Easington Colliery · Dawdon · London · the strike of 1984–85
Billy is on the first back-yard wall. Press leap.
The terraced backs · Easington Colliery to the Tees
Yard 1: Angus Street. Hold the button to bend, then let go to leap.
Angus Street, Easington Colliery, County Durham
Mrs Wilkinson drops Billy off at the top of Angus Street after his dance lesson.
Lived-in terraces. Walk the street from Seaside Lane and keep to the pavement; these are people’s homes.
March 1984 to March 1985
The strike begins on 6 March 1984 and ends on 3 March 1985, after a vote of the National Union of Mineworkers to go back.
The main pits in Durham were on the coast at Easington and Seaham, where there was mass picketing.
Police in riot gear stay at the edge of the frame. Daldry says the film sees the strike from a child’s point of view, not through its politics.
On 7 March 1985, days after the return to work, an Easington miner is filmed talking about the strike, the police in the village and the colliery management; the camera then looks at the pit, the coast and the terraced streets.
Lee Hall wrote the script; he grew up in Newcastle during the strike.
Tony is chased and arrested by police in Anthony Street during the dispute.
The colliery memorial garden · Easington Colliery
1899: Sinking.
1899–1910
Easington Colliery opens in 1899; it produces no coal until 1910.
Crawlaw Avenue and Office Street, beside the B1238, Easington Colliery
Open to all, on the road down to the nature reserve car park.
Easington Colliery Cemetery, Crawlaw Road, Easington Colliery
In the cemetery on Crawlaw Road. A place of graves; visit quietly.
Easington Local Nature Reserve, off Seaside Lane, Easington Colliery
Park at the Seaside Lane car park and follow the heritage trail up to the cage. The coast path starts here; wear boots.
Easington Colliery · Free · about 4 miles, 2 hours
A free circular walk of about 4 miles from the Seaside Lane car park: past the pit cage, along the coastal footpath and up to Beacon Hill, the highest point on the Durham coast. Allow about two hours and wear boots.
Get the walkWhere was it really?
Four scenes, as the story tells them.
In the story
Everington, County Durham
In the story
Everington colliery
In the story
London
In the story
A London stage
The production saw about 2,000 children over several months. Jamie Bell had danced since he was six.
Stuart Wells, who plays Michael, had never acted before; he was found at a skate park in Whitley Bay.
Near Tisbury, Wiltshire · Open daily, 10am–5pm · last entry 4.30pm
The fourteenth-century ruin on the Wardour estate, open to visitors. New Wardour Castle, the film’s ballet school, is a private home on the same estate.
Plan a visitRichmond Park and Covent Garden
Queen’s Ride, Richmond Park, London
The real Royal Ballet School is in Richmond Park, at White Lodge, where it has been since 1955.
A working boarding school, not open to the public. See the house from the paths of Richmond Park.
Royal Ballet School, 46 Floral Street, Covent Garden
In Covent Garden the school’s dancers cross Floral Street by a twisting bridge into the Royal Opera House.
Stand in Floral Street and look up. The bridge is for the school’s dancers only.
Covent Garden, London · Dates from 9 October to 21 December 2026
A guided tour of parts of the Opera House normally closed to the public, among them the rehearsal studios, costume departments and production workshops. The Royal Ballet School’s bridge crosses Floral Street outside.
See tour datesThe Haymarket, Victoria and Sunderland
Grown up, Billy dances the lead swan in Matthew Bourne’s 1998 Swan Lake while his dad and brother watch, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
The grown-up Billy is danced by Adam Cooper, who was dancing in a Swan Lake with male swans while the film was being shot.
A working West End theatre. Book a show to go inside.
13 places you can visit. Billy’s own street has gone; the wall at the bottom is still there. New Wardour Castle is a private home and is not on the map; White Lodge is a working school, seen from the park.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Lived-in terraces. Walk the street from Seaside Lane and keep to the pavement; these are people’s homes.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Ashton Street runs downhill towards the sea. Billy’s own street has gone; the wall at the bottom is the part you can still see.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Terraced houses with washing lines across the greens. Look from the pavement.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A residential street in Dawdon, on the south side of Seaham. Walk on east to the clifftop for the sea.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Park at the Seaside Lane car park and follow the heritage trail up to the cage. The coast path starts here; wear boots.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open to all, on the road down to the nature reserve car park.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. In the cemetery on Crawlaw Road. A place of graves; visit quietly.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Closed to crossings. See it from Ferry Road on the Middlesbrough bank or from the Port Clarence side.
