Mehrangarh above Jodhpur at dawn, 2023. Reema Jalihal · CC BY-SA 4.0
Filmed 2011Jodhpur · Pittsburgh · New York · Los Angeles · England
The Dark Knight Rises
At the bottom of the pit, looking up.
The prison · 120 feet · 37 metres
Climb out.
The prison set was a labyrinth of stone cells with a vertical shaft 120 feet (37 metres) high. It stood in a hangar at Cardington, in Bedfordshire. The daylight at the top was filmed somewhere else entirely.
Height
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Holds
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Slips
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On the hangar floor. Reach with either hand to start.
Heinz Field, now Acrisure Stadium, plays the home of the Gotham Rogues, where Bane shows what his explosives can do. Pittsburgh Steelers players played the Rogues.
0 extras seated
An empty stadium on the North Shore.
The stadium on Pittsburgh’s North Shore from the air, 2019. Carol M. Highsmith · Public domainWhere we read it
Home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. You get inside on a game or event day; the riverside walk on the North Shore passes the outside.
Behind the monolithic columns of the Mellon Institute porch, 2022. Cbaile19 · CC0
Oakland · Fifth Avenue
City Hall
Carnegie Mellon University’s Mellon Institute stands in as Gotham City Hall, where Bane reads out Commissioner Gordon’s speech.
Round the corner, on South Dithridge Street between Fifth Avenue and Winthrop Street, the Software Engineering Institute plays the entrance to Blackgate Prison.
A Carnegie Mellon research building. Look at the colonnade from Fifth Avenue; the inside is not open to visitors.
Where we read itThe building at the rear of Trinity Cathedral on Oliver Avenue, 2023. Cbaile19 · CC0
Downtown · Oliver Avenue
St Swithin’s
The rear of Trinity Cathedral, on Oliver Avenue, plays St Swithin’s, the orphanage from which Blake evacuates the children.
Strawberry Way, Seventh Avenue, William Penn Place and Exchange Way, all downtown, carry the chase of the truck with the bomb. Catwoman rides the Batpod through downtown Pittsburgh.
A stone building on Oliver Avenue, east of Wood Street, behind the cathedral. Look from the pavement.
Where we read it
The Mellon Institute from the corner of Bellefield Avenue and Fifth Avenue, 2019. Cbaile19 · CC0
The Oaklander
The Oaklander Hotel
5130 Bigelow Boulevard, Oakland, Pittsburgh
A hotel in Oakland, Pittsburgh’s university district, with a rooftop lounge. The Mellon Institute, Gotham’s City Hall, is in the same neighbourhood.
Gotham has no single home. Each part of it was filmed somewhere real. Which city is it?
1 / 8
Gotham City Hall
Which city?
Pick one.
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The Mellon Institute from the corner of Bellefield Avenue and Fifth Avenue, 2019. Cbaile19 · CC0
0 Pittsburgh
0 New York
0 Los Angeles
0 England
23 Wall Street, on the corner of Broad Street, 2007. ChrisRuvolo · CC BY-SA 3.0
23 Wall Street at Broad Street, Financial District, Manhattan
23 Wall Street
The JP Morgan Building at 23 Wall Street, on the south corner of Broad Street, is the outside of the Gotham Stock Exchange. The trading floor Bane’s men invade was filmed on the other side of the country, inside the Trust Building on South Spring Street in Los Angeles.
A private building on a busy corner. See it from Wall Street or Broad Street.
Where we read itThe Queensboro Bridge from Roosevelt Island, 2016. King of Hearts · CC BY-SA 4.0
East 59th Street, Manhattan, to Long Island City, Queens
Queensboro Bridge
Batman stands on top of the Queensboro Bridge, and tanks are stationed on it.
The bridge has a shared walking and cycling path. The best view of the whole span is from Roosevelt Island.
Where we read itThe waiting room at Union Station, Los Angeles, 2022. Shesmax · CC BY-SA 4.0
800 North Alameda Street, Downtown Los Angeles
Union Station, Los Angeles
Union Station is Dr Crane’s makeshift court.
A working station. The old waiting room and the courtyards are open to everyone.
Where we read it
Wayne Manor · one house, two counties
Open a room.
In 2011 the hall became Wayne Manor and a primary location for The Dark Knight Rises. The rooms inside are somewhere else: Osterley, in west London, 172 km to the south.
The front: The outside of Wayne Manor: an Elizabethan hall on a hill in Nottingham. Wollaton Hall, Nottingham.
It is the outside of Wayne Manor, and the funeral near the end is filmed in the grounds.
Where we read it
Entry to the hall is free, a short bus ride from Nottingham city centre. The deer park is open around it. Inside is a Victorian natural history museum, full of taxidermy.
A National Trust house and park. Check the Trust’s page for house opening days; the park is open more often. The books on its shelves are real, not painted. The bookcases are said to be the originals from a library that stood where the portico is now.
The epilogue · and the waterfall
Not Florence.
Greetings from
Firenze
Fernet
On screen the café is in Florence, where Alfred, with a Fernet Branca, sees that Bruce is alive.
Where we read it
The grounds and colonnades are free to walk through. Nearest rail is Greenwich.
Sgwd Henrhyd in the Brecon Beacons, July 2016. Celuici · CC BY-SA 3.0
Bannau Brycheiniog, Wales
Sgwd Henrhyd
Blake’s discovery behind the waterfall is filmed at Sgwd Henrhyd in Wales. The falls drop 90 feet (27 metres).
