Even with London’s countless recognisable landmarks, the tube still stands out as one of the city’s most iconic features. It’s no wonder, then, that everybody with a camera is looking to get some footage on the London Underground.

Even Hollywood leaps at the opportunity to film on the famous transportation network, with heroes filming on the tube: Thor at Charing Cross, James Bond at Temple, and Harry Potter at Kings Cross and Westminster. Even BBC’s Fleabag has filmed on the Underground

Our team at TopLine Comms made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, to understand how much demand there is for filming on the underground. We found that permits for filming on the tube brought in a shocking £775,148.00 for Transport for London (TfL) in 2018.

In addition to this, our research found that TfL issued a total of £20,400 in fines in 2018 for operating cameras on the tube without a permit. It’s important to remember that you need to register in advance with TfL if you are going to film on the London Underground. Fortunately, applying for a permit is straightforward, and you can do it online here.

As part of our FOI, we were also able to find which were the top tube stations to film in based on the filming requests in received in 2018. These were:

1. Aldwych (which is no longer a functioning station after closing in the 1990s)
2. Canary Wharf
3. Charing Cross
4. Bank
5. King’s Cross

We found that the Jubilee line was the tube line most requested for filming.

Of the London Overground stations, the stations which received the most filming requests in 2018 were:

1. Hackney Downs
2. Hackney Wick
3. Hoxton
4. Bethnal Green
5. Bushey
6. Canonbury
7. Hatch End
8. Homerton
9. London Fields

(There are more than five stations listed above because several stations had the same total number of requests.)

Docklands Light Railway stations are also popular filming locations, and the most applied for stations were:

1. Canary Wharf
2. Heron Quays
3. West Silvertown
4. Bank
5. Lewisham
6. London City Airport
7. Pontoon Dock
8. Shadwell

(There are more than five stations listed above because several stations had the same total number of requests.)

If you have more questions about the top tube stations to film in, or London-based production in general, you can also reach out to experts for advice.