The Bridget Jones filming locations you can visit in London

Here are the settings behind Bridget’s single (and sometimes not-so-single) life in the UK capital

Natalie Wilson
Thursday 25 April 2024 07:24 EDT
Comments
8 Beadle Street in Southwark is home to the chaotic singleton
8 Beadle Street in Southwark is home to the chaotic singleton (Shutterstock)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Bridget Jones is back. Author Helen Fielding has confirmed that the rom-com trilogy is getting a fourth instalment in Jones’s chronicles looking for love – and the cameras are set to start rolling across London in May.

Franchise leading lady Renée Zellweger, alongside love rivals Colin Firth, Hugh Grant and Patrick Dempsey, have starred in the three films and rumours are swirling around who will return to the diary writer’s next narrative.

The last time we saw her enviable zone 1 flat eight years ago, the serial singleton, now firmly in her forties, married Mark Darcy (Firth) in a shift from her cigarette and chardonnay-fuelled days.

For the fourth film, the plot is believed to be based on Fielding’s 2013 novel, Mad About the Boy, that is yet to appear on screen, and will likely cover the eppnymous character’s next chapter: motherhood.

With several of the street scenes, bar debriefs and classic faux pas locations easily stumbled upon on a walking tour of London, here’s where to head for a behind-the-scenes look at Bridget Jones’s life.

Where is Bridget Jones filmed?

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

Aside from a host of London film studios, Zellweger, Firth and Grant filmed across the city to bring the Bridget Jones column to life.

Colin Firth and Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary
Colin Firth and Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary (Universal)

8 Beadle Street, Southwark 

Bridget’s endearingly chaotic flat sits in an enviable zone 1 location on Beadle Street in Southwark. The spacious site of many a solo singalong and glass of wine raises some serious salary questions...

Globe Tavern, Borough Market

For the flat exterior, the Globe Tavern – a traditional British pub in Borough Market – is the iconic location below the singleton’s residence, just next to the tracks of London Bridge station.

The Globe Tavern sits below Bridget’s flat
The Globe Tavern sits below Bridget’s flat (flickr/Ewan Munro)

Pickfords Wharf Apartments, Clink Street

Daniel Cleaver’s (Grant) suave bachelor pad is in a converted 19th-century warehouse on Clink Street overlooking the Thames. The property went on sale for over £3 million in 2012 – we can only assume the price hiked due to the hilarious tummy-control knicker scene that was filmed there.

Royal Courts of Justice, Westminster 

Top London human rights lawyer Mark Darcy grants Jones an exclusive TV interview while defending a Kurdish revolutionary leader who is faced with extradition outside the actual Royal Courts of Justice in Westminster.

Mark Darcy’s legal work takes him to the Royal Courts of Justice
Mark Darcy’s legal work takes him to the Royal Courts of Justice (Getty Images)

London Stansted Airport 

To the northeast of central London, Stansted Airport doubles as JKF Airport when Mark Darcy moves to New York City with his lawyer girlfriend. The aviation hub was also used to portray a NYC airfield in Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019.

Institute Of Contemporary Arts, St James’s 

Visit the Institute Of Contemporary Arts for just £1
Visit the Institute Of Contemporary Arts for just £1 (Getty Images)

The publishing house launching Kafka’s Motorbike hosts the book event in St James’s Institute Of Contemporary Arts – still a home for visual art, film festivals and exhibitions in central London that costs just £1 to visit for the day.

Royal Exchange, Threadneedle Street 

Bridget and Mark lock lips in the snow outside the No. 11 Royal Exchange Buildings in Cornhill where Mark is buying her a new diary, an unusually romantic end to the first of the otherwise chaotic dating chronicles.

The first film is sealed with a kiss on Threadneedle Street
The first film is sealed with a kiss on Threadneedle Street (Getty Images)

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)

Three years later, Bridget returned to her love turmoils with Darcy and Cleaver. Though some scenes were shot in Lech, Austria and Thailand, the roots of the franchise remained in London.

Renée returned as Jones for Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason in 2004
Renée returned as Jones for Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason in 2004 (Universal)

Hyde Park Italian Gardens, Westminster 

After Daniel abandons Bridget in Thailand, Mark confronts him around and in the picturesque Italian fountains of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park for a scene firmly in the splash zone.

Mark and Daniel take a tumble in Hyde Park’s Italian fountains
Mark and Daniel take a tumble in Hyde Park’s Italian fountains (Getty Images)

The Light Bar, Shoreditch High Street

On Shoreditch High Street, Bridget Jones is told to dump Mark Darcy by her friends who think he is cheating over several glasses of wine and cigarettes at The Light Bar. The renovated drinks hotspot set in an old Victorian power station is still open for cocktails at number 233 today.

Rigby & Peller, Mayfair

Bridget buys a corset before Mark’s uber-fancy law council dinner at Mayfair lingerie store Rigby & Peller. The luxury brand has stores across London, including the Conduit Street spot seen on screen.

Piccadilly Circus

Billboards in Piccadilly Circus flash messages from Bridget’s diary
Billboards in Piccadilly Circus flash messages from Bridget’s diary (Getty Images)

A location featured multiple times across the films, billboards flash messages from Bridget’s diary as headlines in the bright lights of Piccadilly Circus on London’s West End.

Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)

Single and pregnant twelve years later, Bridget starts pre-natal activities across the city.

Patrick Dempsey and Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Baby
Patrick Dempsey and Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Baby (Rex Features)

Greenwich Park

Longtime friend Shazza, played by Sally Phillips, gets the lowdown on all things babies and Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey) on the grassy hills of Greenwich Park.

Shazza and Bridget debrief on the potential fathers in Greenwich Park
Shazza and Bridget debrief on the potential fathers in Greenwich Park (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Kingdom Street, Paddington

Bridget is now a senior producer at the fictional Hard News, and the Regus Studios on Kingdom Street in Paddington set the stage for the outlet’s studios and offices.

London Aquatics Centre, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 

Pre-natal birthing classes with Jack and Mark – including exercise balls – take place at the London Aquatics Centre in Stratford.

Protesters force both baby daddy’s to carry Bridget over Albert Bridge
Protesters force both baby daddy’s to carry Bridget over Albert Bridge (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Albert Bridge Road, Battersea 

When push comes to shove and Bridget goes into early labour (and protests put a stop to the Italian takeaway van transport method), Albert Bridge Road in Battersea welcomes Mark and Jack as they carry Bridget to the hospital.

St Clement Danes Church, Strand

The funeral of Daniel Cleaver was filmed in the black and gold interior of St Clement Danes Church in Strand. The central church of the Royal Air Force has a memorial for those who have died in service in the RAF.

Daniel Cleaver’s funeral takes place in St Clement Danes Church
Daniel Cleaver’s funeral takes place in St Clement Danes Church (Getty Images)

Supreme Court, Westminster

Mark Darcy is defending the freedoms of a Russian girl group called Poonani inside the Supreme Court. The prestigious location surprisingly opened its doors to the cameras for scenes, as did the Old Bailey.

University College Hospital, Bloomsbury

Several appointments with deadpan doctor Emma Thompson, as well as the delivery of Bridget’s baby with the two potential fathers present, were filmed at University College Hospital in Bloomsbury.

Jack and Mark carry a labouring Bridget into University College Hospital in Bloomsbury
Jack and Mark carry a labouring Bridget into University College Hospital in Bloomsbury (Universal)
  • Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Bridget Jones’s Baby are available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in