Choose a route, check its access notes and use the linked guides for the evidence at each filming stop. Both walks include refreshment options and a shorter version.
Practical notes before walking
Before leaving the safe house
- Check TfL or National Rail on the day.
- Carry water, comfortable shoes and a charged phone.
- Use public pavements and signed public spaces only.
- Never block doors, recreate action on platforms or disturb filming.
- Ask before photographing traders and avoid identifiable residents.
Slough House and the City
- Distance
- About 3.2 km
- Time
- About 40 min walking; allow 2 hours with stops
- Start
- Farringdon
- Finish
- Old Street
This walk brings the office’s two exterior settings into the same outing, then moves through the neighbourhood around the Barbican towards Bunhill Fields. It begins at Farringdon and ends near Old Street, with room for a coffee or pub break. The route uses pavements and visitor areas; it does not require entering the Aldersgate building or a St John Street service yard.
Allow about 40 minutes of walking for the approximately 3.2-kilometre route, or two hours if you stop to compare the settings, take photographs and have refreshments. The times between stops are planning estimates from the street route, excluding visits and crossing delays. Farringdon’s Cowcross Street entrance is the simplest starting point for the order below. If you arrive through the Elizabeth line’s Long Lane exit, walk towards the first stop rather than adding an unnecessary station interchange.
St John Street: the separate rear setting
Leave Farringdon towards Cowcross Street and follow it east to St John Street, allowing about four minutes. Pause on the public street near Smithfield and read the rear-exterior guide. Film London confirms the separate setting, but no verified public entrance to the actual service yard is supplied. Look at the street’s working character and the contrast with the office frontage you will see next.
126 Aldersgate Street: the office’s public face
Walk east through the Charterhouse Street and Charterhouse Square area, then along Carthusian Street to Aldersgate Street; allow about nine minutes from the first stop. Find number 126 using the frontage guide. The best comparison comes from standing back on the pavement rather than pressing against the doorway. Look at the upper façade, street width and neighbouring premises that establishing shots place around the fictional office.
Golden Lane Estate from Fann Street
Continue north on Aldersgate Street and turn east into Fann Street, reaching the Golden Lane area in roughly five minutes. The Golden Lane guide explains Londonist’s Series 5 attribution. View the buildings from the surrounding public streets: the estate is residential, and a location walk does not require wandering through courts or photographing somebody’s windows. This stop adds a later-series setting without a lengthy detour.
Barbican Centre: a cultural and refreshment pause
Follow Fann Street to Golden Lane, turn south towards Beech Street and use the Silk Street approach to the Barbican Centre; allow approximately eight minutes. This is a visitor and coffee stop on this route, without an unverified filming-scene claim. Use the Centre’s signed public areas and official access guide rather than assuming every highwalk is a convenient through-route. The change from streets to a cultural venue gives the outing a useful pause before its final location.
Bunhill Fields: a quieter screen setting
Leave by Silk Street, follow Chiswell Street east and turn into Bunhill Row for the burial ground, allowing about ten minutes. The Bunhill Fields guide identifies the verified filming evidence and public access arrangements. Follow open paths and the posted gate information. The setting is worth seeing at an unhurried pace, with the street noise receding behind the boundary. From the northern side, allow another five minutes towards Old Street station.
Refreshments and the best time to start
The Sutton Arms at 6 Carthusian Street is convenient between the rear setting and the frontage. Urban Baristas at the Barbican Cinema Café on Beech Street offers another break near the middle of the route. Check the venues’ current opening information before fixing your lunch around them. A late-morning start leaves daylight for photographs and time to reach Bunhill Fields while its gates are open. This route is less dependent on market trading than a Leather Lane visit.
Accessibility and shorter versions
Most of the walking is on ordinary pavements, with road crossings, kerbs and occasional uneven paving. The Barbican has multiple levels, so use its signed accessible approach through Silk Street and its published access information. Farringdon’s Elizabeth line access is useful for arrival; Old Street should not be assumed to provide a step-free platform finish. If that finish is unsuitable, return towards an Elizabeth line entrance or plan an accessible bus connection. You can also shorten the outing after Aldersgate Street and keep Bunhill Fields for another day.
