Whilst the office market might feel like One Battle After Another at the moment, I think it is fair to say we are all Sinners when it comes to taking the city and buildings we work with for granted, despite the true Sentimental Value they hold (see what I did there). We spend so much time with these assets, stressing over the minutiae of service charge budgets and floor to ceiling heights, that it is worth zooming out once in a while to appreciate why London is so great in the first place. I’m sure we have all had the experience of sitting with loved ones, annoyingly pointing at the screen and shouting “I work on that building”, or a personal favourite: “that journey time is totally unrealistic, it takes at least 20 minutes to walk there”. In the spirit of the upcoming Oscars, I am going to take you on a brief tour of the RX catalogue and pick out some of the moments captured on screen. There may be a history focused blog to follow, but I will reserve judgement based on the feedback here.
It would be remiss of me not to start with Film House. We launched this West End institution last week with precision-like pre-Oscar timing – 100,000 sq ft of pure film history that we showed off to 250 of our fellow agents in the spring sunshine. The building is renowned as a former cornerstone of the British film industry. Known as “Film Row,” it served as the headquarters for Associated British Pathé and Universal Pictures, housing five private cinemas in the 20th century.
Chicken running (a Pathé classic) across Soho, our next stop is Liberty London, nestled in amongst the Carnaby and Soho estate which contains a host of our prized West End instructions. There are too many golden on-screen moments to count in this neck of the woods, so we simply asked Imo which character she wanted to be. Naturally, the answer was Cruella de Vil. In the latest adaptation, the pinnacle of fashion is the department store in Soho – where Estella is first introduced to the world of haute couture. Opened in 1924, this famed Tudor-revival luxury shop was built using timbers from two 19th-century battleships (one for the next blog). Using breakthrough technology the original store was 3D-scanned so the film crew could build an exact replica.
Heading East now, to Tower Bridge Court, where you get a front row view of one of London’s most iconic landmarks, Tower Bridge. The bridge has a rich on screen repertoire, ranging from Paddington 2 (a personal favourite) to Friends (The One with Ross’s Wedding). However, the blockbuster that really pushed the boundaries was none other than the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman, battling Mysterio in the 2019 epic Far From Home. So you will have a view of the spot where SpiderDan’s identity is revealed to the world for the first time, a bragging right any Marvel fan would envy.
Now let us web swing down the river to Millennium Bridge, a route that connects two of our other amazing riverside schemes, TIDE and One Millennium Bridge. From either building you have a fantastic view of the bridge that the Death Eaters destroy in 2009’s The Half Blood Prince. Nothing is quite as synonymous with London as Harry Potter. I must admit that on a recent viewing tour I was asked when they rebuilt it. This undisclosed person might be embracing the Pottersphere a little too enthusiastically.
“When are we getting to the Oscars films?” I hear you ask. Well, it just so happens we do not even need to move, as the next one is visible from this very same spot. Hamnet has taken the awards season by storm so far and may well do the same on Oscars night. It would get my vote for Best Production Design. Fiona Crombie oversaw the recreation of the original Globe Theatre over a 14 week period to replicate its setting from the 1500s. You get the Hamnet and Hamlet double whammy here, Oscar worthy productions of past and present rolled into one. If you stand in the right spot on the TIDE terrace you can even see the audience enjoying the show.
Not to be outdone, our Lease Advisory team can lay claim to The Leadenhall Building, where Idris Elba, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Jason Statham battle it out in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. The film’s villain, Brixton (Elba), even has a base in the building, giving the building bragging rights as the headquarters of a genetically enhanced super-soldier. I can’t argue this film is Oscar worthy, but Charles Cowley’s negotiation style just might be.
Our final stop takes us north of the river into the heart of the City at 100 Wood Street. This time we had our own production team within the building, working on the critically acclaimed Black Bag, a criminally underrated crime thriller that scored 96% on the Tomatometer. You can imagine how easy the viewings were when Cate Blanchett, Pierce Brosnan or Michael Fassbender appeared in the lift lobby. You think you are getting a lovely tour of a CAT A workspace and end up meeting James Bond. I think that one might make the shortlist.
I could go on, but if you have made it this far we would love to hear about any connections between your buildings and the world of TV and film. Until next time, break a leg.