Opening screening of Gotham, at the New York Public Library Bryant Park
One of the most anticipated new series of 2014 was FOX’s Gotham. Inspired heavily by Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight film series, the show focuses on how comic book icons like commissioner Jim Gordon, Selina Kyle (Catwoman), Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) and The Dark Knight himself lived in Gotham City before Batman.
What truly makes it stand out to us, among the other shows premiering this season, is the many scenes shot here in NYC. It only makes sense for the team behind Gotham to film in the city on which it got its name (unlike The Blacklist, set in DC but filmed entirely in New York). Here are the NYC film locations featured in the show (starting with the latest in season 3, and going through the numerous in season 2 and 1):
Season 3
1. Old Town Bar
Old Town Bar at 45 E 18th Street is a favorite of film location scouts. The bar opened in 1892, served as a speakeasy during Prohibition, and features most of its original vintage decor ranging from its long wooden bar to the tin ceiling and tiled floors.
2. Brooklyn Army Terminal
This stunning building that serves as the warehouse for Fray Pharmaceutical is the Brooklyn Army Terminal, built at the end of World War I and served as a major supply base and embarkation point in World War II. There are multiple buildings on the site, but his is the main atrium in Building B. Fish Mooney, Selena Kyle and cohorts go here in search of particular drugs, and Gordon follows their trail. You also see Selena and Gordon in one of the staggered balconies that once received goods from gantries that ran the length of the atrium.
In episode two, the train station scene when Dr. Leslie Thompkins, Gordon’s ex, returns to Gotham, is also filmed in the Brooklyn Army Terminal with a green screen in the back showing the skyline of New York City. But the canopied walkways that run the length of the atrium tracks are recognizable in the scene.
Read more about the secrets of the Brooklyn Army Terminal, which we learned on previous Untapped Cities produced tours of the terminal.
3. Masonic Grand Lodge of New York
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/FOX
Bruce gets kidnapped by The Court and taken to what is the Masonic Grand Lodge of New York located on 23rd Street in Manhattan. He’s met by Margaret, who tells him he has to stop his investigations into Wayne Enterprises in order to save Alfred.
4. Alder Manor
Photo: Jeff Neumann/FOX
Fish Mooney and henchmen kidnap Detective Harvey while’s heading to his car in Dumbo, and while handcuffed, he agrees to take them to where Dr. Strange is being held by the Feds. Mooney wants Strange to fix her. The exterior location is the abandoned Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital, part of the business industrial complex that is slated for redevelopment into an expansion of Steiner Studios. In 2015, the interior of the hospital was open to the public for a photographic exhibition. See photos here.
The interior scenes of the location is actually the Alder Manor in Yonkers, a film location used in Mr. Robot. The mansion was once belonged to Gilded Age tycoon W.B. Thompson and later become a catholic high school and junior college. The mansion is host to a massive party several times a year by the group You Are So Lucky, next one up is on Halloween.
5. Bronx County Courthouse
Cobblepot gives a speech on the steps of the Bronx County Courthouse, alongside the statue of his mother, promising that the citizens will be safe. An armored car pulls up, the Red Hood Gang in masks and carrying guns emerge. They also decapitate the head of the statue.
This courthouse one of the architectural gems along the Grand Concourse, built in the Art Moderne style. When it opened in 1934, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia officially transferred the seat of the municipal government from City Hall to the new courthouse for three days. There are also notable WPA murals inside. The building also appears as a film location (inside and outside) in Daredevil.
6. Riverside Church
Photo: Jeff Neumann/FOX
The wedding of Lee and Mario takes place in Riverside Church, which makes sense given the upcoming two film locations in this list. The facade, with its figurative columns and decorative tympanum, takes clues from the Gothic churches in France, like Nôtre Dame and Chartres.
7. 125th Street Viaduct (again)
After Lee and Mario get married, Jim, while under the power trip virus, takes Lee and Mario to the 125th Street Viaduct area (this location was also featured in season 2). They head to an elevated area on the northern end of the viaduct at 135th Street and 12th Avenue, where Mario falls.
