Sherlock - A Study in Locations (15) - Chasing Taxis in Soho Part (2a) "Up on the Roof".
This is St Ann's Church Soho
And this is the view of the roof-top area John and Sherlock leap about on:
I spent a lot of time in preparation for my first visit checking things up on Google Maps (and Bing Birdseye view), but got no more of an idea than I had already. I was stumped. I even spent a very long time wandering around in Soho looking up and scratching my head, not knowing what on earth was going on. Yes, I found some places I was looking for, but the roof remained illusive.
Then, at the end of our November trip, on the way back to meet garienosin China Town for a meal, I got a breakthrough. Walking down Dean Street I passed by an alleyway called Bourchier Street and thought I spotted something vaguely familiar. 'Aha!' I cried out loud (I do talk to myself a lot when doing things like this) and it must have amused some of the tourists walking by as one of them offered, 'you're on to something obviously aren't you?' and I had to agree.
Here is the Sherlock mind-map from A Study in Pink showing Bourchier Street marked on in red. The arrow is the roof where they were running around, the red line the alleyway that was jumped into and run along:
This is what I spotted when I was walking down Dean Street, and what was ringing bells in my head (that gate with a white rounded wall looked familiar somehow):
I wasn't sure what was making me say; 'that looks familar,' but I took a lot of photos just to make sure. On coming back home to Lowestoft, and running the episode on my laptop, I realised what was going on.
Yeah, very familiar ...
On my next trip down (the one in December herding Biology students to lectures at Senate House) I was in Dean Street again to look at what I had spotted. Then things started to even get a bit surreal as Prime Focus, who work out of the building on the south edge of the Dean Street/Bourchier Street corner, had got their publicity up for Merlin.
Yes really, these people who also do digital stuff for the BBC for Sherlock and Spooks and all sorts of other big cinema films you've probably all seen and I haven't even heard of.
When I walked past in late December 2013 it had been replaced by this which sort of proves my point! ;-)
What was more telling is that their building is actually L-shaped within the rectangle of Wardour St, Old Compton Street, Dean Street and Bourchier Street. This is the frontage on Old Compton Street:
Now that got me thinking; for example, if you are going to run around on someone's roof, it's useful if you at least know them. It's also useful if they are friendly with their neighbours and can get you up onto their roofs as well.
A bit of a clean-up of a grab from Bing Birdseye view looking south on Old Compton Street and St Anns Church (I stuck it into Gimp and played about the the curves to make the buildings stand out) and that really made me start singing a Johnny Nash song.
"I can see clearly now the rain has gone ...""...
"... I can see all obstacles in my way"
(1) Is St Ann's Church
(2) Is the Comptons Pub in Old Compton Street, compare the top of the ornate windows with those peeping over the edge of the roof Sherlock and John are jumping about on.
(3) is the spiral staircase they (or rather the stunt stand-ins) run down and jump over from.
(4) is the long rectangular piece of roof with ventilation square things on it's top which the stunt!Sherlock and stunt!John jump onto, but Benedict and Martin seem to get onto too. Interestingly, when John jumps for the second time ('Allez, Jean! Nous sommes en train de les perdre") supposedly across Bourchier Street but not actually (more on that later) you can see the top of a tall stack of air conditioning units behind Martin. They are quite visible on the Birdseye view grab too.
This means that the stunt guys are jumping off the end of the long rectangular piece of roof onto the little bit of roof next to it. Fun!
(5) is the fire escape I will talk to you about in the next post which our boys run down, and which the camera was perched on part of to do that shot down into the very thin Wardour Street end of Bourchier Street.
This one:
As you'll have realised I have also been watching and grabbing stuff from the French version I ripped off my French DVDs. Sometime I will have to give you the (often hilarious) translated version of the instructions Sherlock keeps shouting out.
Next;onto the next piece of this run-around where we run down the fire escape and jump down get back to ground level.
And this is the view of the roof-top area John and Sherlock leap about on:
I spent a lot of time in preparation for my first visit checking things up on Google Maps (and Bing Birdseye view), but got no more of an idea than I had already. I was stumped. I even spent a very long time wandering around in Soho looking up and scratching my head, not knowing what on earth was going on. Yes, I found some places I was looking for, but the roof remained illusive.
Then, at the end of our November trip, on the way back to meet garienosin China Town for a meal, I got a breakthrough. Walking down Dean Street I passed by an alleyway called Bourchier Street and thought I spotted something vaguely familiar. 'Aha!' I cried out loud (I do talk to myself a lot when doing things like this) and it must have amused some of the tourists walking by as one of them offered, 'you're on to something obviously aren't you?' and I had to agree.
Here is the Sherlock mind-map from A Study in Pink showing Bourchier Street marked on in red. The arrow is the roof where they were running around, the red line the alleyway that was jumped into and run along:
This is what I spotted when I was walking down Dean Street, and what was ringing bells in my head (that gate with a white rounded wall looked familiar somehow):
I wasn't sure what was making me say; 'that looks familar,' but I took a lot of photos just to make sure. On coming back home to Lowestoft, and running the episode on my laptop, I realised what was going on.
Yeah, very familiar ...
On my next trip down (the one in December herding Biology students to lectures at Senate House) I was in Dean Street again to look at what I had spotted. Then things started to even get a bit surreal as Prime Focus, who work out of the building on the south edge of the Dean Street/Bourchier Street corner, had got their publicity up for Merlin.
Yes really, these people who also do digital stuff for the BBC for Sherlock and Spooks and all sorts of other big cinema films you've probably all seen and I haven't even heard of.
When I walked past in late December 2013 it had been replaced by this which sort of proves my point! ;-)
What was more telling is that their building is actually L-shaped within the rectangle of Wardour St, Old Compton Street, Dean Street and Bourchier Street. This is the frontage on Old Compton Street:
Now that got me thinking; for example, if you are going to run around on someone's roof, it's useful if you at least know them. It's also useful if they are friendly with their neighbours and can get you up onto their roofs as well.
A bit of a clean-up of a grab from Bing Birdseye view looking south on Old Compton Street and St Anns Church (I stuck it into Gimp and played about the the curves to make the buildings stand out) and that really made me start singing a Johnny Nash song.
"I can see clearly now the rain has gone ...""...
"... I can see all obstacles in my way"
(1) Is St Ann's Church
(2) Is the Comptons Pub in Old Compton Street, compare the top of the ornate windows with those peeping over the edge of the roof Sherlock and John are jumping about on.
(3) is the spiral staircase they (or rather the stunt stand-ins) run down and jump over from.
(4) is the long rectangular piece of roof with ventilation square things on it's top which the stunt!Sherlock and stunt!John jump onto, but Benedict and Martin seem to get onto too. Interestingly, when John jumps for the second time ('Allez, Jean! Nous sommes en train de les perdre") supposedly across Bourchier Street but not actually (more on that later) you can see the top of a tall stack of air conditioning units behind Martin. They are quite visible on the Birdseye view grab too.
This means that the stunt guys are jumping off the end of the long rectangular piece of roof onto the little bit of roof next to it. Fun!
(5) is the fire escape I will talk to you about in the next post which our boys run down, and which the camera was perched on part of to do that shot down into the very thin Wardour Street end of Bourchier Street.
This one:
As you'll have realised I have also been watching and grabbing stuff from the French version I ripped off my French DVDs. Sometime I will have to give you the (often hilarious) translated version of the instructions Sherlock keeps shouting out.
Next;onto the next piece of this run-around where we run down the fire escape and jump down get back to ground level.