Peaky Blinders is set in the heartland of Britain's industrial revolution, the West Midlands. But to capture perfectly the world of Tommy Shelby and his racketeering gang, the producers have used locations right across the north of Britain.
One of the most familiar is on home territory. The Black Country Living Museum, Dudley is open all year round to the public. It's the perfect place for the Shelbys to stash illicit goods, situated as it is on a working canal. And as the museum is decked out in period guise to display the West Midlands' industrial heritage it's ready for a TV production company to roll up. (on cover)Further north, Manchester's impressive 1877 town hall is used when Sam Neill's character meets Churchill; while the city's Grade II-listed Edwardian swimming pool, the Victoria Baths, was mocked up for a horse fair. Before the Luftwaffe visited in WWII, there were many streets like Admiral Grove and Powis Street in Liverpool 8. Ringo Starr grew up there and it doubles for the Shelby's home street in Birmingham's Small Heath. (on cover)What the Wirral is to Liverpool, Sutton Coldfield is to Small Heath - the gentrified suburbs. Aunt Polly's Sutton Coldfield House is filmed in Port Sunlight, a model industrial village on the Wirral that has been preserved thanks to its single ownership and strict leaseholds.There are many station scenes in the Blinders, especially the gripping finale to the first series, when the devious Inspector Campbell confronts Grace and as the scene fades a shot rings out... You can retrace their steps at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in Yorkshire, which once served mills and villages in the Worth valley.Other sites include: Brooke's Mill, at Armitage near Huddersfield (Gypsy camp), Leeds' Town Hall (art gallery), Newby Hall & Gardens, Ripon (Grace's undercover meetings), Arley Hall, Cheshire (Tommy's country house), City Varieties, Leeds (vaudeville theater) and coming soon in Series Six, the harbour at Portsoy in Aberdeenshire, which will be standing in for a French port. No doubt smugglingwill be involved.
