Croydon has spent years quietly standing in for other cities on screen. Now the town is putting its own name on the credits, with a walking tour devoted entirely to the films and shows shot on its streets.
The Crollywood tour, led by artist Richard Dedomenici, takes in film locations around Croydon as part of next month’s Croydonites arts festival. On the walk, Dedomenici carries an iPad so that at each stop, visitors can watch the original scene in the very spot where it was filmed.
It is a longer list than most people would guess. Scenes from Batman, The Da Vinci Code, Criminal, Black Mirror and Taylor Swift’s Opalite were all shot in the town, which was also the birthplace of Oscar-winning director David Lean.
Anna Arthur, who founded and directs the Croydonites festival, says the town’s screen career still surprises locals. “Many people aren’t aware just how much filming has gone on around here,” she said.
“We have lots of tower blocks and concrete and quite flexible locations which means Croydon has doubled as New York or Gotham City,” she added. “The local authority are very friendly towards film crews, and understand what it can do for a place.”
She describes Dedomenici’s tours as “great fun”. “He is an artist who makes film and performance himself, and he is brilliant,” she said. “People come back for Reduxes and the tours. He brings along an iPad to show people the original scene at the different film locations.”
Arthur also points to The Bill, Peep Show, Made in Dagenham and the recent hit film All of Us Strangers as productions that have used Croydon locations.
A remake with a Croydon postcode
Dedomenici is known for his Redux remakes, in which he restages scenes shot in Croydon with local participants. This year the turn has come to Heads of State, the 2025 comedy thriller in which Idris Elba plays the British Prime Minister.
He will premiere his remake of a scene from the film, shot at Old Apollo House, the 1970 office block, during the festival. The premiere takes place at the 68-seat David Lean Cinema in Croydon Clocktower, which Arthur notes is “the only cinema left in the centre of town”.
The town centre itself has been working to raise its profile, with local businesses recently backing the area’s business improvement district for a fifth term. Croydon’s built landscape has also been in the spotlight for other reasons, after a council estate in Coulsdon was crowned Britain’s best new building at the 2026 Stirling Prize.
Three weeks of new work
The Crollywood tour sits within a wider Croydonites programme. The festival runs from Wednesday, November 4, to Saturday, November 21, and includes a host of new work with roots in the borough.
Arthur founded the festival in 2015 to bring new theatre and arts events to the town, and now runs it with a team including Katie Hurley and producer Sophie Eustace. She has lived in Croydon since 2002.
“I have lived in Croydon since 2002 and I love the place,” she said. “It’s a big diverse borough, so colourful and vibrant. But I realised all this amazing theatre comes to London, and although we are only 15 minutes from Victoria none of it came here.”
“I decided to do it myself. Our main mission is to support local artists and develop audiences by bringing work that wouldn’t normally come here. We have built a really loyal audience over the years who are happy to turn up for something a bit different.”
Among this year’s highlights is Hannah Maxwell’s Turn Your F*cking Phones Off, which explores human connection in the information age and won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival. There will also be Vincent Gambini’s Close-Up magic show in The Clock Tower Cafe, and comedy including Ollie Horn’s The Most Toast, along with the return of the comedy line-up show Dicks Picks.
Other theatre highlights include Man or Bear, inspired by the viral question of whether you would rather be stuck in the woods with a man or a bear, and James Rowland’s Fringe hit Team Viking. Among the festival’s more unusual offerings is Rosa Garland’s Primal Bog, which uses slime wrestling and live tattooing for a journey into hidden desires.
Croydonites also offers small commissions for local artists to test new ideas through CroydonBites, with selected projects getting further development through CroydonBuilds before progressing to CroydonBeyond, which supports full-length work to reach audiences beyond the borough.
For film fans, though, the draw is simpler: a chance to stand where Batman stood, and see the town that played Gotham City finally playing itself.
