A square dock basin ringed by glass towers and a folded glass theatre, where Anniversary built a fictional American venue.
What Grand Canal Dock looks like
Grand Canal Dock is a square basin of still water ringed by glass office and apartment towers, most of them six to eighteen storeys and built in the 2000s and 2010s. runs along one edge, its red resin glass paving set with poles of different heights and angles, some upright and some leaning.
The stands at the head of the square, its glass panels folded into sharp diagonal pleats rather than a flat wall. faces it across the paving, a black and white checkerboard grid of windows stepping back toward the roof.
Boland's Mill, a stone flour mill with painted lettering still on its gable end, sits on the opposite quay among the newer towers. The Millennium Tower rises straight out of the water on its own narrow quay a short walk away.
A DART line runs along Barrow Street on the landward side, with the station under a curved glass roof. Sir John Rogerson's Quay follows the water north to the , a single white mast strung with cables over the Liffey.
Shot in Grand Canal Dock
For Anniversary, the Bord Gais Energy Theatre and the square in front of it played a fictional American venue. The production shot through a single day in July 2023, the exterior first and the interior after.
Anniversary, 2025
The Bord Gais Energy Theatre
Played a fictional theatre, the United States, present day
For Anniversary, the production filmed in the square between the red poles and the theatre entrance, then moved inside for the rest of the day. About 75 extras played a crowd entering and leaving the building, and a drone flew a long shot of the theatre from the water. Street View
MediaCityUK's glass office and broadcast buildings face directly onto a squared dock basin of still water, much like the towers around Grand Canal Dock. A cable-stayed footbridge crosses the water there too, echoing the Samuel Beckett Bridge close by. The Manchester Ship Canal is wider than the Grand Canal basin, so a tight frame on the water's edge holds the comparison better than a wide one. Try searching glass towers on the water now.
Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam, Netherlands
Wilhelminapier turned a former harbour pier into a row of glass office and apartment towers on the water, the same kind of change that built Grand Canal Dock. De Rotterdam, the tallest of the three towers, reaches about 150 metres. That is well above anything here. Keep the tallest towers out of a wide shot, or the extra height gives the location away. Try searching harbour glass towers now.
South Quay's mid rise glass blocks sit close to the water on a dock about the same width as Grand Canal Dock, without the supertall cluster further into Canary Wharf. A curved footbridge crosses the dock at South Quay, much like the Samuel Beckett Bridge crosses the Liffey nearby. Keep the frame south of the tall cluster, or the scale gives the location away. Try searching glass blocks on a dock now.