Angus Street, Easington Colliery, County Durham
The top of Angus Street is where Mrs Wilkinson drops Billy off after his dance lesson.
Lived-in terraces. Walk the street from Seaside Lane and keep to the pavement; these are people’s homes.
Ashton Street, Easington Colliery, County Durham
Billy’s home, “5 Alnwick Street” in the story, was on Andrew Street. The street has been demolished and is now open grass.
Ashton Street runs downhill towards the sea. Billy’s own street has gone; the wall at the bottom is the part you can still see.
Anthony Street, Easington Colliery, County Durham
Anthony Street is where Billy’s brother Tony is chased and arrested by police during the miners’ dispute.
Terraced houses with washing lines across the greens. Look from the pavement.
Embleton Street, Dawdon, Seaham, County Durham
Billy dances down Embleton Street, in Dawdon, the street with the sea view.
A residential street in Dawdon, on the south side of Seaham. Walk on east to the clifftop for the sea.
Easington Local Nature Reserve, off Seaside Lane, Easington Colliery
Easington Colliery opened in 1899, did not produce coal until 1910, and closed in 1993.
Park at the Seaside Lane car park and follow the heritage trail up to the cage. The coast path starts here; wear boots.
Crawlaw Avenue and Office Street, beside the B1238, Easington Colliery
The garden commemorates those who worked at the colliery from 1899 to 1993.
Open to all, on the road down to the nature reserve car park.
Easington Colliery Cemetery, Crawlaw Road, Easington Colliery
On 29 May 1951 an explosion at the colliery killed 83 men, two of them rescue workers.
In the cemetery on Crawlaw Road. A place of graves; visit quietly.
Ferry Road, Middlesbrough
Billy and Mrs Wilkinson cross the Tees Transporter Bridge.
Closed to crossings. See it from Ferry Road on the Middlesbrough bank or from the Port Clarence side.
Stay
Seaham Hall looks over the Durham coast, a short drive from Dawdon and Easington Colliery.
Seaham, County Durham · Offers from £134 midweek · rates on booking
A Georgian country house and spa on the clifftop at Seaham, on Lord Byron’s Walk. Dawdon and Embleton Street are on the south side of the town; Easington Colliery is a short drive down the coast.
Check roomsGo there
A free coast walk from the pit cage, a tour behind the scenes at the Royal Opera House, the ruin on the Wardour estate, and theatre tours in London.
Easington Colliery · Free · about 4 miles, 2 hours
A free circular walk of about 4 miles from the Seaside Lane car park: past the pit cage, along the coastal footpath and up to Beacon Hill, the highest point on the Durham coast. Allow about two hours and wear boots.
Get the walkCovent Garden, London · Dates from 9 October to 21 December 2026
A guided tour of parts of the Opera House normally closed to the public, among them the rehearsal studios, costume departments and production workshops. The Royal Ballet School’s bridge crosses Floral Street outside.
See tour datesNear Tisbury, Wiltshire · Open daily, 10am–5pm · last entry 4.30pm
The fourteenth-century ruin on the Wardour estate, open to visitors. New Wardour Castle, the film’s ballet school, is a private home on the same estate.
Plan a visitLondon
Live marketplace results for theatre and West End walking tours in London. None is a Billy Elliot tour as such: check each itinerary.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
The new tour opens at Sunderland Empire in November, then plays the Adelphi in London in 2027.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Lee Hall’s screenplay, Melvin Burgess’s novel of it, the film soundtrack and the original London cast recording.
Lee Hall
Lee Hall’s screenplay, published by Faber and Faber in 2000.
Find the bookMelvin Burgess
The novel Melvin Burgess wrote from Lee Hall’s screenplay (Chicken House, 2001).
