Pastel stone and stucco buildings line narrow lanes around a colonial harbour square.
What St. George's looks like
Stone and stucco buildings line the lanes of St. George's, one or two storeys tall. Load bearing limestone walls are rendered and painted in pink, yellow, blue and white. Stepped white roofs, cut from limestone slabs, carry rainwater down into household tanks below. Most of the fabric dates from the 1600s through the 1700s.
sits at the harbour's edge and opens onto the town's two main streets. St. George's Town Hall faces the square, built in 1782 with Bermuda cedar inside and a pair of exterior staircases rising to its door. A wooden stocks and pillory stand just outside, replicas of eighteenth century punishment devices. The Bank of Butterfield occupies an older building on the square, dated 1776, pale stone under a stepped white roof.
North of the square the streets narrow into a network of winding lanes and alleys, paved in brick and stone, barely wide enough for a car. Buildings meet the lane directly, dark shutters against pale walls, with small gardens behind low stone walls and bougainvillea spilling over the top.
A small bridge leads from King's Square across the water to Ordnance Island, built after the Second World War. A full scale replica of the seventeenth century ship Deliverance stands on the island beside the anchored sailboats, its rigging visible over the harbour wall.
Shot in St. George's
St. George's has been a filming location since the earliest days of the medium. The Edison Company used the walled streets of the town for The Relief of Lucknow, shot in 1911 and released the following year. The Deep filmed its cricket ground scene at St. George's Cricket Club in 1976, during the real Bermuda Cup Match, with Robert Shaw and Louis Gossett Jr. in the stands among the real spectators. The ABC television film The Bermuda Depths, shot entirely on the island in 1978, used the Deliverance replica on Ordnance Island as one of its land locations.
The Bermuda Depths, 1978
The Bermuda Depths, an ABC television film shot entirely on location in Bermuda in 1978, used the full scale Deliverance replica as one of its land locations. The ship sits on Ordnance Island, across the bridge from King's Square, moored beside a plaza with benches and low hedging.
What St. George's can double for
Punda in Willemstad, Curaçao
Punda's waterfront on the Handelskade packs pastel pink, blue and yellow buildings right against a narrow harbour, a similar colonial scale and colour range to St. George's own lanes. Both towns keep their oldest buildings close enough to the water to shoot across in one frame. Willemstad's buildings carry scrolled Dutch gables and red tile roofs, different from St. George's flat stepped white limestone roofline, so a wide or rooftop shot gives the switch away. Try searching pastel Dutch gables now.
Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
Charlotte Amalie's old warehouse district lines narrow lanes with pastel stucco walls, a close match for the scale of St. George's own streets. Former Danish merchant warehouses now hold shopfronts along streets barely wide enough for a cart. Charlotte Amalie's brick stair streets, the famous 99 Steps among them, climb straight up from the harbour. St. George's stays level by comparison, so a shot that climbs a staircase gives the switch away. Try searching pastel warehouse shopfronts now.
Falmouth, Jamaica
Falmouth's Georgian courthouse and colonnaded market buildings share the same symmetrical civic scale as St. George's Town Hall and . Both towns built their grandest buildings in pale render with arcaded ground floors facing a public square. Falmouth is laid out on a straight gridiron rather than St. George's winding lanes, so a wide establishing shot down a long straight street gives the switch away. Try searching colonnaded courthouse market buildings now.
