4: Tim and Sarah's Flat
WHY???
WHY?? The first line spoken in Spaced, but have you ever wondered where Tim’s opening was filmed? Read on to learn more of…. Tim’s Other Flat!
Tim is thrown out by his cheating girlfriend Sarah in the seconds of the first episode, this event is the catalyst for the whole series, moving in with and eventually falling for Daisy, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Tim and Sarah’s flat is hardly iconic, especially when compared to the gorgeous 23 Meteor Street, however as it is where the very first shots of Spaced are filmed, as far as i’m concerned it is a (admittedly small) part of TV history. Standing where Simon Pegg stood in the street, over 24 years later, sent a shiver down my spine!
Sitting at the northern end of Russell Road, near Bowes park, we can add it to our list of North London filming locations, just a few streets away from Myddleton Road which was heavily used for filming in the first episode. Despite being the very first shots of the how, filming was actually done on the last day of shooting for Series 1, this cant have been too difficult, as the shots of Daisy throwing out Dave were filmed on Myddleton Road (coming Soon!).
As you can see from my visit earlier in 2023, the house is looking decidedly more upmarket than it did in 1999, the benefits of gentrification! The bushes are also significantly larger, which goes some way to hiding some of the detail of the house, but it is looking very nice indeed. I couldn’t find any detail of the value of the 4 bed terraced house in 1999, but I can tell you in 2008 it sold for £412,000 and in the current market it is worth an estimated £800,000 although I think it could easily to much closer to £1 Million, probably a bit outside of Tim and Sarah’s budget now!
Simon, Jess and Edgar return to this filming location 6 years later, in “Skip to the End” the Spaced documentary from the DVD release in 2005, they don’t add much more to the information on the location, but you get a much better look of the whole street much closer to its appearance in the show than you would get now, and it’s great to see Simon Return to the spot!
My attempt to recreate the shot of Tim being thorown out, I didn’t wan to get too close as there were A LOT of security Cameras, hopefully not for rabid Spaced Fans..
