• home
  • index of films
    • index of films featuring maps
    • index of films featuring photography
    • bibliography
  • blogs
    • maps in films
    • choses vues - things seen
    • l'Escalographe
    • the BlowUp moment
  • how to map a film
    • the first maps >
      • Some Maps in Gance's Napoléon
  • Paris
    • 1890s-1909 >
      • firemen in Paris, 1896
      • La Villette c.1896-97
      • Hatot-Breteau 1897
      • Place de l'Opéra
      • Paris 1900
      • French Cancan >
        • the real Paquerette >
          • Paquerettes
      • Alice Guy - Paris locations >
        • Alice Guy in the brothel ...
      • a dangerous street corner
      • Capellani in Paris
      • La Fille du faux-monnayeur
    • 1910-1929 >
      • a gateway out of Paris c.1910
      • L'Enfant de Paris (narrative of an identification)
      • Fantomas Over Paris: episode 1 >
        • Fantomas Over Paris: episode 2 >
          • Fantomas Over Paris: episode 3 >
            • Fantomas Over Paris: episode 4 >
              • Fantomas Over Belgium
      • One Place, Three Films: Fantomas and the French New Wave
      • a staircase in Belleville
      • Vampires Over Paris >
        • Les Vampires 1
        • Les Vampires 2
        • Les Vampires 3
        • Les Vampires 4
        • Les Vampires 5
        • Les Vampires 6
        • Les Vampires, 7
        • Les Vampires 8
        • Les Vampires 9
        • Les Vampires 10
      • Irma Vep posts a letter
      • Inside-Outside: space and light in Judex
      • L'Affaire Barsac
      • neon Paris c.1913
      • electric nights in Paris (and Berlin)
    • 1930-1959 >
      • Quai des Orfèvres
      • Olivia - Audry - 1951
      • Paris Noir: Becker, Dassin, Melville
      • the persistence of graffiti: Paris c.1952
      • Du rififi chez les hommes - reading topotropically >
        • Du rififi chez les hommes - locations identified
      • Het Parijs van Le Ballon rouge
    • the New Wave and after >
      • New Wave places >
        • New Wave Paris >
          • New Wave Newness: architecture in Paris
          • Eric Rohmer in the rue de la Huchette, c.1956
          • Les 400 coups: Paris locations >
            • Baisers volés
          • 'New York Herald Tribune' - Parrish and Godard on the rue de Berri >
            • A bout de souffle (narrative of an identification)
          • the Grisbi connection: Chabrol and Becker
          • Les Bonnes Femmes: sequence by sequence
          • Une femme est une femme: the places documented
          • the boulevard des Italiens
          • Jules et Jim: Paris configured
          • the place of cinema: cinema as location in Vivre sa vie
          • Godard and Melville: the view from the rue Jenner >
            • Melville: more views from the rue Jenner
          • the New Wave in Pigalle c.1963
          • La Peau douce - displaced places
          • Le Bonheur 1965
          • Paris vu par
          • Masculin Féminin
          • The Topography of La Guerre est finie
        • France
      • Le Samourai: places and maps >
        • Un flic: art and artifice
      • Bresson in Paris - Pickpocket
      • Bresson 69-71
      • Every Revolution
      • statues in Godard and Duras
      • Holy Motors >
        • Holy Motors - notes
    • banlieues >
      • Le Canal de Ourcq
      • Ville d'Avray en 1903
      • Three filmmakers in Romainville
      • filmmaking in the Fontainebleau forest
      • Feuillade's lonely villas
      • anarchists in the suburbs c.1912
      • One Church Two Cemeteries: Clouzot and Chabrol at Montfort L'Amaury
      • Feuilladian Franju - Les Yeux sans visage
      • country houses and suburban villas
      • banlieue locations in L'Amour existe
      • the Landru Villa
      • 1 place 2 filmmakers: Rivette & Chabrol in Ermenonville
      • Céline et Julie: what's the address of that house?
      • cinemas in La Petite Voleuse
    • The Stairs: Paris
  • London
    • 1890s-1920s >
      • Lumiere London >
        • Lumière London, bis
      • Robert Paul in London: tour guide and film maker
      • Ultus in Isleworth
      • Cocaine 1922
      • Fu Manchu 1923
    • London Locations >
      • Piccadilly Circus >
        • Piccadilly Circus in films
        • Piccadilly Circus in art
        • Piccadilly Circus in postcards
        • Piccadilly Circus photographed
        • Piccadilly Circus: invisible things
      • Muswell Hill
      • the Arsenal Stadium mysteries
      • Brentford streets on screen
    • the locality of London studios >
      • Early Ealing
      • straight out of Whetstone
      • Walthamstow's studios
    • Sherlock Holmes >
      • some Baker Street irregularities
