Cornwall and London · shot in 2012 · Vault Beach, below
Somewhere dark, fists clenched, a moment you have lived. Hold your fists to go back. Clench
The family method
Tim’s father tells him the family secret: the men of the family can go back to moments of their own lives. Find somewhere dark, a cupboard will do, clench your fists and think of the moment. Hold the fists below and go back through Tim’s life as the film tells it. Let go, and you are standing in the real place.
Somewhere dark or enclosed, fists clenched, a moment already lived; travel only within your own life, never into the future.
Thinking Faith: About Time, by John-Paul Morrison (13 September 2013)Doux Reviews: About Time, by Josie Kafka (May 2016)Collider: the time-travel rules of About Time, by Michael John Petty (14 November 2024)
The men of the family can travel back; changing events before a child’s birth may change which child is born.
The order of the scenes, and where each was filmed.
Wikipedia: About Time (2013 film)Reelstreets: About TimeOffscreen Tourist (Almost Ginger): About Time filming locations (updated 5 August 2023)Find That Location: About Time
Somewhere dark, fists clenched, a moment you have lived. Hold your fists to go back.
The birth line sits between the storm and the crash. Go back past it and see what the film says.
Nothing landed yet. You can only ever go back as far as your own life goes: here, to Tim’s childhood in Cornwall.
Dans le Noir · Newburgh Street, Soho
Tim and Mary meet in a restaurant where you eat in total darkness. The only part of it you can visit is the lane outside.
Pitch black. Two strangers sit at one table; neither can see the other.
Newburgh Street, Soho, London W1
Tim and Mary meet in the dark at Dans le Noir, a restaurant where diners eat in total darkness, and see each other for the first time outside.
The outside of the restaurant is Newburgh Street, seen from Ganton Street; the restaurant front was set dressing.
A pedestrian lane of small shops behind Carnaby Street.
The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1
Harry’s play opens at the Old Vic, and Tim joins him for the first night.
The theatre opened in 1818 as the Royal Coburg. It is Grade II* listed and seats about 1,000.
A working theatre. Book a seat for whatever is on.
Harry’s play opens at the Old Vic, and Tim is there for the first night.
St Austell Bay · Gorran Haven
The Lakes live in a white house above the sea. The house is Porthpean, near St Austell; the beach where Tim and his father talk is Vault Beach, a few miles down the coast.
Above Porthpean beach, near St Austell, Cornwall
Porthpean House played the Lake family home.
After an art team redressed the house, the crew filmed there for three weeks in the summer of 2012.
Its listing describes a large mid-19th-century stucco house with semicircular end bays; the centre is probably late 18th century. It has been listed Grade II since 11 March 1974.
The house is let as a whole and sleeps up to 21.
A private holiday house: you can rent all of it, or see it from Porthpean beach below. The pin is the beach.
Porthpean · Sleeps up to 21
The Lake family home itself, let as a whole house above Porthpean beach near St Austell. It sleeps up to 21; book by phone or email through the house’s own site.
See the house
South of Gorran Haven, Cornwall
The father-and-son talks on the beach were filmed here, several miles west of Porthpean House.
It is the Lake family’s local beach in the film.
Vault, or Bow, Beach lies south of Gorran Haven, which is about two miles south of Mevagissey.
Walk down from the coast path south of Gorran Haven. Part of the beach is used by naturists.
The Roseland · a wedding
Tim and Mary marry in a little church in the Fal valley, and a storm hits the party. The church is St Michael Penkivel; the storm was shot on the harbour path above Portloe.
St Michael Penkevil, near Truro, Cornwall
Tim and Mary’s wedding was filmed inside this church.
The church was consecrated in 1261 and became a collegiate church in 1319. George Street restored it in the 19th century, and it reopened on Christmas Eve 1865.
It stands close to the Tregothnan estate, in the Fal valley about three miles south-east of Truro.
A parish church in a wooded valley by the Tregothnan estate, about three miles south-east of Truro.
Portloe, Roseland peninsula, Cornwall
The storm at the wedding was filmed on the harbour path above Portloe, and the couple brave the rain outside the village church.
Portloe counts About Time among the productions filmed in the area.
Visit Cornwall says the film was shot mainly on the Roseland peninsula, where Portloe stands.
