London Zoo, Outer Circle, Regent's Park, NW1
London Zoo, in the northeast corner of Regent’s Park, has a long history as a film location.
In The Fallen Idol, Carol Reed’s film adaptation of Graham Greene’s story The Basement Room, the day out was filmed at the old refreshment stall in front of the Mappin Terraces. Pranksters Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed stage a bomb hoax at the lion enclosure in Michael Winner’s 1966 film The Jokers. Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren escape from villain Alan Badel’s palatial house through the zoo in Stanley Donen’s Arabesque.
In the Eighties, Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson take it upon themselves to liberate one of the zoo’s denizens (guess which one) in the Harold Pinter-scripted Turtle Diary. David Naughton wakes up naked in the zoo after a bloody night as An American Werewolf In London. More recently still, Will (Hugh Grant) and Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) chat about guy stuff by the Penguin Pool in About A Boy.
And, of course, it’s in the Reptile House that Harry learns he can talk to serpents and liberates the boa constrictor, in Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone.
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (2001, dir: Chris Columbus)
About A Boy (2002, dir: Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz)
An American Werewolf In London (1981, dir: John Landis)
Arabesque (1966, dir: Stanley Donen)
Turtle Diary (1985, dir: John Irvin)
The Fallen Idol (1948, dir: Carol Reed)
The Jokers (1967, dir: Michael Winner)
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