Few TV series use locations as cleverly as Apple TV’s iconic and long-running spy drama Slow Horses, and one of these locations is Sicilian Avenue.
Few TV series use locations as cleverly as Apple TV’s iconic and long-running spy drama Slow Horses, which turns the London of Slough House and ‘the Park’ into as memorable a spy backdrop as the chilly Berlin of many a Sixties and Seventies espionage classic. One of these locations, Sicilian Avenue, next to Bloomsbury Square, offers a perfect insight into the series’ love of mixing gritty action with glamorous and historic London locations.
Location manager Ian Pollington said at the launch of Season 4, “From my perspective, ideally we’d shoot everything on location! There is a history and character to the architecture and streets of London that is totally unique and I think you really feel that when watching the show.”
Previously used in films such as Gal Gadot’s 2017 Wonder Woman and romantic period drama The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the Avenue is something of a historical oddity, buried in London’s Bloomsbury. Its unique baroque, Italian-influenced architectural style makes it perfect for the blend of historical and hi-tech that characterises Slow Horses, which always ‘feels seven or eight years behind the present,’ according to Pollington
First built in 1910, and currently undergoing major refurbishment, Sicilian Avenue was a pioneering pedestrianised avenue dressed in Italian marble and white terracotta, and offers a perfect backdrop. Situated 90 seconds from Holborn station, in the central-London landscape that plays host to everything from kidnappings to terror attacks in the five-series spy epic, the street has been undergoing major refurbishment in recent years, and has colonnades, turrets and huge bay windows which add a splash of old-world glamour rooted in London history.
With the street set to reopen with 12 commercial units, it’s set to once again elevate the landscape of Bloomsbury, and Slow Horses in turn is about to offer even more of a starring role for the London borough of Camden (where Sicilian Avenue is sited). Areas including Bloomsbury and Camden High Street were used in filming, with the new series airing through September and October 2025.
The new series also sees a return to iconic locations including Slough House, from where the Slow Horses hail, which is actually to be found on Aldersgate, Barbican, and Regent’s Park, where MI5’s headquarters is located, and other action-sequence locations such as Saint Pancras Stations. In Season 5, Battersea Park Zoo is a hero location (standing in for London Zoo), and with author Mick Herron having written eight books featuring the inept spies of Slough House, the mayhem is set to continue unfolding across the London A-Z.