      • an American Sherlock in London
    • Sojourners + Cosmopolitans >
      • London in French Film >
        • Rififi in London
        • London in London River
      • maps in krimis
      • Kriminal (1966)
      • Kaurismaki's London c. 1989
    • places in Face
  • Geneva
    • Swiss New Wave - shared-world practice
    • Geneva in Swiss New Wave films >
      • SNW Geneva: collective housing
      • SNW Geneva: villas
      • SNW Geneva: bowlings + piscines
    • The Chronology of Le Petit Soldat
    • La Lune avec les dents (Michel Soutter 1966)
    • L'Inconnu de Shandigor (J.-L. Roy 1967)
  • signage, etc.
  • studios, etc.
    • Eclair
    • Eclipse
    • Gaumont >
      • Cité Elgé locations
    • Lumière
    • Lux
    • Pathé >
      • Where's Max >
        • when Harry met Max, and where
        • Max takes the train
      • Bébé victime d'une erreur...
      • Montreuil in Pathe films
      • Pathé police stations
      • Pathé filmmaking in Nice c. 1908
    • studios & the local >
      • Ealing >
        • Kind Hearts and Coronets: suburbia and other places
        • the view from Ealing
  • my local filmmaker
    • The Unfortunate Policeman >
      • Buy Your Own Cherries >
        • The Medium Exposed >
          • The ? Motorist >
            • The Fatal Hand >
              • A Little Bit of Cloth
              • Blind Man's Bluff >
                • Bill Sikes Up-To-Date
    • Walter Booth in Muswell Hill
  • my local cinemas
  • favourites
    • Agnès Varda >
      • Cleo 5-7 - Time
      • Sans toit ni loi >
        • Sans toit ni loi - the 12 tracking shots
        • Mona's postcard collection
    • Alice Guy >
      • Alice Guy + JLG
    • Chris Marker
    • Jacques Rivette >
      • a map of Out 1
      • Le Pont du Nord: locations identified >
        • topographical telescoping in Le Pont du Nord
        • Le Pont du Nord (narrative of an identification)
    • J.-L. Godard >
      • Godardiana
      • A bout de souffle: footnotes to the film >
        • A bout de souffle - the cast list
        • A bout de souffle in colour
      • photographs in Le Petit Soldat
      • Bande à part
      • Paintings in Pierrot le fou
      • sculptures in Made in USA
      • Les Fins de Godard
      • Week End - time, place and cars
      • Bukowski in Sauve qui peut (la vie)
      • Life magazine + Hdc
    • J.-P. Melville
    • Louis Feuillade
    • Max Linder
    • Robert Paul
  • cine-tourists
    • a German tourist in Paris: Le Silence de la mer
    • an American tourist in Paris
    • History Lessons in Rome
  • Nouvelle Vague
    • New Wave Christmas
    • the New Wave and modern art >
      • New Wave Braque
      • New Wave Chagall
      • New Wave Klee
      • New Wave Manet
      • New Wave Miro
      • New Wave Modigliani
      • New Wave Picasso
      • Pierre Alechinsky in Le Joli Mai (1963)
    • New Wave cameos
    • Attal et Zardi
    • Le Signe du Lion: six small things
    • New Wave films in New Wave films
    • Cahiers du Cinéma on screen
  • other things
    • assorted stamps
    • Maps in Books
    • the topographies of La Fille aux yeux d'or
    • place-time in Thérèse Raquin
    • photography >
      • 10 photographs by Brassaï in 3 Paris dancehalls >
        • painters in the rue Blomet
      • Gisèle Freund in Paris >
        • Gisèle Freund in Histoire(s) du cinéma
      • Godard's Histoire(s): photographs of women
      • the photographer as photographer: André Dino with Tati, Truffaut and Chabrol
      • some Simenon book covers
      • films playing at the Moulin Rouge
    • building sites >
      • a building site and some buildings, c.1961 >
        • Jean Ginsberg
      • 93 - Seine Saint Denis: HLM, cités, grands ensembles >
        • 93 - Seine Saint Denis: Aubervilliers to Bondy
        • 93 - Seine Saint Denis: Drancy to l'île Saint Denis
        • 93 - Seine Saint Denis: La Courneuve to Saint Ouen
        • 93 - Seine Saint Denis: Sevran to Villepinte
      • Chateau Gaillard
      • Euston Station
    • investigations >
      • A Remarkable Journey in Zigoto's New Motor-Car - 1912
      • the Hotel Bristol enigma
    • news >
      • French news
      • news from England
      • news from the U.S.
    • a picture of great significance
    • A Girl and a Gun >
      • Griffith, Shadowland, May 1922
  • efc - places
  • contact details
    • directories
    • address books
    • hotel registers
    • envelopes and postcards
    • telegrams
  • family, locality
    • a Succession of Edwards
    • Henri Grieshaber - architecte chaudefonnier
  • about this site
  • Publications
The Cine-Tourist
a map of  Kaurismäki's London c.1989

