Where was The Queen's Gambit filmed? The Aztec Palace Hotel and Filming Locations
Posted by Ra Moon
The Queen's Gambit is set in Lexington, Kentucky, but most of the series was filmed in Berlin, Germany, with a few additional scenes recorded in Ontario, Canada.
The Netflix hit show revolves around chess prodigy Beth Harmon’s life, from her childhood in an orphanage, where she first learns by playing her custodian in a basement, to her rise through the Grandmaster ranks.
The Netflix hit show revolves around chess prodigy Beth Harmon’s life, from her childhood in an orphanage, where she first learns by playing her custodian in a basement, to her rise through the Grandmaster ranks.
Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays Beth, rose to fame with this brilliant series. Previously, she had also appeared in a number of major productions, including The Witch and the final two films in M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable trilogy.
Although the series appears to be based on a real story, the plot is an adaptation of Walter Tevis's 1983 novel of the same name.
Here is our (almost spoiler-free) complete guide to all The Queen's Gambit filming locations in order of appearance.
The Queen's Gambit Locations
The first scenes in 1967 Paris (which later continue in episode six) were filmed at Haus Cumberland in Kurfürstendamm in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.
The luxurious Café Grosz on the ground floor was once part of a Grand Hotel built at the beginning of the 20th century.
The scene in the bridge from the first episode was filmed in Ontario.
The narrow Meadowvale Road Bridge is located in between the Rouge National Urban Park and Hillside areas in Toronto.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Google Maps
The Methuen Home orphanage for girls is a manor (or a "castle") located in the outskirts of Berlin called Schloss Schulzendorf.
The tower of this late 19th-century Renaissance-style villa looked too much like medieval Europe, so it was CGI'd in post-production.
From a very young age, Beth becomes addicted to the green pills (a tranquilizer) that help her to picture a chessboard with moving pieces on the ceiling of her room.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Clemens Franz - Map
As it would have been hard to find a house and neighborhood to portray a Midwest-Southern state like Kentucky in Germany, The Queen's Gambit house was filmed in Cambridge, Ontario (15 Brant Road South).
The city council reported that the production only scheduled six days of filming in the Canadian city.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The fictional Fairfield High School is the Western Technical-Commercial School in High Park North, Toronto.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
A Redditor figured out that the exterior of the Ben Snyder's clothing store from the second episode is the Winners department store at Front Street and Berczy Park in Toronto.
The vertical sign is inspired by a 1944 picture of the real shop in Lexington.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Google Maps
Beth and her mother make a big jump when they step inside because -movie magic- the interior of the store is the Humana secondhand and vintage shop at 3 Frankfurter Tor in Berlin.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
Bradley's pharmacy was also filmed back in Canada. Film crews built a set on the corner of Walnut and King streets in Hamilton, where the old Bohemian Palace cafe was located.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Google Maps
Although there is a Henry Clay High School in Lexington, the one used in the series is the Max Taut Schule in Rummelsburg (Berlin).
Built in 1927, this educational complex was once Germany’s largest school.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Map
In the third episode, Beth and her mother Alma travel to Cincinnati to compete in the open chess tournament.
The hotel lobby is the Rathaus Spandau, the City Hall of this Berlin district.
Image courtesy of Nerflix - Map
The room with a wood-paneled ceiling was filmed in Berlin's Meistersaal.
This 1910 historic concert hall near Potsdamer Platz is today a venue for events and private parties.
From 1976 to 1991 the Meistersaal became famous worldwide when it was transformed into the Hansa recording studio headquarters, used by top artists like David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Iggy Pop, U2, Jon Bon Jovi, and Nick Cave, just to name a few.
Image courtesy of Nerflix - Map
In the same episode, Doubled Pawns, Beth is invited to a house party with some girls from high school. The house is located very close to Beth's home at 93 Salisbury Avenue in Cambridge.
Located in the same city, an 1879 heritage mansion at 16 Blenheim Road was used to film a short scene in the 7th episode.
Only the large wooden loggia-style porch of the house appears in the series, as you can see in the lower image.
The US Open held in the Hotel Mariposa in Las Vegas is the Palais am Funkturm building of Messe Berlin.
Built in the 1950s, this large exhibition complex is located in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of the city.
The entrance, filmed from the interior Summer Garden side, was modified via digital effects adding palm trees and a new building.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Berlin Messegelände - Map
The Palais am Funkturm interior hall is Berlin’s largest ballroom, featuring a retractable staircase and a height-adjustable chandelier.
In episode four, Middle Game, Beth meets her first Russians in Mexico, the boy named Georgi and the master Vasily Borgov. The Aztec Palace Hotel was filmed in the foyer of the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Mitte (Berlin).
