Filming in London: budgets, permits, best streets
Permit routes, real day rates and the streets that actually work for indie crews.
London is expensive, complicated, and full of people who will walk through your shot. It is also, unambiguously, the most-filmed city in the UK — which means there is more institutional knowledge about how to shoot here than anywhere else, and more dedicated infrastructure to help you do it on a tight budget.
The permit system
London has 33 boroughs, and every one of them runs its own permit scheme. Film London acts as a single point of contact and will route you correctly, but the fee and turnaround land with the borough. Westminster charges £200–£450 per location per day at 2025 rates; Southwark and Hackney are cheaper, typically £100–£250. The City of London runs its own parallel scheme at similar rates.
Transport for London assets — bridges, tube stations, bus stops, depots — are handled separately through TfL Production Services. A minimum half-day on a TfL asset runs to about £750, and popular stations price considerably higher. Aldwych tube station is the most frequently hired closed station in the country, regularly appearing in both film and advertising; a full-day booking comes in around £5,000 before crew costs.
Apply at least 10 working days ahead for a standard street permit. Five weeks for anything involving road closure or TfL assets.
Streets that work
Berwick Street in Soho is the most-requested shooting street in the city for anything that needs to feel like 1970s–90s London — the market stalls, narrow carriageway and period shopfronts do most of the work. Avoid market days (Tuesday and Friday) when the set dresser will spend the morning arguing with stallholders.
Barbican Estate requires a City of London permit plus approval from the residential management company — two separate applications. Budget an extra two weeks. The payoff is a location that reads as genuinely foreign to UK audiences, often doubling for 1960s Continental Europe or near-future dystopia.
Bermondsey Spa Gardens is a regularly overlooked green space in SE1 that Southwark permits quickly and cheaply. Good for contemporary drama with a working-class London context. No grandeur, which is exactly what some scripts need.
Warehouses
Hackney Wick warehouses is the best concentration of bookable industrial space within the M25. Over a dozen units in the E9/E15 corridor rent independently at £250–£900 per day, with loading bays and parking that the West End can never offer. For music videos, commercials and short films needing a neutral post-industrial space, this is the default answer.
Clerkenwell Studios in EC1 occupies a Victorian warehouse conversion and rates at roughly £400–£600 for a half-day. Central enough that your cast won’t lose an hour to the commute.
Landmark rates
Battersea Power Station exterior access is negotiated through the BPSE development team. Expect £8,000–£15,000 per day for establishing shots. Interior spaces are managed separately and priced similarly. For anything other than a well-funded broadcast production, treat Battersea as a background element — shoot from the other side of the Thames on a handheld lens.
Camden Market is a private estate managed by Camden Market Holdings. Music videos and fashion shoots are the dominant uses; the rates are negotiated directly and typically land in the £500–£2,000 range depending on footfall disruption.
Westminster Abbey and Westminster Bridge are separately administered. The abbey requires a special licence from the Dean and Chapter and is rarely granted to commercial productions. The bridge is a TfL carriageway — full closure is approximately £12,000 per day with six weeks’ minimum notice.
Practical budget breakdown
For a one-day short film using a single council street permit, a hired warehouse space and no TfL assets, a realistic London shooting budget runs:
- Street permit: £200–£350
- Warehouse space: £400–£700
- Parking (London rates, 2 vehicles): £80–£120
- Production insurance (1 day): £120–£200
- Total location line: £800–£1,370
That leaves the rest of a typical micro-budget for camera package, crew, and catering. London is not cheap, but it is manageable with the right locations.