This October parts of Liverpool were transformed into Gotham City. Filming for ‘The Batman’, the latest movie version of the caped crusader story was supposed take place earlier this year in March, but well, something got in the way. However, not even a global pandemic and the lead actor coming down with Coronavirus will ever stop a Hollywood juggernaut.
Covid-19 compliant filming resumed for about a week across the city of Liverpool and provided a lovely distraction from reality. There’s something to be said for make-believe bringing a sense of normality for a while.
Whilst following the social media and local press I was astonished at how close the average person on the street could get to the filming. Usually major film productions shield the action from the paparazzi and curious eyes, but in this case, it was either too difficult to do or a deliberate choice to generate free publicity. I think the latter, as images of the cast and crew on the steps of St George’s Hall went global instantly.
Why Liverpool? Firstly, there’s lots of striking architecture and secondly Warner Brothers have previously used St George’s Hall for the 2016 film ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ – so it would indicate that there’s a strong relationship with the powers that be in the city. Given the scale of filming, that good relationship must be essential – according to the BBC the filming in Liverpool was the largest production on the planet at the time due to the Covid-10 crisis. It’s easy to see where a budget of $150millon would get easily spent when a production team the size of a small town decamped to Liverpool with hire of equipment, vehicles, and people, not to mention building and road closures along with security. Oh, and the odd helicopter hire or two as well. There was also filming taking place simultaneously on the streets of Chicago.
The week the film crew descended on Liverpool I was supposed to be going to Wells as an early birthday present from my husband. It was due to be a bit of a break combined with some location hunting in the city that doubled for the sleepy village of Sandford in the film Hot Fuzz, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Because of the introduction of Tier 3 restrictions that week we decided to cancel. Fortunately, Liverpool was still accessible, and we had planned a trip over to the Wirral to visit Birkenhead Park and The Lady Lever Art Gallery as a day out instead. To get there we had to go through Liverpool city centre, so it seemed a shame not to stop off and have a look around while the film crew were still there.
Filming had taken place on the steps of St George’s Hall on Wednesday 14th October. Stunning images of the Batman on top of the Liver Building also appeared online and in the press with rehearsals during taking place in the day and filming at night. We got into the city early on the morning of Friday 16th October and it wasn’t hard to miss the production team. White vans lined the road by the library, and we walked around the back of St George’s Hall as far as you were permitted – up to the Walker Art Gallery (access was allowed for visitors). We then circled round to the front of St George’s Hall, past Lime Street station and stood in front of the Empire Theatre. From here we could see lots of Gotham City branded vehicles – buses, police cars and TV news vans. We also spotted what we presume is Bruce Wayne’s rather nice classic Chevrolet Corvette. Some signage on set gave the production name ‘Vengeance’ and presumably this is a nod to the line in the trailer that has Batman growling “I’m vengeance”. No live filming appeared to be taking place during the day although we spotted plenty of crew moving about.
We returned later in the evening as rumour had it that filming was going to be happening from about 8.30pm. We hung around for a bit and saw the crew setting up huge LED screens with adverts on and coach load of extras being dropped of for what was said to be a Halloween party scene. The security team kept telling people gathering to watch that filming was only going to start much later that night and go on until early morning, and as it was getting quite crowded we decided not to stay. We did see something being set up at the end of St George’s Hall (opposite to the end were the ‘Halloween’ party was being filmed – the word ‘BROKE’ graffitied onto the columns.
I took numerous photos of course, which I’m sharing here. At one point when my husband and I were taking an obligatory selfie we were approached by a lady with a microphone who introduced herself as being from Radio 4 and asked if we would like to say a few words about the filming and the buzz it was generating in the city. We naturally obliged… flash forward to Sunday morning and we heard our interviews featured quite prominently on the programme – and also my husband singing the Batman theme to the nation – a life goal he hadn’t realised he’d had – check it out about halfway through the 18/10/2020 Broadcasting House Radio 4 programme. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08vmfz8
Tips for anyone wanting to visit Liverpool
There were three main filming locations that we know were used during the October 2020 filming, there are likely to have been more that may have been tucked away from prying eyes. I thought I’d share some local knowledge for anyone planning to visit in the future.
Liver Building
The Liver Building is to Liverpool what ‘Big Ben’ is to London, so it was really exciting to have such a beloved symbol of the city used for filming – Batman himself on the top! It will be interesting to see how it appears in the film. The Liver Building is open for tours and you can get to a high-level viewpoint – though not quite the Batman perch height. We went up in October 2019 and you can get some great views of the city and across the Mersey. You’ll also get a good idea what they had to do to transport the kit up to the top using the staircase after the lift ends. Check https://rlb360.com/ to see when they’re operational again.
St George’s Hall
This stunning building dominates your first view of Liverpool if you arrive via Lime Street Station. It’s like a Greek temple got dropped into the middle of the city. Pre Covid-19 restrictions you could access some of it for free and have a look around. It was possible to wander around the old court room and police cells, which have perhaps been used in the filming. Here’s the link https://www.stgeorgeshallliverpool.co.uk/ It was open for weddings and pre-booked guided tours for a time.
Local tip – go to the very top of the main library – it has an external balcony overlooking St George’s Hall and gardens and you great view of the city (also it’s free). Sadly it had been blocked off during the filming.
Anfield Cemetery
Now I haven’t been here yet but it’s on my list now after it was used for a scene featuring the Batman and Catwoman riding their motorbikes. One thing I love about location watching is discovering new places to visit. https://friendsofanfield.com/
I have though been to the Glasgow Necropolis which has also been used for what may possibly be part of the same scene or location. We went in July last year, during our honeymoon in the Scottish city. It’s a vast Victorian cemetery complex with very grand handsome gravestones and memorials commemorating the wealthy of Glasgow. There’s footage online and in the trailer of Batman riding his motorbike along the pathways between the stones. I would highly recommend visiting even without the Batman link https://www.glasgownecropolis.org/
Bonus location – Queensway Tunnel
This is a four-lane road that goes beneath the River Mersey to allow vehicles to get to from Liverpool to Birkenhead and the Wirral. You’ve probably seen this in a film without realising as it’s been used quite a lot – franchises such as the Fast and the Furious and Harry Potter have filmed scenes in it. I found this great article which explains how a disused off shoot of it is regularly used for filming https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/see-inside-forgotten-tunnel-thats-10684152 I would suspect that it was used for The Batman as I’m sure one of the planned road closures during the original March filming schedule had the exit road closed for a time.
Reel Tours
If you’re planning on visiting Liverpool and would like some expect local knowledge to help you find locations used in films and TV over the years, I would highly recommend Reel Tours led by the very knowledge and personable Gary Lunt. https://www.reeltours.co.uk/ Gary had the time of his life with a major production landing on his patch. He runs guided tours of filming locations in Liverpool city centre and we joined one when the first lockdown restrictions lifted over the summer. He took us on a walking tour lasting several hours armed with a flipbook of images and plenty of anecdotes. Gary regularly puts up YouTube videos of locations he’s visited locally and further afield. He shared a list of films that feature Liverpool locations, some obvious, some not so much. ‘Film Stars don’t die in Liverpool’ and ‘51st State’ are well worth a watch, the 2004 remake of ‘Alfie’ is most definitely not.
It’s looking like it’ll be March 2022 before the film will be released which seems an awfully long way away, but if this year has taught us anything it’s patience. There’s also the potential for the production team to return to Liverpool if the film gets a sequel or two…
From scene to seen 