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You are here: Home > News > The Perfect Location For A Blockbuster Movie

• The perfect location for a blockbuster movie

• Date:

  26th February 2008

• Contact:

  Sarah Egerton

• Organisation:

  The Civic Trust

Black Park Country Park, near Slough in Buckinghamshire, is one of the most famous of all Green Flag Award parks for its starring role in several James Bond scenes, and more recently as the Forbidden Forest in the Harry Potter movies.

The site has some fantastic settings for the movies and conveys a great deal of atmosphere, despite it being wedged between three of England’s busiest motorways - the M40, the M25 and the M4. The main reason for its success as a movie location is probably its proximity to the Pinewood Film Studios. In addition, being set in 530 acres of attractive woodland, grassland and heathland, the park has many features which attract the roving eye of film makers.

The park has become the backdrop of a number of famous cinematic scenes including:

• As The Forbidden Forest where Hagrid, the keeper of game and grounds at Hogwarts school, resides in his cottage in the Harry Potter movies Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets.
• Outdoor scenes for Oscar nominated film Atonement
• The scene in Octopussy where evil twins Mischka and Grischka chase and kill agent 009, who is dressed as a clown
• The Alpine chase in Goldfinger where Bond shows off in his Aston Martin.
• The Ugandan rebel warlord’s camp in Casino Royale
• Several Carry On films
• Black Beauty
• Wombling Free: the Movie
• Supergirl even flew over there in the 80s!

And finally, when Monty Python repackaged their sketches for the US market in And Now For Something Completely Different, the country park was where they filmed ‘I’m a Lumberjack and I’m OK’.

But don’t worry about having to be on your best behaviour when you visit Black Park Country Park – when the cameras are off duty, it’s the perfect place for a family picnic when the weather warms with miles of stony paths and an orienteering course to follow, plus a kids’ woodland play area.