A grid of narrow streets and shuttered balcony fronts ends at a sand beach, where Bird Box Barcelona built its post-apocalyptic beach scene beside the W hotel.
What La Barceloneta looks like
A grid of straight streets runs from the harbor side to the sand, cut into blocks by narrower cross streets on the way. Plastered building fronts in ochre and white carry tall shuttered balconies over ground floor bars and grocers, two and three storeys under an extra floor or two stacked on top later. The blocks date from 1754, laid out in parallel lines rather than following the curve of the coast.
Carrer de Sant Carles runs past a corner house with a red brick front and green shutters, kept today as a small museum behind its original stone doorframe. Two blocks over, the covered market on Plaça de la Font has a wrought iron roof from 1884, still standing under a later glass and steel addition. faces its own square nearby, a squat clock tower beside it that once doubled as a lighthouse.
runs along the harbor side, seafood restaurants under awnings facing the moored boats, one of them open at number 4 since 1903. Stone steps and a plaza sit in front of the old customs building at the wharf, the water and the anchored yachts just beyond the railing.
At the far end the grid gives way to open sand. Sunbathers and beach umbrellas run the length of the shore, a sail shaped glass tower rising where the beach curves toward the breakwater, cranes and container ships visible past the rocks at the harbor mouth.
Shot in La Barceloneta
Bird Box Barcelona used the real sand beside the W hotel for its post-apocalyptic beach. Nothing was built on site, the wrecked cruise ship and the empty streets were added afterward in visual effects.
Bird Box Barcelona, 2023
The production shot its post-apocalyptic beach on this stretch of sand, the W hotel standing in the background of its own reflection. A half sunken cruise ship and storm wreckage were composited into the shot afterward, with no set built on the beach itself.
What La Barceloneta can double for
Quartieri Spagnoli in Naples, Italy
Quartieri Spagnoli runs the same narrow, straight grid under laundry lines and iron balconies, a sixteenth century Spanish plan much like this one. The tenements are taller and the streets climb a hillside rather than running level to open sand. Look for a level stretch away from the steepest lanes to avoid an uphill horizon a wide shot would give away. Try searching grid streets with iron balconies now.
Vieux Nice runs a similar tight grid of narrow streets, shuttered ochre fronted buildings meeting its own public beach at the bottom of them. The same old fishermen's quarter sits right against the shore, though its streets run narrower and its beach is pebble rather than sand. Keep the beach frame tight, since pebble rather than sand would give the location away in a wide shot. Try searching grid streets meeting a beach now.
Le Panier is the old quarter above Marseille's working harbor, plastered fronts in a similar ochre and cream with shutters on every window. Its lanes curve and climb rather than running in a straight grid. There is no beach at the end of them. A straight run of two or three blocks reads close to this grid, but a wider shot that shows the hill or the curve would not. Try searching old harbor quarter plastered fronts now.
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