Two full-time boats still fish for crab and lobster from the harbour.
A fishing village on the South West Coast Path. Park above the village and walk down; the lanes are narrow.
Portloe · 22 bedrooms
An inn at the water’s edge in Portloe, with 22 bedrooms, the Slipway Restaurant and three cottages. The wedding storm was filmed on the path above it.
See the roomsWest and central London
Richard Curtis’s office was in Notting Hill, and the brief to the location manager, Steve Mortimore, was to keep London as close to it as he could. Here is how close, measured from the Notting Hill corner where Kit Kat crashes.
Colville Road at Lonsdale Road, Notting Hill, London W11
Kit Kat’s car crash was filmed at this corner, looking west towards Portobello Road.
Portobello Road runs almost the whole length of Notting Hill. Its market opens fully on Saturdays.
An ordinary residential crossroads a few streets east of Portobello Road. The photograph shows Portobello Road.
Golborne Road, North Kensington, London W10
Tim walks Mary home to her flat on Golborne Road, behind a bright pink door.
A private flat. It is not numbered or pinned here; the photograph shows the street, where there is a market every day but Sunday.
Brondesbury Road, Kilburn and Queen’s Park, London NW6
Tim lodges with the playwright Harry in a house on Brondesbury Road, NW6.
A private home. It is not numbered or pinned here, and the photograph shows the street.
Praed Street, London W2
Tim arrives in London from Cornwall at Paddington.
A working main-line terminus, open all day. Trains from Cornwall come in here.
Randolph Avenue at Elgin Avenue, London W9
The montage of Tim and Mary going in and out of the station, over and over, was filmed here.
A Bakerloo line station in zone 2, open with the Underground. Look up at the mosaic roundels in the ticket hall.
Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, London NW8
Tim drags his cases past Abbey Road Studios.
A busy road: cross it, but watch the traffic. The studios are a working building and not open to visitors.
Newburgh Street, Soho, London W1
Tim and Mary meet in the dark at Dans le Noir, a restaurant where diners eat in total darkness, and see each other for the first time outside.
A pedestrian lane of small shops behind Carnaby Street.
New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, London WC2
New Square is where Tim trains as a lawyer.
A working Inn of Court, home to barristers’ chambers. Walk through quietly.
Strand, London WC2A 2LL
The courtroom where Tim makes his name as a lawyer is inside the Royal Courts of Justice.
Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm. Everyone is searched at the door. Most hearings have a public gallery.
Distances are straight lines between map points. Mary’s flat and Harry’s house are private homes: named by street, not measured, not pinned.
Curtis’s office in Notting Hill and the brief to stay close to it.
Steve Mortimore Locations: About Time filming locations (23 April 2013)
Abbey Road · Earls Court · summer 2012
The birth of Tim’s first child was to start on Abbey Road. It was set up twice, filmed, and left out of the film.
Steve Mortimore’s account: Mary’s waters break in a car while Tim tries to get across the Beatles’ zebra crossing. Westminster Council, the police and the transport authorities all had to agree. The first day was lost to rain; six weeks later the scene was set up again, with traffic held five ways over two days. It was cut.
In Earls Court the crew had permission for a night shoot on a residential street on condition of absolute quiet after 11pm. At about 3am Mortimore asked Richard Curtis to speak more quietly. The London scenes were shot around the 2012 Olympics, when central London was unusually quiet.
The Abbey Road scene, the rain, six weeks, five-way traffic management, two dates, cut; the Earls Court night shoot; the Olympics.
Steve Mortimore Locations: About Time filming locations (23 April 2013)
Three weeks at Porthpean House in summer 2012.
Budget $12 million.
The people
Domhnall Gleeson played Tim Lake, Rachel McAdams played Mary and Bill Nighy played his father. Lydia Wilson was Kit Kat, Tom Hollander was Harry and Margot Robbie was Charlotte; Richard Griffiths appears, uncredited, in his last film. Richard Curtis wrote and directed it, his third film as director. No free photographs of Gleeson from 2012 or 2013, or of Curtis from those years, have turned up, so they are shown in 2011 and 2016.
It opened in Britain on 4 September 2013 and in the United States in November, and took about $87 million worldwide on a $12 million budget.
