Where were shot the episodes of BBC/HBO's His Dark Materials? In studios, mostly. But some sequences were also shot on real-world locations. This page aims at locating those...

   The map below sums-up most of the known locations of the TV-show, with the exception of private houses that we chose to remove for privacy reasons. We're still trying to identify some missing locations; they will be added to this page as soon as possible...

   Oxford is the actual setting for the original story, either in our world or in Lyra's. This is thus no surprise that many locations of the city appear in the TV-show. A city tour will provide many highlights for sraffies (see our Oxford page), but those who notably enjoyed the show may quite easily find many places appearing in the Bad Wolf production:

• Radcliffe Square: central and iconic place of Oxford, due to its surrounding building and its central library rotonda, Lyra and Will go through this crowded square during their first visit together in our world. (S2E2)
• New College Lane: just a few yards north of Radcliffe square, this is a typical Oxford street with its famous bridge of sighs linling two of the nearby buildings. Lyra walks into this street before running in direction of where she expect (in vain) to find Jordan College in our world. If you walk along this street surrounded by high grey stone walls, you will reach in the end the entrance of New College (see below). You may remind that Will texted his mummy right from this street. (S2E2)
• New College: this is the main location to depict Jordan College on screen, while the books rather chose Exeter College (Philip Pullman's former college). Depending on the time of year, you can visit the college, and could find familiar environment if you do, as the main quadrangle with its central green (do not walk!) and outdoors appear in the show, just as the gardens (landing area for Asriel's gyropter and take-off area for his zeppelin) and its chapel (indoor set for the Boreal-Master face-to-face, and roof outdoors for Lyra and Roger, though you won't be able to go up there!). The dæmons-statues on the roof do not exist however: they were numerically added, just as some other buildings on the landscape Lyra sees in her world (S1E1, S1E2, S1E3,...)
• Pitt-Rivers Museum: this ethnology museum is twined with its neighbor, the museum of natural sciences. Lyra visits the place while looking for Dr. Malone: she will discover there trepaned skulls and first meet Charles Latrom... (S2E2)
• Bodleian Library gardens: Will takes care of Lyra's wounds on a bench of these garden, just a few yards away from Radcliffe Square. These gardens, hidden behind the high walls of Brasenose Lane, right behind Exeter College, are not opened to tourists, though... (S2E2)
• Radcliffe Observatory: this facility of Green Templeton College, north of downtown, appear in the TV-show just as they are, next to the empty area where Lyra expects to find Jordan in our world - we can note that real and "our Oxford" do not really fit as Lyra uses some weird directions to reach this point but let's call that the creative licence of the production! (S2E2)
• Botanic Garden: the most iconic place of the books appears in the TV-show but not as they do in the real world: if the entrance arch of the garden in the show is indeed in Oxford, next to the actual entrance of the garden (a very common door, while the arch is commonly closed), it is fun to realize that the bench scenes from the show were shot in Wales, a few hundreds kilometers away from Oxford. However, you should still take time to enter, despite the high entry fee, and visit the garden and actual bench, carved with many hearts and W and L letters over the years, and sided by a 3-dæmons sculpture... A must-see. (S2E2, S3E8)
• Magdalen College: this college on High Street, facing the Botanic Garden, is one of the most important in the city. Its most recent buildings and their gardens (no running!) were used to depict a fictive college from our world, St-Peter College, where Lyra finds Dr. Mary Malone. (S2E2, S2E3)
• Merton Field: south of downtown, this sportfield is used as take-off ground for the zeppelin Lyra and Mrs Coulter use to travel to London. (S1E1)
• St. Aldate Street and High Street: parts of the main north-south and east-west roads in Oxford, respectively. They both appear to mark transition from one world to our world, usually busy with people and double-deck buses.
• ...

   Cardiff was used for many outdoors locations while filming for being conveniently very close to the Wolf Studios. The city and its surroundings helped in many occasion to portrait Oxford or London. If visiting the Welsh capital city, you can then try to have at look at the following places:

• Temple of Peace: Located in Cathays Park (university area), the Temple of Peace is used to represent the external look of Mrs Coulter's building in London while the interiors were used to depict the Arctic Institute in Series 1, just as they were in various other shows or movies. The scene between Mrs. Coulter and Fra Pavel in the alethiometer's reading room was also shot in this building.
• HQ of the Welsh Government: Equally located in Cathays Park (university area), the "Cathays Park 2" facility, build 1979, appears as the HQ of the Magisterium (no irony intended) both for its exteriors limits (in Series 1 and 3) that you can easily recognize, and for its interiors - notably the impressive staircase that Mrs Coulter and Brother Louis use in Series 1 - to which you won't have access, unless you have some involvment with higher politics...
• Plasturton Gardens and Avenue: Located in the North-Western area of the city, the residential area of Pontcanna was used to represent Oxford - with which it shares the same architecture - and most notably the hidden window between Will's and Cittàgazze's worlds. The little brick shelter do exist, but no window could be found...
• Cathays Park: the area was used as the background of Lyra escaping Mrs Coulter's flat in S1E2, notably the immediate outskirts of the Glamorgan Building.
• Bute Docks Feeder Canal: the urban canal with its concrete surroundings and waterlilies as we first encounter Will in S1E5. This is in fact a part of a canal running below the city-center, this section being located in the Eastern part of Butetown, parallel to Bute East Dock. Boreal and Constable Walters also meet under the Celerity Drive bridge over the canal.
• City Hall: one of the backdoor of thebuilding is used during the escape scene of Lyra (the inner yards may also very likely have helped, but we could not enter and check by ourselves...).
• Cory's Building : Located on Bute Place a few dozen meters away from Cardiff Bay, this Grade II building's facade, dating back from 1889, appears briefly in S1E3 as the already-deserted HQ of the Gobblers.
• John Parcival Building: located on Colum Drive, this facility on the northern section of the university campus is the background for Will's school facilities in Series 1.
• ...

75km away from Cardiff, Bristol and its oxonian architecture was much used for outdoors of the show. Here are some you might identify if you ever visit the city:

• Blaise Orangery: the greenhouses of the park were used for the worlds' crossings of Lord Boreal in S1 and S2...
• Trenchard Street, Colston Street and Pipe Lane: backyards and buildings, as seen from the Gobblers' van after Lyra's kidnapping (?).
• Elmdale Road: backdoor of the Bristol Museum mimicking St-Peter College as Lyra escapes the officer. Elmdale Road, right in front of the door, is the setting for the scene in which Lyra discovers Latrom stole the alethiometer. (S2E3)
• Colston Hall's Yard: Lyra being rescued by Tony and the Gyptians (no, it's not a rock band)... (S1E3)
• Corn and Exchange Streets: a brief scene appears in the very first trailer of the show, with Lyra running away from two guards after fleeing from Mrs. Coulter's flat. The scene, however, does not appear in the show...
• Host Street: some filming took place in that street which had been renamed "Constellation Road"... but the scenes didn't make the final cut...
• ...

Many scenes were shots on locations in Wales, among which:

• Forest of Dean: forest sequence of "Alamo Gulch" with Lee, Jopary and Magisterium soldiers... (S2E7)
• Margam Country Park: aerial views surrounding Jopary's hut. (S2E5)
• Usk Reservoir, Brecon Beacons: aerial views of Yennisseï river. (S2E4)
• Penarth:
  - Will's escape (Church Av. and Clive Pl., S1E8),
  - Lyra's hunt by Constable Walters (Church Avenue, Jubilee Lane and Clive Pl., S2E3)
• Dewstow Gardens, Caldicot: located Nord-West of Bristol, the garden were used to mimic the Botanic Garden. Availability of bench to be confirmed. (Official website). (S2E2, S3E8)
• Three Bears Cave, Forrest Fawr: snowy cave in from of which Lyra and Iorek have lunch while going into investigation into the North. (S1E5)
• Llangynidr (Blaenonneu) Quarry, Crickhowell : this former open air quarry was used as outdoor set for Trollesund. The complete city was then fully built on site, then dismantled. Only pictures of the town now remain... (S1E4)
• Nash Point: Trollesund heights (S1E5)
• Clearwell Cave: encounter between Marisa Coulter and King Iofur. (S1E4)
• St Govan's Chapel, Pembrokeshire: Mrs. Coulter's den. You can visit! (S3E1-2)
• Dunraven Bay, Vale of Glamorgan: beach next to Mrs. Coulter's den (S3E1-1)
• St Donat's Castle (Atlantic College), St Donats: additional shots of Jordan College. (S1)
• Woodchester Mansion Trust, Nympsfield : additional shots of Jordan College. (S1)
• ...

   If we exclude the illustrative shots (CGI-enhanced London views in S1, Hawaaï for the Cittàgazze shores or the Feroë islands for the witches' lands in S2), the only sequences shot with the cast outside of Wales were shot for the final series in Spain, mostly for the needs of the mulefa's world. Filming took place in the province of Málaga over the summer of 2021. The locations are listed in the closing credits of the episodes and it looks like this to us, despite the fact we could not go (yet) on location to check by ourselves:

• Sierra de Grazalema, Villaluenga municipality: mulefa's valley aerial views.
• Benaoján - Cueva del Gato: Mary's amber quest and revelation of Xaphaniae to Will and Lyra. (S3E8)
• Barranco Blanco: Lyra and Will bathing and Will being unable to say what he had to say. (S3E6)
• Ardales - El Chorro: blue lake at the exit of the land of the dead and location of Will and Lyra's bath. (S3E6-8)
• Guadalhorce Valley, Álora municipality: final cut from the mulefa's world into Lyra's Oxford (TBC) (S3E8)
• Llano de Matagallar, Coin: sunsets and sunrises above a mountain and (possibly) the mulefa's forest(S3E4-8)
• Ronda: flashback of Mary's dinner in Lisbon (S3E8)
• ...