8. Roosevelt Island Steam Plant
The above scene is shot in the Roosevelt Island Steam Plant, which a community group had hoped to transform into an arts complex several years ago. That project has since stalled.
Season 2
1. Grand Central Terminal
As season 2 opens, we see Bruce Wayne still trying to open his father’s secret lair that hides behind the Wayne Manor fireplace. He decides to blow it up, with reluctant help from Alfred, and they discover a letter from Bruce’s father and the computer which stores the evidence Thomas Wayne was collecting against Wayne Enterprises. Alfred, hoping to protect Bruce from danger, destroys the computer prompting Bruce to fire him.
In Grand Central Terminal, Bruce intercepts Alfred at the train station to stop him from leaving. Bruce asks Alfred to prepare him for what is coming, since he will continue his father’s work anyway.
2. The Campbell Apartment
Alfred meets with a sympathetic employee at Wayne Enterprises to enlist help in Bruce’s endeavor against the company. They meet in the gilded age era Campbell Apartment, once the opulent private office of tycoon John C. Campbell. After Campbell left the office, the space deteriorated and was used as storage and a police station. It was restored in the 1990s and turned into the popular hidden bar The Campbell Apartment.
Discover more hidden bars in our 2015 guide to NYC’s top hidden bars and check out our list of the Top 10 Hidden Restaurants in NYC, many which appear in the Untapped Cities authored book New York: Hidden Bars & Restaurants.
3. NYC Municipal Archives Building
Police Commissioner Loeb officially steps down at this ceremony putting Gordon’s boss, Sarah Essen in charge of the GCPD. It is also here in this scene, filmed in the NYC Municipal Archives Building on Chamber Street, that we meet Theo Galavan for the first time. If you want to visit, just opened in the Archives building is a new exhibit about Robert Moses’ most hated project, the Lower Manhattan Expressway.
4. Bowery Savings Bank/Capitale
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/FOX
The fateful Children’s Hospital Benefit, organized by Dr. Lee Tompkins takes place in the Bowery Savings Bank in Chinatown, now the event space Capitale. This 1893 Stanford White-designed Beaux Arts building was designated a NYC landmark in 1966, with the Landmarks Preservation Commission claiming that it was “one of the first buildings to reflect the Classical influence of the Chicago Fair of 1893.”
5. Bronx County Courthouse
Photo courtesy FOX
Theo Galavan, the new most evil in town, has a press conference in front of the Bronx County Courthouse on the Grand Concourse. During this talk, an attempt on his life is made, one that he has engineered on purpose by threatening Penguin’s mother’s life. The Art Moderne courthouse was opened in 1934 under Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia with great WPA era murals inside. Check out this and other architectural gems along the Grand Concourse.
6. Guastavino’s
Bruce Wayne meets with Theo Galavan at Guastavino’s, the restaurant under the Queensboro Bridge appropriately named after the famous tile maker who did the ceiling there. Before Guastavino’s, the space was a Food Emporium supermarket.
7. 125th Street Viaduct
Photo: Jeff Neumann/FOX
The club selling and holding women in cages is located under the 125th Street Viaduct in Manhattanville, next to Columbia University’s expansion. Bridget Pike and Cat head over to wreak some havoc. In 2014, this viaduct received a colorful light installation for NYCxDesign Week. This is also the location where Cat is about to send off Bridget Pike on a bus when she’s recaptured by her brothers and where the battle between Fish Mooney and the police take place in the finale of season 2.
8. Sands Point Preserve and Mansion
Photo courtesy FOX
New Mayor Galavan’s celebration party is shot in the Sands Point Preserve at Hempstead House, a Gilded Age mansion built by Howard Gould on Long Island in 1912. Penguin (and his look alikes) ascend on this party, which is well-defended by the GCPD (and even better by Galavan’s posse). This popular location has also been featured in Boardwalk Empire.