Cast and roles; Curtis’s third film as director; release dates; budget; worldwide gross ($87.1 million in the text, $88.5 million in the infobox).
Strand, London WC2
The film had its premiere here on 8 August 2013, as part of Film4 Summer Screen.
The courtyard is free to walk into from the Strand or the river side.
13 places you can visit, in south Cornwall and London. Porthpean House is a private let: the pin is the beach below it. Mary’s flat and Harry’s house are private homes and are not on the map.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A private holiday house: you can rent all of it, or see it from Porthpean beach below. The pin is the beach.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Walk down from the coast path south of Gorran Haven. Part of the beach is used by naturists.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A parish church in a wooded valley by the Tregothnan estate, about three miles south-east of Truro.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A fishing village on the South West Coast Path. Park above the village and walk down; the lanes are narrow.
Above Porthpean beach, near St Austell, Cornwall
Porthpean House played the Lake family home.
A private holiday house: you can rent all of it, or see it from Porthpean beach below. The pin is the beach.
South of Gorran Haven, Cornwall
The father-and-son talks on the beach were filmed here, several miles west of Porthpean House.
Walk down from the coast path south of Gorran Haven. Part of the beach is used by naturists.
St Michael Penkevil, near Truro, Cornwall
Tim and Mary’s wedding was filmed inside this church.
A parish church in a wooded valley by the Tregothnan estate, about three miles south-east of Truro.
Portloe, Roseland peninsula, Cornwall
The storm at the wedding was filmed on the harbour path above Portloe, and the couple brave the rain outside the village church.
A fishing village on the South West Coast Path. Park above the village and walk down; the lanes are narrow.
Stay
Rent the Lakes’ house above Porthpean beach, or take a room at the inn by the harbour where the storm was shot.
Porthpean · Sleeps up to 21
The Lake family home itself, let as a whole house above Porthpean beach near St Austell. It sleeps up to 21; book by phone or email through the house’s own site.
See the housePortloe · 22 bedrooms
An inn at the water’s edge in Portloe, with 22 bedrooms, the Slipway Restaurant and three cottages. The wedding storm was filmed on the path above it.
See the roomsGo there
Film-location tours in London and tours along the Cornish coast, from the marketplace.
London
Live marketplace results for film and TV location tours in London. None is about this film.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursCornwall
Live marketplace results for tours around Cornwall’s south coast. None is about this film.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
The theatre where Harry’s play opens.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Decca’s 2013 soundtrack album.
Various Artists · CD, 2013
Decca’s soundtrack album, with Nick Laird-Clowes’s score and songs from the film.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
15 of 15 places · 16 of 16 Moments
Above Porthpean beach, near St Austell, Cornwall
Porthpean House plays the Lake family home; the crew spends three weeks there in the summer of 2012.
South of Gorran Haven, Cornwall
Tim and his father talk on the beach.
St Michael Penkevil, near Truro, Cornwall
Tim and Mary marry in St Michael Penkivel church.
Portloe, Roseland peninsula, Cornwall
A storm hits the wedding; it is filmed on the harbour path above Portloe.
Praed Street, London W2
Tim arrives from Cornwall at Paddington.
Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, London NW8
Tim drags his cases past Abbey Road Studios.
Mary’s waters break in a car while Tim tries to cross the zebra crossing. Filmed six weeks after a rained-off first day, then cut.
Brondesbury Road, Kilburn and Queen’s Park, London NW6
Tim lodges with Harry on Brondesbury Road.
New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, London WC2
Tim trains as a lawyer in New Square.
Newburgh Street, Soho, London W1
Tim and Mary meet in a pitch-dark restaurant and see each other for the first time outside, on Newburgh Street.
The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1
Harry’s play opens at the Old Vic.
Golborne Road, North Kensington, London W10
Tim walks Mary home to Golborne Road.
Randolph Avenue at Elgin Avenue, London W9
Tim and Mary go in and out of Maida Vale station, again and again.
Colville Road at Lonsdale Road, Notting Hill, London W11
Kit Kat’s car crash is filmed at Colville Road and Lonsdale Road.
Strand, London WC2A 2LL
Tim makes his name in a courtroom inside the Royal Courts of Justice.
Strand, London WC2
The film has its premiere at Somerset House.
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