S1E1

• Oxford by night: roofs of New College Chapel, Oxford
• Outdoor stairs, Jordan College: New College gardens, Oxford
• Jordan College (other than Oxford and studios):
  - Attic, laundry and kitchen: Woodchester Mansion Trust, Nympsfield (Wales)
  - Remparts: St Donat's Castle, (Atlantic College), St Donats, Wales *
• Gyptians settling ceremony: Blaenavon Ironworks, Blaenavon, Wales
• Meadow and fence, Jordan College: inner yard, New College, Oxford
• Oxford waterways: Gloucester and Sharpness canals, Gloucestershire
• Roofs of Jordan College: roofs of New College Chapel, Oxford
• Zeppelin landing mail: Merton Field, Oxford

S1E2

• Mrs Coulter's building (outdoors): Temple of Peace, Cardiff (with CGI additions) and Savoy Pl, London (background)
• Royal Arctic Institut (indoors): Temple of Peace, Cardiff
• Jordan Chapel: New College, Oxford
• Oxford (our world, first insights): High Street, Oxford
• Window, greenhouse: Blaise Orangery, Bristol
• Window, our Oxford: Plasturton Avenue/Gardens, Pontcanna area, Cardiff
• Oxford (our world): St-John and Beaumont Streets (aerial view), than High Street, Sheldonian Theater and Ship Street (street views)
• Oxford (cafe): ...
• Gobblers hideout: Cory's Building, Cardiff
• London escape:
  - Backside of Cardiff's city hall
  - Glamorgan Building, Cardiff

S1E3

• Fight with Gobblers: Colston Hall's yard, Bristol
• London (aerial view): London (with CGI additions)
• Inner yard, Jordan College: inner quad, New College, Oxford
• Gyptian boatyard: Sharpness Docks, Gloucestershire
• Greenhouse portal: Blaise Orangery, Bristol
• Our Oxford, portal: Plasturton Avenue/Gardens, Pontcanna area, Cardiff
• Oxford: High Street, Oxford.
• Waterways to the Fens: Gloucester and Sharpness Canals, Gloucestershire
• Thomas and Boreal's hideout: ...
• Under-the-bridge meeting: Dock Feeder Canal and Celerity Road bridge Cardiff
• Argument Ma Costa/Lyra: Purton Ship's Graveyard, Gloucestershire

S1E4

• Trollesund: Llangynidr Quarry, Crickhowell, Wales
• Magisterium HQ (outdoors and main staircase): Building of the Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff
• Magisterium Alethiometer's reading room: Temple of Peace, Cardiff
• Meeting Coulter/Iofur: Clearwell Cave, Wales

S1E5

• Waterlily canal: Dock Feeder Canal, Cardiff
• Seaside with cliffs: Nash Point, Wales
• Will Parry's school: John Parcival Building (inner yard, TBC), Colum Drive, Cardiff
• Cave (Iorek's meal): Three Bears Cave, Forrest Fawr, Wales

S1E7

• Will Parry's school: John Parcival Building (main entrance), Colum Drive, Cardiff
• Waterlilies canal: Docl Feeder Canal, Cardiff
• Serafina/Lee's snowy encounter: ...
• Mr. Hanway's home: ...
  

S1E8

• Oxford, aerial bus view: Llandaff Bridge, Cardiff
• Fast-food: ...
• Will's escape: Clive Pl. and Church Avenue, Penarth, Wales
• Our Oxford, portal: Plasturton Avenue/Gardens, Pontcanna area, Cardiff

S2E1

• Our Oxford, portal: Plasturton Avenue/Gardens, Pontcanna area, Cardiff
• Lands of the Witches (aerial shore shot): fjord of Sørvágur and Tindhólmur, Faroe Islands
• Cittàgazzian shore (aerial views): Na Pali, Kauai, Hawaii

S2E2

• Our Oxford, portal: Plasturton Avenue/Gardens, Pontcanna area, Cardiff
• Oxford:
  - Radcliffe Square
  - Sheldonian Theater, Bridge of Sights (New College Lane)
  - Radcliffe Observatory (Green Templeton College)
  - (first aid): Bodleian Library Gardens, Brasenose Lane
  - Texting Mum: New College Lane
  - Museum: Pitt-Rivers Museum
  - M. Hanway's home: ...
  - St-Peter College: Magdalen College (outdoors)
  - At Perkins & Mathers: ...
  - Botanic Garden (entrance arch): Botanic Garden, Oxford
  - Botanic Garden (bench and inner views): Dewstow Gardens, Caldicot, Wales
  
