The Bill - Broadcasting and Production - Filming Locations

Filming Locations

Throughout the series, there have been three filming locations for Sun Hill police station. From the first series, the police station consisted of a set of buildings in Artichoke Hill, Wapping, East London. However, these buildings were next to the News International plant and during the winter of 1985–86 there was much industrial action which resulted in some altercations between the strikers and what they thought were the real police but were actually actors working on The Bill. Working conditions got so dire, that the production team realised they needed to find another base to set Sun Hill police station. The second location was an old record distribution depot in Barlby Road, North Kensington in North West London . Filming began here in March 1987. In 1989, the owners of the Barlby Road site ordered The Bill out, due to their redevelopment plans for the area. After an extensive search, two sites were selected, the favourite being a disused hospital in Clapham. However, this fell through and the second option was chosen—an old wine distribution warehouse in Merton, South West London. The move was made in March 1990 and the move was disguised on screen by the 'ongoing' refurbishment of Sun Hill police station and then finally, the explosion of a terrorist car-bomb in the station car-park, which ended up killing PC Ken Melvin.

Filming for the series took place all over London, mainly in South London and particularly the London Borough of Merton, where the Sun Hill set was located. Locations used when the show was filmed on a housing estate included:

• Cambridge Estate, in Kingston, south-west London
• High Path Estate, in South Wimbledon, south-west London (approx. 10-minute walk from the Sun Hill set)
• Phipps Bridge, Mitcham
• Roundshaw Estate opposite Mellows Park in Wallington, London
• Sutton Estate, which includes Durand Close in Carshalton, where a housing block regularly used by The Bill for filming was demolished in November 2009.

Scenes were often filmed in east London, most notably the London Docklands, with other scenes filmed in Tooting, Greenwich or Croydon.