(the locations of  I Hired a Contract Killer)

Picture
(For most of the places identified below I am indebted to Simon James's London Film Location Guide (2007), to Paul Newland's 2007 essay for Wider Screen and to Claire Monk's 2009 essay in the Journal of British Cinema and Television.)


1/ along the river - Docklands and the City

Picture
The opening credit sequence begins with these four views:
 
'Both shots [i.e. shots 1 + 2 of the credit sequence] are taken from the vast, disused Royal Victoria Dock in Silvertown, east of the Isle of Dogs, constructed on Plaistow Marshes in 1855 and closed in 1981. Shot 1 looks west towards the equally deserted West India Docks; shot 2 reverses the camera position to record the vast, disused Royal Albert Dock to the east.'
'Shot 3 presents an uninspiring vista of the City riverfront across the Thames from the south. The only prominent ‘landmarks’ are financial/commercial – most obviously the NatWest Tower (London’s tallest building prior to Canary Wharf, now renamed Tower 42) – and omnipresent cranes show that even the old City is in a constant flux of redevelopment. Shot 4, taken from a position very nearby, further undermines the City’s putative grandeur by rotating the camera to point across an ‘empty’ site on the south bank (since 2002 filled by Norman Foster’s bulbous glass Greater London Authority building) towards the concrete brutalist towers of Guy’s Hospital.' (Monk, 2009, pp. 275 + 276)

The first return to this type of location is a random shot inserted between Henri's visit to the Honolulu Bar and his return home:
Picture
This looks like a view from the North Woolwich Road towards the City - the NatWest Tower can be seen in the middle of the shot. Later, when Henri goes to find Margaret, we see him on  (I think) a different stretch of the North Woolwich Road:
Picture
The two towers are Dunlop Point and Cranbrook Point - built 1967, demolished 1998. Margaret lives in one of them - the latter presumably, since (oddly) she has on the wall of her flat a sign that says Cranbrook Point.

The morning after Henri's first night with Margaret we see a view from her flat over the Royal Victoria Dock, with the still extant 'D' silo in the right foreground:
Picture
Picture
Towards the end of the film a night-time panoramic shot from the tower takes in this view:
The only other sight of this district we have is at the end of Margaret's bus journey after she has collected Henri's things from his flat in Portobello Road. This is Silvertown Way, from a 69 bus heading to North Woolwich Station:
Picture
Picture

2/ Portobello Road

Henri's flat is at 227 Portobello Road, W.11, at the junction with Westbourne Park Road. It is next door to the Beulah Strict Baptist Chapel and opposite the Warwick Castle pub:
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Next to Henri's door has been placed a Portobello-themed poster for Absolut vodka, on which is featured the nearby Trellick Tower:
Picture
Picture

3/ Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Mile End...

Picture
Picture
 
'The first of the film’s ‘East End’ establishing shots shows a specialist taxi-wash and garage (in Dunbridge Street, Bethnal Green) in a railway arch beneath the main line running out of Liverpool Street from the City. [...] The subsequent shots (6–10) show a variety of derelict or neglected back street sites, some chosen for abstract qualities more than a sense of place.'  (Monk, 2009, pp. 277)

Shots 6 to 10 of the credit sequence can be identified. This is Durward Street, E.1, formerly Buck's Row, looking west to east. Buck's Row was the site of the first Jack the Ripper murder. This ruined gateway is just opposite the spot where the body of Polly Nichol's was found:
Picture
Nothing of this view survives.

The next shot shows the western end of Durward Street, where it joins Vallance Road.
The tower block is Pauline House on Old Montague Street, built 1960 and still standing.
Luigi's was a café on Vallance Road.

