world and your production base is in Shepperton in Surrey, as we were, you look to do as much of what you can in the UK.”
So while the production went to Johannesburg, Korea, Bangladesh and Italy (the Aosta Valley stood in for Sokovia) to film key scenes, London and the surrounding counties often doubled for those locations, as well as pretending to be the USA for a couple of scenes too. For example, that shot of Sokovia above was actually shot in the UK but you’ll have to read on to find out where.
Here’s Jamie’s quick guide to Avengers: Age Of Ultron locations in and around London. Images marked with an (*) are from Jamie’s own collection showing some behind-the-scenes shooting going on and are © to him. And we’ve also given you links to Google Maps to show you where the places are in case you fancy visiting them.
Those opening fight scenes were shot not in the woods of Sokovia but in Hawley Woods in Hampshire and nearby Bourne Wood in Surrey. Bourne Wood was also used in Thor: The Dark World and Gladiator and Lengyel says they spent a few weeks there with lots of tanks and wire work. Hawley, meanwhile, saw a lot of Hulk and Hawkeye action. “That’s an MOD training area in Hawley Wood,” says Lengyel, but there’s no need to worry about getting blown up. “It’s open to the public.”
“The inside of the Fort, the Hydra HQ, where you see Strucker and there’s a little bit of a shoot out and you see Iron Man going down some stairs and through some tunnels and things,” says Lengyel, “all that was filmed at Dover Castle in Kent.”
“Hawkeye’s family home was an entire exterior build,” reveals Lengyel. “We built that on that Stratfield Saye estate in Berkshire, the Duke of Wellington’s estate. We found a valley that felt sort of American and built the whole facade of the farm. It looked very realistic. A very impressive build.”
The ballroom in Captain America’s Scarlet Witch-induced vision was the Rivoli Ballroom in South London.
Meanwhile Thor didn’t really have a vision of Asgard – it was actually St Bartholomew’s Church in Smithfield.
At least Black Widow’s flashback was to a ballet school, but it wasn’t one in St Petersburg and as far as we know it doesn’t train assassins. It was actually Tring Park School For Performing Arts in Tring.
“We used Brent Civic Centre in Wembley for Johannesburg where we see Hulk and Iron Man inside a building and a lift being thrown around,” says Lengyel. “All the plate work and all the wire work we did over a weekend in Brent Civic Centre. We owned the main atrium there. It worked incredibly well as Johannesburg. It’s a very light, glassy building.”