Where ‘Slow Horses’ Is Filmed, From Aldersgate Street to the Cotswolds

The Apple TV+ series is based on Mick Herron’s novels and plays out across a very real London, often using actual cafes, streets and businesses without hiding their names. That approach makes ‘Slow Horses’ unusual among spy dramas, and it explains why so many viewers ask where ‘Slow Horses’ is filmed.

The full answer reaches beyond a single neighbourhood. London was the main location in the first season, while later seasons ventured out to Oxford and the Cotswolds. The fourth season also travelled to France for its village scenes.

The ‘Slow Horses’ Slough House Filming Location on Aldersgate Street

The exterior of Slough House has stayed the same since the first series and sits on Aldersgate Street near Barbican station, with the office windows above the Vecchio Parioli restaurant. The building is 126 Aldersgate Street, at the corner with Carthusian Street. A dull address suits a show about spies who have been sidelined.

The surrounding streets do a lot of the work. Lamb’s team reaches the premises through a gated courtyard just beyond a phone box. The fire escape is filmed on nearby St John’s Street, in a service yard that blends in well with the rest of the area.

Other Barbican landmarks appear regularly as well. Roddy Ho’s walk to the office was filmed at the Golden Lane Estate, which is recognisable by its gold panels and brutalist architecture. Bunhill Fields, known as Blake’s Grave in the show, appears often in the first season as a quiet meeting place for the team.

The opening of one season shows how the production blends real and fictional settings. The shooting spree at the fictional Abbotsfield Estate was filmed in the Bush Fair estate in Harlow, outside London, even though Canary Wharf rises in the background to suggest a London setting.

‘Slow Horses’ Studio Sets Behind the MI5 Scenes

Much of what viewers see indoors was built rather than found. The production has used the sound stages at 3 Mills Studios in London. Interior sets for Slough House were filmed at the OMA X studios in Enfield.

Some of the show’s grander spaces are cleverly disguised. The subterranean headquarters is a real underground car park at Handa Walk, dressed with a glass wall and lighting rigs. The Glasshouse from the second season is not a single building, since its exterior shots stitch together the Leadenhall Building and 100 Bishopsgate.

MI5 itself draws on more than one address. Thames House, next to Lambeth Bridge in Millbank, doubles as the exterior of the agency’s headquarters. IMDb also lists a mews at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich as a location for exterior scenes of the MI5 headquarters. The hi-tech home of The Park is supposedly near London Zoo on the north side of Regent’s Park.

‘Slow Horses’ Cotswolds Village and Oxford Locations

The show’s rural scenes come from outside the capital. The village of Upshott is set in the Cotswolds, but filming actually took place in Stroud in Gloucestershire and in Castle Combe. Castle Combe stood in for Upshott most notably in the second season episode ‘From Upshott with Love’.

Oxford features in the fourth season. The season opens with River visiting his grandfather David Cartwright at a country cottage just outside Oxford. The crew shot there but built the upstairs on a set, because the real bathroom and hallway were too small.

Train travel gets similar treatment. Cambridge’s railway station was labelled as High Wycombe station on screen. In France, the commune of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte played the fictional town of Lavande, and the eerie Les Arbres was filmed at Domaine de Seraincourt.

‘Slow Horses’ Season 5 Filming Locations Across London

The latest season returns to the capital with confidence. It was filmed almost entirely in London, mixing real city locations with studio work at 3 Mills Studios and Enfield Studios. The story is based on Herron’s fifth novel, ‘London Rules’.

Several new settings appear. Battersea Park poses as London Zoo, and the platforms of Piccadilly Circus tube station also feature. When Roddy Ho takes his new girlfriend clubbing, the club is an amalgamation of Fabric and the old Subterania in Ladbroke Grove. Regent’s Park provides the backdrop for a tense episode two confrontation between Claude Whelan and a journalist attempting to blackmail him.

Londonist observed that the series seems to be more Londony than ever, and the production has clearly leaned into that. Speaking to Time Out, Pollington said of a climactic pub showdown in Granary Square, “We hired it out for a couple of nights.” Readers who have stood beneath the Vecchio Parioli windows on Aldersgate Street, or wandered Castle Combe looking for Upshott, are welcome to say in the comments which ‘Slow Horses’ location felt most like the real thing.