The Orange County Register explored it back in 2013, just before the opening of Saving Mr. Banks. They ended up in the neighborhood of Primrose Hill, at the north end of Regent's Park. Lacking immediate access to London, I decided to pursue another, more scientific, route.
Skyline at 17 Cherry Tree Lane
Among the publicity photos released for Mary Poppins Returns is this image of Cherry Tree Lane. Off in the distance are two architectural landmarks which should be familiar; Elizabeth Tower and the Victoria Tower, which are the bookends to the Palace of Westminster.
Elizabeth Tower - commonly referred to as Big Ben - is 315 feet tall and occupies the northwest corner. It was originally called the Clock Tower and houses the Great Clock of Westminster, which was built by John Edward Dent, based on designs by amateur horologist Edmund Beckett Denison.
At the other end of the palace, 1000 feet away, is the 323 foot tall Victoria Tower, the grandest feature of Charles Barry's design for the New Palace of Westminster. When completed in 1858, the Victoria Tower was the tallest secular building in the world.
Looking at the image more closely and overlaying a full image of the Elizabeth tower begins to offer some clues.
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| Magnified and Enhanced Detail |
Zooming in and enhancing the image reveals that our line of sight from Cherry Tree Lane to Westminster is to the South East, as Big Ben is on the left and Victoria Tower on the right. Further, we can clearly see both the North and West clock faces - although we are not exactly on the diagonal, as the apparent width of the both of the tower's north and west sides are unequal.
Now that we know the rough heading, the question which remains is the distance. For this we need to apply some geometry, while making some assumptions about the virtual lens the image might have been photographed thru.
The full image is clearly wide angle - probably a Cinema lens, which would give the image an angle of view of 40 degrees laterally and 16.7 degrees vertically.
Comparing the height of the tower with the height of the full image gives an angular measurement of 3.44717433 degrees, which would result in a distance of 5230 feet, placing us just short of a mile from the tower.
What was a mile northwest of Big Ben like in 1928? For that we need a map of London; The blue line starts at Big Ben and the blue arc is one mile out. (On an interesting side note, this map has as it's origin Charing Cross, which has a tie-in to Marry Poppins Returns in the lyrics of A Cover is Not the Book.
1928 Bacon's Geographical Map of London
Traveling North-West from Big Ben for a mile today places us near Berkeley Square Gardens, with Saint James Gardens being a bit further to the North-East. Both are near Piccadilly Circus.
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| Berkeley Square Gardens |
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| Saint James Square Gardens |
Primrose Hill is about 3 1/4 miles North-Northwest of Westminster - probably too far out to qualify given the apparent size of the Big Ben tower at that distance.
If anyone cares to send a picture of the lovely London skyline towards Big Ben from any of these locations, we'll be happy to post it here and compare notes.
For reference, here's an image taken from Primrose Hill today;
For reference, here's an image taken from Primrose Hill today;
Until then, keep looking up!
