From stately manors and landscaped parks, to wild coasts and unique historic sites, we used IMDB data to find the most popular filming locations in the UK.
We also explored which places were the best for making films, taking into account their IMDB ratings to find the top and worst county for filming.
Scroll through our page to discover the most popular films and filming locations in the UK.
The map below shows the most popular film made in each county, based on the metascores* ascribed on IMDB.
Bedfordshire: Mr Turner
Berkshire: The Social Network
Bristol: Being John Malkovich
Buckinghamshire: The Queen
Cambridgeshire: The King’s Speech
Cheshire: Patton
Cornwall: Mr Turner
County Durham: Avengers Endgame
Cumbria: Paddington 2/Brazil
Derbyshire: Threads
Devon: A Hard Day’s Night
Dorset: Dunkirk
East Midlands: Oranges and Sunshine
East Sussex: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
East Yorkshire: The Personal History of David Copperfield
Essex: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Gloucestershire: Barry Lyndon
Greater Manchester: 24 Hour Party People
Hampshire: Dunkirk
Herefordshire: Howards End
Hertfordshire: Mr Turner
Isle of Wight: Mrs Brown
Kent: Mr Turner
Lancashire: Phantom Thread
Leicestershire: A Cock & Bull Story/The Hours
Lincolnshire: This is England
London: A Hard Day’s Night
Merseyside: Distant Voices, Still Lives
Middlesex: A Hard Day’s Night
Norfolk: 45 Years
North Yorkshire: Phantom Thread
Northamptonshire: Pride and Prejudice
Northumberland: Atonement
Nottinghamshire: This is England
Oxfordshire: Saving Private Ryan
Shropshire: Atonement
Somerset: Barry Lyndon
South Yorkshire: Mr Turner
Staffordshire: The Girl With All The Gifts
Suffolk: Mr Turner
Surrey: Lawrence of Arabia
Tyne and Wear: Sorry We Missed You
Warwickshire: A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake
West Midlands: Felicia’s Journey
West Sussex: A Hard Day’s Night
West Yorkshire: The Arbor
Wiltshire: The Madness of King George/Barry Lyndon
Worcestershire: Howards End
Across England, South Yorkshire had the highest average metascore*, making it the county that produced the most popular films. Worcestershire came out at the other end of the spectrum, being the county with the lowest average metascore* and therefore the county with the lowest-ranking films.
Across different genres, these English sites were the most frequently used to shoot films. Scroll through our gallery to find the top 10 most popular film locations.
The map below shows the films that were made in each London borough
Barking and Dagenham: Doctor Strange
Barnet: Tomorrow Never Dies
Bexley: London Road
Brent: Shaun of the Dead
Bromley: The Italian Job
Camden: Wonder Woman
City of London: Dorian Grey
Croydon: The Dark Knight Rises
Ealing: About a Boy
Enfield: The Conjuring 2
Greenwich: The Young Victoria
Hackney: Die Another Day
Hammersmith and Fulham: Bohemian Rhapsody
Haringey: Four Weddings and a Funeral
Harrow: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Havering: Fisk Tank
Hillingdon: The Imitation Game
Hounslow: Vanity Fair
Islington: V for Vendetta
Kensington and Chelsea: Notting Hill
Kingston upon Thames: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Lambeth: Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Lewisham: Babylon
Merton: Wimbledon
Newham: Kick Ass
Redbridge: Lost Paradise
Richmond upon Thames: Finding Neverland
Southwark: Love Actually
Sutton: Black Sea
Tower Hamlets: Mission Impossible: Rogue One
Waltham Forest: The Intent
Wandsworth: A Clockwork Orange
Westminster: Skyfall
The Fallen Idol and The King’s Speech also had metascores of 88
Scroll through our gallery to find the London landmarks commonly used as film locations.
The map below shows some of the most popular films that were set (or partially set) in each part of the UK and Ireland.
Comparing films ratings for each country showed English films had lower rankings than the rest of the region. Figures show that English films had an average metascore* of 62.19, compared to 63.48 for Scotland, Ireland and Wales combined.
The best film made outside of England was Saving Private Ryan (1998), filmed in County Wexford, Ireland, and The Queen (2006), in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Closely following, Barry Lyndon was the highest-ranking film that was set largely in Ireland across 8 different counties.
The UK and Ireland have generally attracted a wealth of talent to every corner, some we all know about (Mel Gibson’s Braveheart (1995) was filmed in Scotland…duh) and some we perhaps wouldn’t have guessed (Brad Pitt rocking up on the southern English coast in World War Z (2013)).
There’s some we may have forgotten were filmed here (Bradley Cooper singing at Glastonbury in A Star is Born (2018)), while some were simply filmed all over that you were probably an unknown extra (Harry Potters, James Bonds, Star Wars’…Stardust (2007))!
Across the sample of films used to analyse Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland, these villages, castles and rural landscapes were the most popular locations for films.
Using IMDB, TickX analysed all the most popular films that were set or partially set in the UK and Ireland to find the most common filming locations, excluding studios. The most popular films were determined by those with a metascore* rating.
For Greater London, a representative sample of 200 films with the highest number of locations in that county was used. For the rest of the UK and Ireland, a smaller representative sample was used to determine average genre and metascore*.
The average metascore* for each English county was used to determine the best and worst counties for films. Films with the highest metascores* and lowest metascores* were used to establish the top and worst films of each region.
You can access the raw data here.
*Metascores on IMDB are scores from movie critics combined with weighted scores, based on the fame of the critic, to assign values for films.