9. St. Ann & Holy Trinity Church, Brooklyn
Barbara leads Jim through the city in the back of the cop car, and after a planned attack, takes Jim hostage to the landmarked St. Ann and Holy Trinity church, a Gothic Episcopal church on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights which serves as the stand in for Gotham Cathedral. The history of the congregation at St. Ann dates back to the American Revolution, and the church was originally built between 1844 and 1847 as the Church of the Holy Trinity by paper manufacturer, Edgar Bartow. The tower was completed in 1869 but removed in 1906.
Keep reading for the key film locations in season one, when Wayne Manor, Arkham Asylum, Fish Mooney’s club, and more are revealed for the first time. See where they’re filmed next:
Season 1
1. Crime Alley aka Cortlandt Alley
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
OK! Stop us if you haven’t heard this before. After a night out at the theater, Thomas and Martha Wayne, along with their young son Bruce are trying to find a cab home. Thomas Wayne decides that the richest family in crime riddled Gotham City should take a shortcut through a dark alley. Halfway through the alley, a mugger pulls out a gun and demands the family’s money and valuables. The couple oblige, however Thomas’s wallet and Martha’s pearl necklace is not enough. Unless you are a complete Bat-novice, you know what happens to Bruce Wayne’s parents.
We are not psychologists, but we have a strong feeling that Bruce is not going to take the whole “dead parents” thing well. That walk into the alley is where Bruce Wayne died. Not literally, as the mugger leaves Bruce alive, but with his innoence and childhood destroyed; Bruce spends the rest of his life redeeming the guilt of his parents loss by becoming The Caped Crusader.
In Batman lore, the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne is a significant part of history in Gotham City. The alleyway where they met their untimely demise is forever known as crime alley. A symbol of hopelessness for the people of Gotham City. Who could truly be safe from the crime of Gotham if the richest and most powerful people in Gotham could be killed in cold blood.
To see where the death of the Wayne’s and the birth of the World’s Greatest Detective, head to 23 Cortlandt Alley in Chinatown, one of the city’s most popular film locations.
2. 72 Pearl Street
Detective Jim Gordon tells young Bruce Wayne that he will find the man who killed his parents. The investigation leads him and his corrupt partner Detective Harvey Bullock to the home of Mario Pepper. Pepper, who lives with his wife and daughter (who happens to really be into plants wink, wink) is suspected as being the man who murdered the Waynes. Believing he is being set up to take the fall, Pepper hightails it, leaving Gordon to chase him down on the rooftop of his building into the streets, where he is shot dead by Bullock, before he can cause permanent damage to Gordon.
For those who take the B,D,Q or N trains into Manhattan or Brooklyn everyday, this rooftop will look quite familiar. The rooftop on 72 Pearl Street in DUMBO features some distinct street art and graffiti. We noticed the rooftop before noticing the bridge itself, which has one of the city’s monumental arches. Chinatown, in general, serves as a major backdrop to Gotham.
3. Calvary Cemetery
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
The funeral for Thomas and Martha Wayne takes place inside Calvary Cemetery in Queens. One of the largest cemeteries in New York City, Cavalry Cemetery boasts over 3 million burials, a number greater than the living population of the borough.
4. New York County Supreme Court
On the steps of the New York County Supreme Court downtown, Detective Jim Gordon confronts the duo from the Crime Squad about speaking to his girlfriend/fiancee Barbara about the framing of Mario Pepper. See photographs from inside the court here.
5. Abandoned Red Hook Grain Terminal
Detective Bullock brings Jim Gordon to the pier in front of the abandoned Red Hook grain terminal, asking him to kill the Penguin or be killed as well. Gordon pretends to kill him at the end of the pier, shoving him into the waters. See photos of the impressive silo and terminal in its abandoned state here.