Picture
Picture
This is followed by a view of Winthrop Street where it joined Brady Street, just south of Durward Street at the eastern end:
Picture
Shot 9 of the credit sequence shows commercial properties at 30 Vallance Road. We see the backs of these premises in shot 7. They have been demolished and rebuilt:
Picture
The last location in this sequence does indeed seem to have been chosen for 'abstract qualities more than a sense of place', and it would seem to be beyond identification, but this is in fact Durward Street again, at the junction with Vallance Road - the same wall can be seen in shot 7:
Picture
Picture
Google Street View, April 2015
The first narrative action in this area comes when Henri pawns his gold watch to a moneylender at 244 Bethnal Green Road, E.2:
Picture
After he has taken out his savings (from the Woolwich Building Society), we see Henri emerge from Mile End tube station and hire a taxi on the Mile End Road, near the junction with Maplin Street, E.3:
Picture
Picture
The taxi drops him somewhere near the Honolulu Bar, in the basement of a disused school on Durward Street:
Picture
Picture
I haven't been able to locate the exact spot where the taxi drops him:
Picture
Picture
The street that apparently leads to the Honolulu Bar is Winthrop Street. The identification was possible thanks to Philip Cunningham's wonderful photographs of the area before redevelopment:
Picture
Picture
Picture
Philip Cunningham
Claire Monk (p.277) situates the drop-off point at some distance from Durward Street - 'The spectacularly dank railway arch where the cabbie drops Henri [...] is barely five minutes’ walk away [from the railway arch at Dunbridge Street], west along (and across) the same railway line' - but is not more specific about the location.

The footbridge which Henri reaches when he is running from the killer in his flat is near Durward Street. It crosses the railway lines near Whitechapel Station, connecting the Whitechapel Road via Wood's Buildings to Winthrop Street:
Picture
Picture
There are two other locations in this general area. The Hotel Splendide where Henri and Margaret hide out is Tower House on Fieldgate Street, E.1:
Picture
When news breaks of Henri's involvement in a robbery, we see a newspaper seller on Cannon Street Road, E.1, at the corner with Kinder Street: 
Picture
We then see Margaret in the East & West Social Club opposite (formerly the British Queen pub), where she is confronted by the killer. The taxi she hails stops in front of  H. Fabian Ltd at 143 Cannon Street Road. These premises were still there in 2009, but like the doctor's surgery and social club opposite they have now been demolished and rebuilt:
Picture
Picture
Google Street View June 2009

4/ up the Kingsland Road - Haggerston, Dalston and Stoke Newington

The pub in which Joe Strummer is playing and the jeweller's which Henri is supposed to have robbed are both on Kingsland Road in Dalston, at nos 512 and 474 respectively:
Picture
Picture
Picture
The assassin lives off Geffrye Street, E.2, which runs parallel to the Kingsland Road, just behind the Geffrye Museum:
Picture
At its northern end the Kingsland Road leads through Kingsland High Street and Stoke Newington Road to Abney Park cemetery, the film's last location:
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
The film had been in Stoke Newington some time earlier, when Henri bought rope from a DIY shop at 80 Stoke Newington High Street, N.16:
Picture

5/ various places

Picture
Henri works for 'Her Majesty's Waterworks' in Atlantic House, 50 Farringdon Street, E,C,4. Now demolished, Atlantic House was actually home to Her Majesty's Stationery Office. The view above is looking south under Holborn Viaduct.
Picture
Henri reads a newspaper in the Shepherdess Café, on the corner of City Road, E,C.1, and Shepherdess Walk.
Picture
When Henri runs away from the man on the railway footbridge, he finds himself in front of the Albania Hotel, now the Wardonia Hotel, 46-54 Argyle Street, W.C.1. Round the corner in Whidborne Street is the surgery where the killer consults his doctor:
Picture
Many thanks to Luke Jacob for locating this. The bollard had been my only clue, bearing a crest with the inscription 'St P P M', which stands for St Pancras Parish Middlesex.



Whidborne Street and Argyle Street are close to St Pancras station, where Margaret buys tickets and a newspaper:

Picture
Google Street View July 2014
Picture
The man below left  is selling newspapers next to the Warwick Castle on Portobello Road. I don't know where the man (Aki Kaurismaki) below right is selling sunglasses:
Picture
Picture
When the real jewel thieves are caught they are brought to Tower Bridge Police Station, at 209 Tooley Street, S.E.1:
Picture
There are two other places I can't yet identify. I don't expect to find the location of this telephone box, nor that of the bridge from which Henri doesn't jump:
Picture
Picture

6/ topographical incongruities

Henri takes the Piccadilly Line to get from his work on Farringdon Street to his home on Portobello Road. This would not be the right train to take:
Picture
Henri buys a rope to hang himself from a shop on Stoke Newington High Street, N.16, when there is a perfectly good hardware shop on Westbourne Park Road, immediately opposite his flat:
Picture
Picture
Henri runs up Westbourne Park Road to escape the assassin in his flat. He is then at the footbridge near Whitechapel station, and then in front of the Albania Hotel, near King's Cross. This is not feasible on foot:
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture