Where was ‘Wonka’ filmed?

For a book with visual wonder pouring off the pages, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory has had a strange time onscreen. The 1971 adaptation with Gene Wilder is fondly remembered (but took the psychedelic grooviness of its time a little far), while Tim Burton’s 2005 telling has altogether too much of Dahl’s darkness and not enough of the innocence.

This time, the book’s star Willy Wonka is in safe hands: those of Paul King, director of the wonderful Paddington movies. With his co-writer Simon Farnaby and Harry Potter producer David Heyman, they’ve conjured up an origin story for the magical and mysterious chocolatier that should leave us with a warm, Christmassy feeling of wonders and the joys of the imagination.

Like Paddington 2, it’s not a musical but does have musical numbers. King has called his film “a companion piece” to the 1971 film (Burton’s version seems to have been ignored), and for his Wonka chose Timothée Chalamet, star of Dune, Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird. He was, King told Rolling Stone magazine, “the only person in my mind who could do it”, adding that he had seen him sing on YouTube, and comparing his voice in an interview with Total Film to that of Bing Crosby: “There’s quite a range because it does go from a couple of bigger, showstopper-y sort of things, to moments of real, pure emotion, and he can do it all.”

Joining Chalamet in the majority-British cast is a mix of heavyweight stars and accomplished comic actors. Sally Hawkins is Wonka’s mother, Olivia Colman a ruthless competitor, Rowan Atkinson a vicar and Hugh Grant, fresh from stealing Paddington 2, is a haughty Oompa-Loompa. Joining them for some delicious classic Dahl villainy are Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton and Paterson Joseph as Mr Prodnose, Mr Fickelgruber, and Mr Slugworth, while Wonka also has a newly created pal, Noodle, played by Calah Lane.

Continuing the British theme was the filming location, based at Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden, Hertfordshire. While most of what we see was created on soundstages, there were also a few forays into the real world for filming, much of it made extra-European with lashings of fake snow. Here’s our guide to the real-life settings of Christmas 2023’s most-awaited movie.

Where is the town in Wonka?

The town in Wonka is a fantastic creation based on 1930s London. Most of it was created on the soundstages of Warner Bros Studio, but it also takes in real-life locations from around the UK, including Bath, Oxford and London itself.

Bath

For that period English feel, the production headed to Bath, home to Bridgerton. Filming centred on Bath Abbey, the glorious Gothic construction in the heart of the city. Here, as with many of the locations, artificial snow was spread as scenes were shot in the pillared Colonnades, Parade Gardens and Orange Grove. Pultney Bridge, the building-lined crossing of the Avon that played a memorable part in Les Misérables, was also given a foggy aura for extra atmosphere, while further scenes were created around the walls of the Abbey, including one where Wonka uses a phone box.

Oxford

The production’s hunger for grand constructions also took them to Oxford, where they filmed around the heart of the university’s ceremonial buildings. Again covering the area in fake snow, they filmed in the quad of the Bodleian Library, by the Sheldonian Theatre and the Radcliffe Camera, as well as using Hertford College, home to the street-crossing Bridge of Sighs. Scenes were also shot in the little village of Mapledurham nearby, which already has a place in cinema history as the location for the classic war film The Eagle Has Landed.

Lyme Regis

This little Dorset town has many claims to fame, not least as home to Mary Anning, legendary Victorian fossil hunter. In cinema, it’s also the location for the recent Anning biopic Ammonite and for every version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion (including the 2022 version starring Dakota Johnson) and for The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

As with those two stories, filming for Wonka was focused on The Cobb, the breakwater that dates back centuries but was most recently rebuilt in the 1820s. Curving around the harbour, it provides a grand entrance for Willy as he arrives on top of his van, having disembarked from his travels around the world on a steamship.

The part of the boat was played by a 1930s steam drifter called Lydia Eva, a former fishing boat that also served time in the Navy, brought down from its mooring in Great Yarmouth for the job. Due to the shallow waters around Lyme Regis, it couldn’t in fact go under full steam in the location, so scenes were also shot back in its home.

St Albans

For scenes of Wonka and Noodle in a fairground, the production took over Verulamium Park in St Albans, a 100-acre expanse that was formerly part of the Earl of Verulam’s estate. With the snow and bright lights added alongside a smattering of CGI, we see it transformed but the lake, constructed in the 1930s, and bandstand are also on view. Filming in the town also took place at Abbey Mill Lane, a pretty street close to the Cathedral, and to Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, which claims to be the oldest pub in England.

London

While the Wonka team mostly avoided shooting in London, they did make exceptions. One was for scenes shot at Eltham Palace to the south of the city, the 1930s Art Deco mansion seen recently in Stan & Ollie and The Crown, and a favourite for noughties period pieces including Brideshead Revisited, Bright Young Things and I Capture The Castle.

The other was the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley, also in the south. This former cinema was converted in the 1950s into a dance hall and has remained largely unchanged since the era, with red velvet and chandeliers giving the full period experience. It’s featured in The Avengers, gangster movie Legend and Killing Eve, as well as hosting Strictly Come Dancing and video shoots for Elton John, Tina Turner and Lana Del Rey. For Wonka, it’s the perfect backdrop for one of the film’s exuberant all-singing, all-dancing extravaganzas.

Wonka will be released in cinemas on Friday 15 December 2023