All the Black Doves filming locations in Netflix’s Keira Knightley spy drama

Black Doves is the latest contribution to a long history of spy dramas with wonderful interiors. Set in London at Christmas, the newly released Netflix series follows Helen Webb (Keira Knightley), a spy who works for the Black Doves, a shadowy organisation that sells secrets to the highest bidder. Her identity is threatened when a new lover Jason (Andrew Koji) gets embroiled in the action. Enter: Sam (Ben Whishaw), persuaded out of retirement to join Helen as they undercover a web of lies and secrets running through the city and across the world. The plot is meaty and dramatic, and all underscored by some fittingly captivating locations and interiors.

Spy dramas and mysteries often have spectacular settings, from the grand mansions, manors and train carriages in the many Agatha Christie or Steven King adaptations, to the sprawling family seat in Knives Out. It was perhaps Killing Eve that set the style bar so high for British sleuth dramas, where Villanelle’s Haussmann-style Paris apartment and Carolyn Martens’ Notting Hill townhouse (designed by House & Garden‘s Top 100 alumna Sarah Delaney Design) entertained audiences almost as much as that pink tuille Molly Goddard dress and Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh’s chemistry.

Ludovic Robert/Netflix

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Black Doves filming locations

Made by Joe Barton, the mind behind the similarly aesthetic Giri/Haji, Black Doves is a true ode to London, and was reportedly shot in almost 100 locations across the capital city. We’ve taken a closer look and funnily enough, eagle-eyed viewers might recognise an apartment from our archive…

Helen’s house in Crystal Palace

One of the jewels of the series’ sets is Helen’s elegant six-bedroom house in Crystal Palace, which stood in for Highgate in the series. The house has that ‘lived in’ feel that we always like to see in the pages of House & Garden. The show’s production designer Laura Ellis Cricks told Netflix: ‘It would be aspirational for most people, but also had to feel very lived in and messy, with kids’ stuff everywhere[…] We tried to show a beautiful, bespoke kitchen with crap stuck all over it. It needed to be believable.’

Reed’s apartment: Jeffrey Archer’s penthouse

James Mortimer