Find the bookVarious artists · CD, Interscope Records, 2000
The film soundtrack as released in the US on 31 October 2000.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyElton John and the original London cast · 2 CDs, Decca Broadway, 2006
The 2005 Victoria Palace cast on two discs.
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.
Land it.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
14 of 14 places · 33 of 33 Moments
Angus Street, Easington Colliery, County Durham
Stephen Daldry directs Lee Hall’s script, with Julie Walters, Gary Lewis and Jamie Draven. It runs 110 minutes.
The story is set in a north-east colliery village during the 1984 miners’ strike.
Mrs Wilkinson drops Billy off at the top of Angus Street after his dance lesson.
On 7 March 1985, days after the return to work, an Easington miner is filmed talking about the strike, the police in the village and the colliery management; the camera then looks at the pit, the coast and the terraced streets.
Lee Hall wrote the script; he grew up in Newcastle during the strike.
Ashton Street, Easington Colliery, County Durham
Billy’s home is Andrew Street, since demolished; the wall at the bottom of his street is Ashton Street.
Anthony Street, Easington Colliery, County Durham
Tony is chased and arrested by police in Anthony Street during the dispute.
Police in riot gear stay at the edge of the frame. Daldry says the film sees the strike from a child’s point of view, not through its politics.
Embleton Street, Dawdon, Seaham, County Durham
Billy dances down Embleton Street in Dawdon, the street with the sea view.
He dances in a cramped backyard and then through empty streets, bouncing off outhouses and pounding the tarmac.
Easington Local Nature Reserve, off Seaside Lane, Easington Colliery
The mining scenes were shot at Ellington and Lynemouth in Northumberland, because Easington’s own pit had closed in 1993.
Easington Colliery opens in 1899; it produces no coal until 1910.
The colliery closes in 1993.
The pit cage on the old site holds a time capsule of local people’s memories of the coal industry.
The strike begins on 6 March 1984 and ends on 3 March 1985, after a vote of the National Union of Mineworkers to go back.
The main pits in Durham were on the coast at Easington and Seaham, where there was mass picketing.
Crawlaw Avenue and Office Street, beside the B1238, Easington Colliery
A pithead wheel lies flat on timbers with coal between its spokes, for everyone who worked the colliery from 1899 to 1993.
Easington Colliery Cemetery, Crawlaw Road, Easington Colliery
An explosion at the colliery kills 83 men, two of them rescue workers.
The cemetery’s garden of remembrance is inaugurated on 29 May 1954, with 72 grave spaces in its communal graves.
The disaster memorial is listed at Grade II on 25 August 2016.
Ferry Road, Middlesbrough
Billy and Mrs Wilkinson cross the Tees Transporter Bridge.
Westcott Crescent, Hanwell, London W7 1PD
Daldry says the dancing drew on boxing and football, so Billy talks through movement.
The youth centre where Billy practises is the inside of Hanwell Community Centre in west London.
The production saw about 2,000 children over several months. Jamie Bell had danced since he was six.
Stuart Wells, who plays Michael, had never acted before; he was found at a skate park in Whitley Bay.
Near Tisbury, Wiltshire
New Wardour Castle in Wiltshire plays the Royal Ballet School.
Queen’s Ride, Richmond Park, London
The real Royal Ballet School is in Richmond Park, at White Lodge, where it has been since 1955.
The BFI credits the film, and the musical that followed, with inspiring more young boys to train as dancers.
Royal Ballet School, 46 Floral Street, Covent Garden
In Covent Garden the school’s dancers cross Floral Street by a twisting bridge into the Royal Opera House.
Haymarket, London SW1Y 4HT
Grown up, Billy dances the lead swan in Matthew Bourne’s 1998 Swan Lake while his dad and brother watch, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
The grown-up Billy is danced by Adam Cooper, who was dancing in a Swan Lake with male swans while the film was being shot.
Victoria Street, London SW1E 5EA
Billy Elliot the Musical opens at the Victoria Palace in 2005 and closes on 9 April 2016 after 4,600 performances.
A new tour, again directed by Stephen Daldry with book and lyrics by Lee Hall, opens at Sunderland Empire on 4 November 2026 and plays the Adelphi Theatre in London from 12 February to 31 July 2027.
.jpg){kind=link}