Park free at the National Trust car park; do not park on Dol Henrhyd, a residential street. The path down is steep, with steps. The walk is about 1.5 km there and back, with steep sections and steps.
Where we read it
The people
Who climbed.
Christian Bale at the Academy Awards, February 2011, months before the shoot. Staff Sgt. Carlos Lazo · Public domainChristian BaleBruce Wayne
Tom Hardy at Cannes, May 2012. Georges Biard · CC BY-SA 3.0Tom HardyBane
Michael Caine played Alfred and Gary Oldman Gordon. The photographs are from 2011 to 2013, the years of the shoot and release. The film has more than an hour of IMAX footage.
Where we read it
Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman in the cast; Nolan directing.
Filming began on 6 May 2011 at Mehrangarh Fort; Pittsburgh wrapped on 21 August 2011; Los Angeles finished on 23 October; filming ended on 14 November 2011; release on 20 July 2012; over an hour of IMAX footage.
12 places you can visit, from Pittsburgh to Jodhpur. Cardington is private land: you see the hangars from the road.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. You get inside on a game or event day; the riverside walk on the North Shore passes the outside.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A Carnegie Mellon research building. Look at the colonnade from Fifth Avenue; the inside is not open to visitors.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A stone building on Oliver Avenue, east of Wood Street, behind the cathedral. Look from the pavement.
1The stadium on Pittsburgh’s North Shore from the air, 2019. Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain
100 Art Rooney Avenue, North Shore, Pittsburgh
Acrisure Stadium (Heinz Field)
Heinz Field, now Acrisure Stadium, plays the home of the Gotham Rogues, where Bane shows what his explosives can do.
Home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. You get inside on a game or event day; the riverside walk on the North Shore passes the outside.
Where we read it
2The Mellon Institute from the corner of Bellefield Avenue and Fifth Avenue, 2019. Cbaile19 · CC0
4400 Fifth Avenue at Bellefield Avenue, Oakland, Pittsburgh
Mellon Institute
Carnegie Mellon University’s Mellon Institute stands in as Gotham City Hall, where Bane reads out Commissioner Gordon’s speech.
A Carnegie Mellon research building. Look at the colonnade from Fifth Avenue; the inside is not open to visitors.
Where we read it
3The building at the rear of Trinity Cathedral on Oliver Avenue, 2023. Cbaile19 · CC0
333 Oliver Avenue, Downtown Pittsburgh
The rear of Trinity Cathedral
The rear of Trinity Cathedral, on Oliver Avenue, plays St Swithin’s, the orphanage from which Blake evacuates the children.
A stone building on Oliver Avenue, east of Wood Street, behind the cathedral. Look from the pavement.
Where we read it
Stay
Sleep near City Hall.
A hotel in Oakland, the same Pittsburgh neighbourhood as the Mellon Institute.
The Oaklander
The Oaklander Hotel
5130 Bigelow Boulevard, Oakland, Pittsburgh
A hotel in Oakland, Pittsburgh’s university district, with a rooftop lounge. The Mellon Institute, Gotham’s City Hall, is in the same neighbourhood.
Dates, 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 handhold
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 15 of 15 Moments
Acrisure Stadium (Heinz Field)
100 Art Rooney Avenue, North Shore, Pittsburgh
The Gotham Rogues
Bane demonstrates his explosives at the Rogues’ stadium, in front of more than 11,000 extras.
Mellon Institute
4400 Fifth Avenue at Bellefield Avenue, Oakland, Pittsburgh
Gordon’s speech
On the steps of Gotham City Hall, Bane reads out Commissioner Gordon’s speech.
Blackgate
The Software Engineering Institute on South Dithridge Street plays the entrance to Blackgate Prison.
The rear of Trinity Cathedral
333 Oliver Avenue, Downtown Pittsburgh
St Swithin’s
Blake evacuates the children from St Swithin’s orphanage.
23 Wall Street
23 Wall Street at Broad Street, Financial District, Manhattan
The stock exchange
23 Wall Street is the outside of the Gotham Stock Exchange that Bane’s men invade.
Queensboro Bridge
East 59th Street, Manhattan, to Long Island City, Queens
On the bridge
Batman stands on top of the Queensboro Bridge, with tanks stationed on it.
Union Station, Los Angeles
800 North Alameda Street, Downtown Los Angeles
Crane’s court
Dr Crane holds his makeshift court in Union Station.
Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Park, Nottingham NG8 2AE
Wayne Manor, outside
Wollaton Hall is the outside of Wayne Manor.
The funeral
The funeral near the end is filmed in the grounds of Wollaton Hall.
Osterley House
Jersey Road, Isleworth TW7 4RB, west London
Wayne Manor, inside
Kyle gets in through the Entrance Hall; the Long Gallery is Wayne’s study; Alfred says goodbye on the Great Stair.
The secret passage
Osterley’s real secret passage by the library becomes the way into Batman’s hideout.
Old Royal Naval College
King William Walk, Greenwich SE10 9NN
The café in “Florence”
Alfred’s café terrace in the epilogue is the colonnade at Greenwich.
Sgwd Henrhyd (Henrhyd Falls)
Coelbren, Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), Wales
Behind the waterfall
Blake’s discovery behind the waterfall is filmed at Sgwd Henrhyd.
Cardington Hangars
Shortstown, three miles south of Bedford
The shaft
The underground prison, with its 120-foot shaft, is built in a hangar at Cardington.
Mehrangarh Fort
Fateh Pol Road, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
The escape
Wayne climbs out of the prison into the light at Mehrangarh Fort, where filming began.
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