The original 1919 Expressionist interior of the theatre, designed by Hans Poelzig, was unfortunately destroyed in the '80s as GDR authorities declared the old structure unsafe.
Nowadays, the new show palace is famous for hosting complex spectacles that use advanced lighting and over a hundred performers. The scenes in the zoo were filmed in the Berlin Zoological Garden.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin - Map
The campus of the Ohio US Championship in 1967 from episode five, Fork, was filmed at St. Andrew's College in Aurora (Ontario).
However, the interior hall is the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Berlin in Zehlendorf (Evangelische Hochschule Berlin).
Image courtesy of Netflix - Maps: St. Andrew's College / Evangelische Hochschule
Benny’s apartment exterior in New York was created by adding extra floors to some terraced houses in St Joseph St, Toronto.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Google Maps
Many scenes from episode six in 1967 Paris were filmed in the Bode Museum of Berlin.
Located in the central Museum Island, this magnificent gallery specializes in Byzantine art, sculptures, coins, and medals.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Google Maps
The cafe restaurant is the entrance hall of the museum, featuring the equestrian statue of Frederick William I.
The scenes of the tournament in Moscow were filmed in the Bear Hall of the Old City Hall of Berlin (Der Bärensaal im Alten Stadthaus).
Built the heart of the city at the turn of the 20th-century, the hall serves as a venue for weddings, events, and parties.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
Pictured here is the facade of Berlin's Old City Hall with the cool 1968 Tournament of Champions banner.
Image courtesy of Netflix and David Merrett
The hotel in Moscow is the facade of a Stalinist era apartment block in Karl-Marx-Allee (Friedrichshain).
This monumental socialist boulevard, built in East Germany between 1952 and 1960, was filled with spacious and luxurious apartments for workers.
Image courtesy of Netflix and Google Maps
The restaurant of the hotel in Moscow is the Panorama Bar of Kino International, a simple but elegant 1963 cinema located on Karl-Marx-Allee.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The final scene with the white queen Beth, walking in the streets of Moscow, meeting comrades chess-players, was recorded at Rosengarten Square, also located in the Karl-Marx-Allee.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Map
The main cast also includes Isla Johnston as young Beth, Marielle Heller as her adoptive mother Alma Wheatley, Bill Camp (The Night Of, The Outsider) as the custodian Mr. Shaibel, Rebecca Root as Miss Lonsdale, Harry Melling (Harry Potter, The Devil All the Time) as Harry Beltik, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Maze Runner, Game of Thrones) as Benny Watts.
Can you help to improve this article about the filming locations of The Queen's Gambit? To complete and correct this report, any feedback, info, or images that you may have are more than welcome, thank you!
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Ra Moon
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Thank you!!! What about the Vegas Hotel? That what pretty gorg.
ReplyDeleteHotel Mariposa is in Messehallen (Berlin Charlottenburg, Hammarskjöldplatz)
DeleteLooks like the Cabana Bay Hotel, florida to me
DeleteThat's great, thanks a lot!
DeleteI thought it resembled cabana bay hotel too
DeleteI'm pretty sure the zoo in Mexico city was Berlin Zoologischer Garten.
ReplyDeleteThe rooftop pool could be "Thermen am Europacenter".
It was there.
DeleteThe Pool is located in Berlin, but it is haubentaucher.berlin
Deletebeginning of first episode, chess game in Paris 1967 location is Cafe Grosz at Kurfuerstendamm, Berlin - closed since end of 2019.
ReplyDeleteI think ben snyder's store is filmed at Humana, second hand store, Frankfurter Tor in Berlin
ReplyDeleteThe interior maybe, but the exterior is [for sure] on Front St. E. in Toronto.
DeleteThe one-lane bridge where the car crash takes place is located within, surprisingly, the Toronto city limits (albeit in a rural part near the zoo). Specifically, it's immediately north of 2269 Meadowvale Road. FYI, I found it using an excellent website about bridges: the link to this specific bridge is https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=ontario/meadowvaleroad/.
ReplyDeleteI saw on reddit that the pharmacy is located at 2 Walnut Street South (corner of King & Walnut) in the city of Hamilton, Ontario... and a quick search on Google Maps confirms it.
ReplyDeleteMax Taut and Henry Clay do not have a lot in common, but in the second episode "Exchanges" they share a school building entrance real and fictional :)
ReplyDeleteIn the last episode they use my car (as TAXI) to drive in front of the MaxTautSchule 😁
DeleteEpisode 5, the auditorium is in the architecture faculty of TU Berlin: https://myscissorella.blogspot.com/2013/02/hans-scharoun-horsaal-tu-berlin-1963-68.html
ReplyDeleteThe cafeteria scene in the same episode was also shot in that building.
