Small corrugated iron houses in flat colours line the streets around Tjörnin, below Hallgrímskirkja's concrete tower. Netflix closed Frakkastígur for a Heart of Stone chase scene.
What Miðborg looks like
Small timber houses clad in corrugated iron line the short streets around , the pond at the centre of downtown Reykjavík. Most are one or two storeys with a shallow gable end. The iron is painted in flat red, blue, green, yellow, turquoise and pink, with white window frames. stands right at the water's edge in glass and grey stone, a modern shape against the older wooden fronts on the far bank.
climbs from Laugavegur toward , corrugated shopfronts and cafes in the same bright colours filling the ground floors of the houses that line it. The church's tower is poured concrete, built to resemble columnar basalt. It rises above every roofline around it.
runs a block over, narrower than Skólavörðustígur and lined with the same iron cladding and steeper pitched gables above the doors. Cars park nose to kerb the whole length of the street. Away from the two main streets the blocks turn quiet. is barely wide enough for one car, hemmed by ivy covered walls and white picket fences in front of pale timber houses.
The corrugated iron here mostly dates from the 1880s to the 1920s. A few low buildings on Laugavegur keep their original steep red roofs among newer storefronts, the ironwork still visible at the corners and under the eaves.
Shot in Miðborg
Netflix closed Frakkastígur for four days in April 2022 during Heart of Stone, part of a downtown action sequence that also crossed Sæbraut and the streets around Harpa concert hall. The production worked with the city, the road authority and the police to manage the closures, with about 600 crew and 400 extras on set.
Heart of Stone, 2023
Frakkastígur
The Netflix film closed this street for four days during its main downtown action sequence, one part of a chase that also crossed Sæbraut and the area around Harpa a few streets over. Corrugated iron houses in flat colours line both sides of the road where the unit worked. Street View
What Miðborg can double for
Gower Street in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Gower Street and Duckworth Street in downtown St. John's carry the same idea of a whole block of row houses in different flat colours. A heritage tradition there keeps no two neighbouring houses the same colour, the same clash Miðborg has without a rule behind it. The houses are wood clapboard rather than metal cladding, and the street climbs a much steeper grade than the flat ground around Tjörnin. Try searching row houses in different colours now.
Stanley in Falkland Islands
Stanley's older houses are timber framed and clad in the same corrugated iron. They are painted scarlet, green, yellow and cornflower blue. White walls sit under coloured roofs. These corrugated iron cottages are the closest material match anywhere on this list. Stanley's houses sit further apart, with open ground between them. It has no pond or church tower to frame a wide shot the way Miðborg does. Try searching corrugated iron cottages now.
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