The Sam Taylor-Johnson-directed Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black has been fairly divisive, but one of the undisputed best things about it is the choice to shoot on location in and around London.
Winehouse, of course, was a proud born-and-raised Londoner, with a penchant for its bohemian music hub of Camden Town. “This is for Camden, Camden Town ain’t burning down,” the singer said as she accepted her Grammy for Record of the Year in 2008 in reference to a fire that had impacted Camden Market at the time. Capturing the city Winehouse loved, Taylor-Johnson says, was a way to also capture her spirit.
Camden locations
Camden, a town that now holds a bronze statue of the late British singer, was always going to be a mandatory stop for Taylor-Johnson. The Back to Black team filmed heavily in and around the neighborhood, including the outside of her flat in Jeffrey’s Place, and the house where she would eventually die at 30, on Camden Square.
“[Cinematographer] Polly [Morgan] and I had lots of conversations about shooting through Amy’s perspective,” Taylor-Johnson told Wallpaper. “So, there’s a tunnel between her home and Camden that she’d walk through. That became a significant part of the film – a passage into the vortex of the outside world, then back through the tunnel to the safety of home.”
Some of the movie’s key scenes between Amy (Marisa Abela) and her would-be husband, Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell), were shot in the actual pub where they first met: Camden’s The Good Mixer. “It was a gift that the two rooms are divided by the bar,” the director told Time Out, adding “You could have her on one side watching him on the other, and then they come together in the back bar where we see them falling in love with that long one-take.”
Other Camden locations included the Dublin Castle pub, Regent’s Canal, and Winehouse’s favorite tattoo spot, Flamin’ Eight Tattoo Studio.
Soho locations
After Camden, Soho was arguably the most fertile ground for Winehouse’s career. The district’s famed jazz clubs are a stepping stone for any British artist in the genre, particularly Ronnie Scott’s. One of Back to Black‘s most beautiful scenes featuring an intimate performance by Marisa Abela as the late singer was shot in the club.
Taylor-Johnson went back to Soho later in the film to film a crucial scene in the real Bar Italia. According to Time Out, this was a hot coffee spot for Amy and her father, Mitch Winehouse.
Other London locations
Back to Black is London through and through. The city plays a huge part in the film, and it goes beyond just looking pretty in the background. Of course, that doesn’t hurt either, and the beautiful sights of Primrose Hill served as wonderful backdrops for a couple of scenes in the film between Amy and her grandma and idol Cynthia, as well as between Amy and Blake.
The couple’s date at the London Zoo was obviously also shot at the real deal, as were the scenes at Metropolis Studios — the home of the Back to Black sessions. “It was a pleasure to host the production team for a few weeks last year,” the company shared on their Instagram account.
The snooker scene where Blake breaks up with Amy for the first time was filmed in The Mildmay Club, in Stoke Newington. Other London staples included in the film were The Palm Tree pub on Mile End, Golders Green Crematorium, and Wormwood Scrubs Prison.
Back to Black is out in the U.S. May 17, 2024. You can read our review of the film here.
