Robert Pattinson’s brooding Batman finally swoops into cinemas on Friday. The latest dispatch from the DC universe also stars Colin Farrell as The Penguin, Paul Dano as The Riddler and several British landmarks, including Liverpool’s Royal Liver Building.
Five years in the making, The Batman had its wings clipped by Covid filming restrictions, but director and co-writer Matt Reeves’s take on Gotham City is as vast, brutal and sordid as fans have come to expect. With its glittering skyscrapers, grand Gothic architecture, litter-strewn mean streets and endless rain, Bruce Wayne’s hometown has rarely looked less inviting.
Much of the film was shot in Warner Bros’s studio in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, but the most impressive buildings can be found in Liverpool and London.
“It had to be a city that you hadn’t seen before but that felt real,” producer Dylan Clark told i. “It’s a mosaic of different places – we had locations in London, Glasgow and Liverpool, which was right in the centre of our movie. Liverpool anchored the look and feel of Gotham, which needs to feel Gothic.”
More from Film
Climb Gotham City’s clock tower in Liverpool
On 15 October 2020 – while Liverpool was in lockdown due to rocketing rates of Covid – anyone strolling past the Royal Liver Building would have spotted a curious sight: Batman atop a clocktower. “There was something magical about being there at the height of lockdown and putting our stunt Batman on top of the Liver Building, and having the residents see that,” recalls Clark. “It was a Herculean effort to successfully capture the grandness of the place inside of a week.”
Liverpool’s most famous building presides over the River Mersey and was the UK’s first skyscraper when it was built in 1911. Giant copper Liver Birds – the city’s mythical emblem – perch on its two clock towers, which have bigger clock faces than Big Ben’s. You can follow in Batman’s wake and admire the panoramic view from the top on the towers tour (£15 for adults).
The city’s grandiose Victorian concert hall also has a starring role and doubles as the exterior of Gotham City Hall. St George’s Hall originally housed the city’s law courts as well – and also appears in the latest series of Peaky Blinders. A virtual-reality tour allows visitors to explore the spooky old prison cells while learning about its history (£6 for adults). Liverpool’s Victorian cemetery, Anfield Cemetery, also has a fleeting cameo towards the end of the film.
Marvel at the mayor’s home and rave in The Penguin’s seedy club in London
Gotham’s mayor’s Gothic mansion is Two Temple Place, which actually sits on the River Thames in Westminster. “Our goal initially was to shoot all around central London,” says Clark. “Of course, with the pandemic and safety protocols, we had to make some changes, but it was important to us that we had real buildings that you couldn’t build on set as our foundation for Gotham – the mayor’s residence was one of them.”
Built for the eccentric American tycoon William Waldorf Astor in the 1890s, Two Temple Place is probably London’s most lavish office building. The Elizabethan-style exterior is adorned with gargoyles, cherubs and a golden weather vane. Inside, you’ll find ornate mahogany panelling and stained glass galore. Nowadays it’s an arts venue, with a free exhibition on ceramics and several guided tours a month (£10).
If you want to visit Gotham’s underworld, you’ll have to buy a ticket for a rave at the Printworks, which served as Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot’s sleazy club, The Iceberg Lounge. This enormous warehouse used to house the UK’s biggest printing press. Nowadays it’s one of London’s coolest clubs, where up to 6000 people dance under dazzling light displays.
The O2 – Greenwich’s spaceship-like, 20,000-capacity arena – served as Gotham’s answer to Madison Square Garden, and also wasn’t as crowded as it looks, Clark explains. “We initially planned to shoot with almost a thousand extras but we couldn’t do that and feel safe. We figured out with our Covid team how many we could have safely and moved them around.”
Meanwhile, a 17th-century square tucked away in Bloomsbury doubled as a Gotham park. In the 1800s, Red Lion Square was home to the celebrated designer William Morris and the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, while legend has it that Oliver Cromwell’s body was buried here. Its little garden is a lot less menacing than it looks on the big screen – it has a cafe and is a pleasant spot for a tranquil coffee on sunny days.
Go for a stroll in Gotham’s cemetery in Glasgow
Keep an eye out for Batman taking his souped-up motorbike for a spin in a cemetery with soaring views: Glasgow Necropolis. “The cemetery is on a hill so you have grand vistas,” says Clark. “It’s a crucial scene in the movie and the backdrop of the cemetery is extremely powerful – it was wonderful to be up there.”
With elaborate monuments and city views, the Necropolis is a spectacular spot to meander and is reached via a bridge known as “The Bridge of Sighs”, probably because of the countless funeral processions that have crossed it. The sprawling cemetery overlooks Glasgow’s imposing Gothic cathedral, which would blend in nicely in The Batman’s Gotham City – especially on rainy days.
The Batman is in cinemas on 4 March