40-41 Wimpole Street, W1

Julie Christie nabbed an Oscar as the ambitious actress ending up as – would you believe? – ‘Princess Diana’, trapped in a loveless marriage, John Schlesinger’s cynical satire Darling. Diana Scott (Christie) meets Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey) at his swanky pad at 40-41 Wimpole Street.

Wimpole Street was made famous by Katherine Cornell’s play The Barretts of Wimpole Street, about the romance between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. It’s been filmed twice in Hollywood, in 1934 and 1957, both versions directed by Sidney Franklin, and providing star roles for first Charles Laughton and then John Gielgud as the overbearing paterfamilias Barrett.

Trivia: Famous residents of Wimpole Street included surgeon Sir Frederick Treves, the benefactor of The Elephant Man, played by Anthony Hopkins in the David Lynch film, who lived at number 6. Sherlock Holmes’ creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived at 2 Upper Wimpole Street.

Darling (1965, dir: John Schlesinger)