King’s Cross to the canal
- Distance
- About 4.5 km
- Time
- About 65 min walking; allow 2½ hours with stops
- Start
- King’s Cross St Pancras
- Finish
- Camden Town
Start with the railway architecture of St Pancras, continue to the public spaces around Granary Square, then follow Regent’s Canal towards Camden and the filmed bench area beside Cumberland Basin. The route changes character as it goes: broad station approaches give way to a busy square, then a narrower waterside path. It is a longer walk than the City circuit and works best in dry daylight.
The full outing is approximately 4.5 kilometres, with about 65 minutes of walking and around two and a half hours once you include viewing stops and refreshments. Distances and leg times are rounded planning estimates, not a timed trial. A shorter station-and-square circuit is described below for visitors who prefer to avoid the towpath. Cumberland Basin is beyond Camden; it is not the stretch of canal immediately beside Granary Square.
St Pancras International approaches
Leave King’s Cross St Pancras Underground for the street-level station approaches and allow about two minutes to reach St Pancras. Use the St Pancras guide to identify the verified screen connection. The exterior and public station areas offer plenty to see without needing access to international departures or a railway platform. Keep out of passenger flows, especially where luggage, doors and crossing routes meet.
Granary Square and the Lighterman frontage
Walk north along Pancras Road, then use the Goods Way and King’s Boulevard approach across the canal to Granary Square; allow roughly nine minutes. The Granary Square guide covers the Series 4 waterfront setting and the Lighterman. Look at the relationship between the square, canal edge and building rather than trying to recreate the characters’ movements. This is the natural place for a longer pause before committing to the westward canal walk.
Regent’s Canal towards Camden Lock
Join the signed public canal route west towards Gasholder Park and Camden. Use the estate’s ramp access rather than the steps if needed, and allow about twenty minutes to the Camden Lock area. Pass through the bridge sequence and keep the canal as your guide; the published Canal & River Trust maps help with orientation. This stretch is the walking connection between filming stops. Narrow sections are shared with cyclists, so stop for photographs where other people can pass.
Cumberland Basin and the meeting-place setting
Continue west beyond Camden Lock along the public towpath, allowing approximately sixteen minutes through the road and railway bridges to the bend at Cumberland Basin. Open the Cumberland Basin guide and Apple’s marked bench point before choosing a place to stop. Look for the relationship between the water, bridge and path described by the official guide. Remain on the public side of the canal, with no access to boat decks or moorings required.
Return to Camden Town station
Use the public canal access towards Prince Albert Road, then follow the pavement route east via Parkway to Camden Town, allowing about eighteen minutes. This final leg brings you back to ordinary streets rather than extending the towpath farther into Regent’s Park. Camden Town is a Northern line station, so check your train’s destination and branch before boarding. For a step-free onward journey, plan an appropriate bus or alternative station connection instead of assuming the stairs can be avoided.
Coffee, lunch and timing
Caravan at 1 Granary Square is a convenient coffee or meal stop before the canal section. The Lighterman provides a pub option at the same location cluster, making it possible to finish the shorter walk with refreshments. Start in the morning or early afternoon so the longer route remains a daylight outing. Rain changes the character of the towpath: puddles and slick paving make an apparently modest distance more tiring, and a pause under a bridge can obstruct a narrow route.
Access notes and the shorter circuit
King’s Cross offers step-free Underground routes, subject to the lifts serving your arrival line. The estate publishes ramp and lift connections to its canal-side public spaces. Beyond that area, do not treat the entire towpath as a guaranteed step-free route: bridge approaches, narrow surfaces and the final station stairs require separate consideration. For the shorter circuit, visit St Pancras and Granary Square, explore the upper public promenade and return along King’s Boulevard to the transport hub. That keeps the outing near broad public spaces and leaves Cumberland Basin for a separately planned visit.