6. Wayne Manor at Webbs Institute’s Stevenson Taylor Hall
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
The film location of Wayne Manor is at Webb Institute‘s Stevenson Taylor Hall on Glen Cove, Long Island. Webb Institute is an engineering college and Stevenson Taylor Hall is the former mansion and estate of Herbert L. Pratt, called The Braes.
7. The Ansonia and the Level Club
The Balloonman strikes first outside the apartment of fallen financier Ronald Danzer, which is purportedly to be The Level Club, a former masonic club and hotel on the Upper West Side turned into upscale residence. In the scene on the street, which is mobbed with press hoping to get a glimpse of Danzer, we also see the iconic Ansonia Hotel.
8. 22nd Avenue, Long Island City
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
Before the show premiered, we are sure you noticed all of the posters on train stations, buses and taxis. FOX is betting a lot on this show. We understand that. Cable dramas on HBO and AMC have dominated the attention of audiences looking for quality television dramas for years. Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have made strides in creating compelling television where people can watch entire seasons in a week instead of in weekly installments. Even shows like The Knick and Outlander, have made lesser known cable drama channels like Starz and Showtime get into the conversation.
For FOX it is now, more than ever, that they should be trying to reclaim viewers with high quality television. However, we question what is truly going on in there when they show us an episode titled The Balloonman. Can you imagine, in Gotham’s future, Commissioner Gordon and Batman having a discussion on top of GCPD headquarters and Jim just coming out and asking Batman what made him put on the cape and cowl? Only for Batman to disappoint him tremendously by saying (in his most gravely Christian Bale voice) “The Balloonman Jim, it was because of The Balloonman”.
In case you ever are interested in seeing the hideout of The Balloonman, you can head over to 24-22nd Street in Long Island City, which also serves as the Gotham Juvenile Detention Center.
9. 5 Pointz
The second episode of the season finds Gordon and Bullock at the scene of a murder. When we first watched the episode, we automatically noticed the graffiti (one of the best reasons to watch the show) around the area and instantly recognized that the crew filmed this scene at 5 Pointz. Once the mecca of graffiti culture in NYC, it is now currently being demolished to make room for luxury condos. The location has also been used recently for secret Punk Rock shows.
Before the demolition and the heinous white washing which took place this year, 5 Pointz was an industrial building (and former meter company) in Long Island City that graffiti and street artists from around the world merged to make one of the most interesting and beautiful buildings in NYC. Since the failed attempt at keeping the graffiti landmark alive, curator Meres One and fellow 5 Pointz artists have continued to make work in galleries and Brooklyn neighborhoods.
10. Arkham Asylum
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
The partially abandoned Bayley Seton Hospital on Staten Island, spruced up through CGI, is used as the setting for Arkham Asylum, the contentious plot of land to be developed by the two warring mafia clans.
11. Lansky Building, Office of Richard Gladwell
Several locations in Gotham are filmed on sets, including the Gotham City Police Department headquarters, Gordon’s apartment, and Fish Mooney’s nightclub. The Lansky Building, said in the show to be in Midtown (though the aerial shot shows the Woolworth Building downtown, is filmed in Greenpoint at Broadway Stages. This is where Richard Gladwell, the hit man that has killed targets for the two crime families at war with each other. We had the chance to visit this office set, take a look inside.
12. Bamonte’s Restaurant
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
Penguin takes a job at Bamonte’s Restaurant while on the run, and discovers its where mob head Maroni has his meetings. Bamonte’s is a real restaurant located in Williamburg, still in operation, and contains one of the city’s last surviving wooden phone booths. The proprietor told us they still work but Bell Telephones went out of business years ago, of course. According to reports, the right booth still works to take incoming calls. And in the left booth, you can – surprisingly – still call out. The scenes, interior and exterior, are shot at the original Bamonte’s.
13. Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, Fort Greene
Falcone runs into Liza, Mooney’s spy, listening and humming to opera in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park, in front of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument (for those lost on British prison shops in the Revolutionary War), the recent site of a public art hack installation: an Edward Snowden bust.
