Director: David Lynch
Release Date: September 1980
Stuart Craig, the production designer, later recalled the difficulties of recreating a Dickensian London while ‘finding [part of] what we wanted in a tiny area behind Sothwark Cathedral. There was almost only one position in which you could place the camera. Ten yards in the wrong direction and you’d have modern windows. What we had wasn’t much – but it worked just as well as if we’d had unlimited space.’ He found that the real London Hospital, in Whitechapel Road, had ‘many modern annexes’ so ‘there was no question of filming on the spot’ with Craig adding that ‘we found the Eastern Hospital in Hackney which has parts which have been disused for years and which were splendid – it was a gift, a treasure to find.’ The Eastern Hospital was used for interiors while the exteriors, not mentioned by Craig, were filmed at the Royal Mint. Craig continues that there were no suitable offices in the Eastern Hospital ‘and then at the Liberal Club in London we found an interior to use as his [John Gielgud’s] office.’ The Elephant Man: the book of the film, by Joy Kuhn, 1980.
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Anthony Hopkins exiting the Royal Mint which was used for the London Hospital exteriors.
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Hopkins continues across the forecourt of the Royal Mint.
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Unidentified. Looks very real but it seems impossible to pin down exactly where Hopkins is walking, while it appears to be a street close to Southwark Cathedral.
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Unidentified. The camera pans to the right.
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Unidentified. Hopkins turns the corner into a second street.
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Hopkins on the left in this view east along Wapping High Street.
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John Hurt approacing his coach in the grounds of the Royal Mint.
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Hopkins with John Gielgud in his London Hospital office at the National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, Westminster.
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The Gladstone Library at the National Liberal Club standing in for the boardroom at the London Hospital.
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Hurt descending the stairs from the elevated walkway to the platform level at Liverpool Street Station. This stairway led down to the area near Platform 6.
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Unidentified. Hurt in what appears to be a real theatre.