Four and five storey brick tenements line narrow colonial-era streets, and The Brink's Job shot its robbery at the real Brink's headquarters on Prince Street.
What North End looks like
No major road runs through the North End, so most movement between blocks stays on foot. The colonial era layout leaves the streets narrow and at odd angles, meeting at the triangular junction where cross.
Four and five storey brick apartment buildings line most blocks, and many date from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Builders added copper bump outs above the cornice line for light and air, with ornamental eave and facade details on many fronts. Iron fire escapes run down several buildings. A few rooftops hold small decks above the cornice line, visible in a view down over the block.
Restaurant signs run down , mounted perpendicular to the buildings and stacked one below the next above the sidewalk. holds a smaller cluster of storefronts around its own church, and North Washington Street on the western edge widens into a bus lane in front of the same brick blocks.
sits above Charter Street, its rows of slate headstones facing the white steeple of across the block. The church was built in 1723 and is the tallest point in the neighborhood. Its brick tower is visible from most of the streets below it.
Shot in North End
The Brink's Job restaged the company's own 1950 robbery at Brink's real Boston headquarters, on the corner of Prince and Causeway Streets. The Town used a storefront on Salem Street as the fictional First Boston Savings Bank, then sent its getaway car through North Margin and Thacher Streets.
The Brink's Job, 1978
Brink's Inc. kept its Boston headquarters at this corner until the building was replaced by the parking garage standing here now, and the film restages the company's 1950 armored car robbery on the site. It also used a small office at 138 Prince Street, a block away at Lafayette Avenue, dressed as the fictional Society for the Preservation of Historical Monuments for an earlier scene. Street View
What North End can double for
Little Italy in New York City, New York
Mulberry Street's dense tenement blocks and ground floor Italian restaurants read close to Salem and Hanover Streets, both built up with narrow storefronts under residential floors. Manhattan's tenements commonly run a story taller than the North End's brick blocks, and cast iron fronts show up on the avenues. A tight street level frame holds the match better than a wide one. Try searching Italian restaurant tenement street now.
Fells Point kept its colonial street layout and dense brick row house blocks near the water, the same combination that gives the North End its Prince and Salem Streets junction. Fells Point's streets and sidewalks run wider than the North End's narrowest lanes, and its Belgian block paving reads differently on camera than the North End's asphalt. A close frame on one block face works better than a full street view. Try searching colonial brick row house street now.
