The Joker stairs – and eight other movie locations that are big tourist attractions
Residents of the Bronx are furious that a once anonymous flight of stairs between Shakespeare Avenue and Anderson Avenue has become the hottest tourist attraction in the world. Why? Because they are the stairs that Joaquin Phoenix prances around on in Joker.
Locals are posting videos of cosplay tourists cluttering up the neighbourhood and are openly tweeting: ‘PLEASE DO NOT COME HERE’. But it’s too late. The reality is that the staircase has already joined the ranks of other bizarre movie tourist spots.
Hugh Grant’s blue door, London
The film Notting Hill is 20 years old, but tourists still flock to 280 Westbourne Park Road to catch a glimpse of Grant’s iconic door. More fool them; the real door was sold for charity several years ago.
Humanity’s downfall, Los Angeles Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was the film in which the apes finally destroyed mankind. And they did it in Century City, an oppressive concrete mall built in Los Angeles in 1964.
King’s Cross station, London
In the Harry Potter films, King’s Cross is the magical starting point on the journey to Hogwarts. In real life, King’s Cross is where I have to dodge hundreds of people pretending to run into a wall when I’m trying to get to work.
UN headquarters, Milton Keynes Superman IV: The Quest for Peace had a much smaller budget than its predecessors. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the scene outside the UN building, because it was actually shot by Milton Keynes railway station. Popeye village, Malta
Remember Robert Altman’s 1980 live-action Popeye remake? No, of course you don’t. Nobody does. However, the set built in Malta for the film still stands, and has become one of the island’s major tourist attractions. Want to get married in the place where Robin Williams almost ruined his chance of film stardom? Sure you do.
The orgasm diner, New York Probably not a great idea to have your dinner at Katz’s Delicatessen in New York. Sure, tourist guide Zagat claims that its food is second to none, but you’ll have to endure hundreds and hundreds of women faking orgasms there, copying Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally.
Canary Wharf tube station, London When the trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was released in 2016, Londoners were startled to discover that Canary Wharf tube station had been transformed into a home for the most evil entities in the universe. Which, in retrospect, makes quite a lot of sense.
Avengers HQ, Norwich
The Grade II-listed Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts was opened in 1978 and contains several thousand works spanning more than 5,000 years of human endeavour. That is not why people go there, though. They go there because it is where the Avengers live, which is far more important.