14. Moynihan Station/James A. Farley Post Office Loading Dock
Jim Gordon gets chased by henchman Victor Zsasz from inside the Gotham City Police Department headquarters and into this space, seen here as a parking lot. This skylight location is actually the loading area inside the James A. Farley Post Office (soon to become Moynihan Station). We previously explored this area during a Fashion Week show.
15. Brooklyn Navy Yard Dry Dock
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
A body is found a “finance guy” next to Dry Dock 1 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a historic military property repurposed as movie studios, manufacturing and other space.
16. New York Botanical Garden, Watson Education Building
Alfred feels that Bruce should socialize with people his age, so he’s enrolled into a prep school–an experience that doesn’t go over well. The exterior is filmed outside the Watson Education Building in the New York Botanical Garden.
17. Bronx Lighthouse
This building appears just briefly but it’s worthy of mention as you might have wondered what a lighthouse was doing on top of a building. This odd lighthouse sits atop a building at 950 University Avenue, now Tuck-It-Away storage in the Bronx but was once the headquarters of publisher H.W. Wilson, meant as a metaphorical beacon of the company’s mission to give guidance to readers.
18. Brooklyn Borough Hall
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
We meet the young Harvey Dent for the first time in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall (a location featured earlier in the season briefly where Barbara confronts Renee Montoya).
19. Fort Totten/Gotham City Vault
The abandoned Fort Totten is a popular film location, also seen in The Blacklist. In Gotham, it serves as the location of the Gotham City Vault (also labeled Gotham Armory in the show). Shortly after Gordon and Bullock arrive, the truck carrying the loot is blow up by Butch, a henchman of Mooney.
20. Manhattan Bridge
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
Jack Gruber, a criminal with an electrical penchant escapes from Arkham while Gordon is relocated there as a security guard, attacks GCPD Headquarters. The exterior of GCPD shows the base of the Manhattan Bridge, which we know is far from where the GCPD interior parking lot is located in real life – just across Penn Station in the James A. Farley Post Office.
21. Rye Restaurant
On Gordon and Dr. Leslie Thompkins have their first date (albeit disrupted by crime in Gotham of course) in the perfectly period Brooklyn restaurant, Rye with its wooden bar and tin ceilings. Rye is located in south Williamsburg on South 1st, and has a somewhat hidden bar below too.
22. Staple Street Skybridge
Bruce goes in search of Selina Kyle in Gotham with Alfred and the car passes under the Staple Street skybridge downtown. One of the city’s many skybridges, it was designed in 1907 by Robertson & Potter in order to help the New York City Hospital House of Relief. The House of Relief expanded its facilities across the street and in doing so, sparked the idea of an elevated thruway connecting the two buildings. Until recently, a well known fashion designer, Zoran Ladicorbic, owned it using the skybridge to connect his apartment to his fashion studio. In September of 2015, the apartment/studio went on sale for $30 million.
23. Alexander Hamilton Customs House
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
Jim Gordon holds a press conference in front of what is supposedly the GCPD (which as you’ve seen is an amalgamation of interior set and numerous exterior locations). This exterior is actually at Bowling Green, in front of the Alexander Hamilton Customs House (designed by Woolworth Building architect Cass Gilbert). It’s also the home of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian.
24. Cunard Building
Photo: Jessica Miglio/FOX
The landmarked Cunard Building is rarely open to the public, except for events, film shoots (it was also in a climactic scene in The Blacklist) and Open House New York in 2015. Near the end of the first season of Gotham, a Wayne Enterprises event takes place inside, attended by Bruce, who invites Selina, Barbara, and the serial killer who then kidnaps Barbara.
All screencaps courtesy of DC Entertainment, Primrose Hill Productions, Warner Bros. Television and FOX.
If you wanna head to Crime Alley and pick a fight with Batman, contact the author @ChrisLInoa