It is the "Evangelische Hochschule Berlin" :-)
Deletehttps://www.instagram.com/p/CHP9Tz4gYT0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
We think the Ohio college might be Ohio University in Athens.
ReplyDeleteI went to that university and I’d agree.
DeleteI believe the Cincinnati hotel is the Netherland Plaza/Omni Netherland.
ReplyDeleteAgreed!
Deletethe hotel in Cincinnati is Rathaus Berlin-Spandau, the city hall of one of the districts of Berlin.
ReplyDeleteHey folks,
ReplyDeleteMany scenes have been filmed in Berlin in the former Heinrich-von-Kleist-Oberschule in Berlin Moabit. We are neighbours and have been informed about the filming several times.
I’d like to know more about the magnificent glass in the Aztec Palace Hotel. Very Frank Lloyd Wright inspired. Does this still exist anywhere?
ReplyDeleteIt surely does. You find it in the lobby of the famous Friedrichstadtpalast at Friedrichstraße in Berlin. One of the biggest show theaters in the world.
DeleteDoes anyone know the filming location for the entrance to Fairfield High School? It looks familiar to me, and I can't find this info anywhere.
ReplyDeleteIf that’s the one in episode 2, it’s Western Technical Commercial School in Toronto. Lots of films are shot there bc of the beautiful facade.
DeleteIt is the front of Western Tech in Toronto. From what I remember, they were only filming there for a couple of days.
DeleteChess Championship in the 3rd part is in the Heinrich-von-Kleist-Oberschule in Berlin Moabit.
ReplyDeleteThe ballroom = Palais am Funkturm / Messe Berlin.
ReplyDeleteJust fyi...Miss Lonsdale was the religion/choir leader. Beth's adoptive mother was Alma Wheatley played by Marielle Heller. But thanks for this article. Answered a lot of questions.
ReplyDeleteThe Fairfield High School exterior is actually Western Technical & Commercial School at 125 Evelyn Crescent in Toronto, Ontario. It's a 5 minute walk from my home & is a common shooting location. This also means that they didn't only shoot in Cambridge, Ontario but also Toronto.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the new Friedrichstadt-Palast only shares the name with the old one - it is not built at the same location!
ReplyDeleteWhere did they get the name for the Methuen orphanage? I grew up in a town called Methuen in Massachusetts.
ReplyDeleteIn the episode wherr she plays benny in the cafeteria and keeps losing, where is that filmed?
ReplyDeleteI’m pretty sure Blazer Hall food court at the university of Kentucky.
DeleteIn the final episode, where were the scenes filmed showing the outdoor chess matches ?
ReplyDeleteI just read the entire article, I suggest you do the same to find your answer.
DeleteHaving grown up in Lexingtom, KY, I remember shopping at Ben Snyders for school clothes, and gratuated from Henry Clay High School, I struggled to recognize any of the scenery in the series. I guess this explains why!
ReplyDeleteFascinating article with great photos. Thanks you:)
The hotel in Mexico City is a substitute for the Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico, which is famous for its colorful glass ceiling (and also from the opening scene of the James Bond Spectre movie). When they're standing outside on the balcony, a CGI scene of Mexico City's Zocalo is the background--recreating the view of the square and cathedral from the real Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico.
ReplyDeleteThat first speed chess scene had to be shot at Blazer hall cafeteria on University of Kentucky’s campus. I thought I recognized many other UK campus landmarks also not mentioned in the artical.
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating, but WHY was so much filmed in Berlin?
ReplyDeleteCosts. The studios in Potsdam Babelsberg, right next to Berlin, are where this show was shot, along with a lot of other international movie and TV shows. Probably for the same reasons, a lot of "US" movies and shows are actually shot in Canada: Cheaper production costs and availability compared to the US, but still full of skilled professionals (including, but not limited to post-production staff).
ReplyDeleteAnd why go through the trouble of shooting in yet another country if your location scout knows a place that's just good enough to be believable, maybe with the help of some inexpensive post-production magic? And due to its previous divide, both US- and Soviet-inspired buildings from the portrayed era are still around. For a show that weaves one of its main plot threads around the conflict between US and Russian chess players, Berlin was probably irresistible for the show's producers.
Could the producers have chosen to film on locations in the US (or Moscow, for that matter)? Probably. Would it have added much to the show's production value? Probably not. However, it would have cut into the budget and the producers would have had to compromise elsewhere.
I’m pretty sure that the “Ohio State” scenes were not only exterior shots at St. Andrew’s College, but the interior dorm scenes sure looked like some of the residential buildings at that school. The shot of the outside bench shows a highland cadet statue behind them. It wasn’t there when I attended SAC back in the 70s.
ReplyDeleteAll comments are reviewed prior to publication