• Lands of the Witches (aerial shore shot): fjord of Sørvágur and Tindhólmur, Faroe Islands

S2E3

• Oxford, St-Peter College (lawn and modern buildings): Magdalen College and Library, Oxford
• Oxford, St-Peter College (outdoors): Elmdale Road, Bristol
• Oxford, on the run: Church Avenue, Jubilee Lane and Clive Pl., Penarth, Wales
• Oxford, drop zone: Elmdale Road, Bristol
• Our Oxford, portal: Plasturton Avenue/Gardens, Pontcanna area, Cardiff
• Movie Theater: ...

S2E4

• Yenissei River: Usk Reservoir, Brecon Beacons, Wales
• Witches' island (aerial views): Elliðaey island, Iceland
• Greenhouse portal: Blaise Orangery, Bristol

S2E5

• Our Oxford, portal: Plasturton Avenue/Gardens, Pontcanna area, Cardiff
• At Jopary's: Margam Country Park, Wales

S2E7

• Alamo woods: Forest of Dean, Wales

S3E1

• Woods: Wentwood Forest, Wales *
• Den of Mrs. Coulter: St Govan's Chapel, Wales (Pembrokeshire)
• Beach next to Mrs. Coulter's den: Dunraven Bay, Vale of Glamorgan
• Surroundings of Asriel's camp: Black Mountain range and Llyn y Fan Fach, Brecon Beacons National Park (Carmarthenshire), Wales
• Aerial views of Geneva; Salzburg, Austria (and CGI)

S3E2

• Den of Mrs. Coulter: St Govan's Chapel, Pays de Galles (Pembrokeshire)
• Ruins next to the den: Dunraven Castle, Wales
• Aerial views of Ogunwe's deserted camp: Houtouwan, China

S3E3

• The entrance to the land of the dead: Former BP plant, Baglan, Wales

S3E4

• The entrance to the land of the dead: Former BP plant, Baglan, Wales
• Aerial views of Geneva: Salzburg, Austria (and CGI)
• Magisterium HQ (outdoors): Building of the Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff

S3E5

• Magisterium HQ (outdoors): Building of the Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff
• Mary's quest for amber bits: Benaoján, Cueva del Gato, Spain

S3E8

• Exit to the Land of the dead: Ardales - El Chorro, Spain

S3E8

• Mulefa's world:
  - Wake-up next to the lake: Ardales - El Chorro, Spain
  - Dry grass valley surrounded by grey mountains: Sierra de Grazalema, Villaluenga muicipality, Spain
  - Bath, Will's akward moment and red fruits: Barranco Blanco, Spain
  - sunrise and sunset above the mountain: Llano de Matagallar, Coín municipalty, Spain
  - Exit to the Land of the dead: Ardales - El Chorro, Spain
  - Talk with the dæmons: Spain
  - Revelation of Xaphaniae to Will and Lyra: Benaoján - Cueva del Gato - Final cut from the mulefa's world into Lyra's Oxford: Guadalhorce Valley, Álora municipality, Spain
  
• Flash-back of Mary's dinner in Lisbon: Ronda, Spain
• Oxford:
  - Botanic Garden (entrance arch): Botanic Garden, Oxford
  - Botanic Garden (bench and inner views): Dewstow Gardens, Caldicot, Wales
  - College: New College, Oxford
  

Which sequences were shot on sets at Wolf Studios in Cardiff?

S1 (non necessarily exhaustive)

• The Retiring Room of Jordan College
• Jordan College's crypt
• Lyra's room
• Asriel's lab
• All zeppelins' interiors
• Marisa Coulter's flat
• Ma Costa's boat (interiors)
• Iofur's palace
• Magisterium's HQ (except main stairs and outdoors)
• Bolvangar
• Balloon sequences (with CGI additions)
• Svalbard
• ...

S2 (non necessarily exhaustive)

• Cittàgazze and the Tower of the Angels (with CGI additions) - - timelapse of the set being built
• Balloon sequences (with CGI additions)
• Mary's Cave
• Mary's office
• Sir Charles' private museum
• The Witches' gatherings
• The Observatory
• Hotel Samyrski
• Les buildings, zeppelins and submarine of the Magisterium
• The canyons
• ...

S3 (non necessarily exhaustive)

• Mrs. Coulter's den (interior)
• Ogunwe's jail
• The offices (video) and the zeppelin of the Magisterium
• The land of the dead (video)
• Mulefas' nest (video)
• Asriel's camp (studio's backlot) and adamant tower (video)
• The Cloudy Mountain (BTS pics)
• Additionnal sequences shot at Twickenham Studios, London *and International Convention Center, Newport (Wales).
• ...