Brick tobacco warehouses sit on the flood plain beneath a three level railway trestle, and Hulu's Dopesick used the restaurant Bookbinder's here for a scene.
What Shockoe Bottom looks like
Multi storey brick warehouses and factory buildings line the streets here, several with their old company names still set in painted tile lettering above the ground floor windows. The is a steel railway trestle on tall concrete piers over the western edge of the district. It supports three separate rail lines at different heights, and a brick chimney beside the tracks still reads LUCKY in large painted letters.
The old Kanawha Canal runs along the southern edge behind a concrete floodwall, with a steel gate where the water passes through toward the James River. A paved path runs beside the water on the district side of the floodwall, part of the Canal Walk completed in 1995.
A few wood frame buildings survive among the brick, including a white clapboard hall from 1785 behind an iron fence on Franklin Street. Cast iron porch rails and stair rails appear on the rowhouses toward the district's edges, and 's red brick clock tower rises just past the viaduct.
Interstate 95 crosses on elevated ramps along the western side of the district, a second layer of overhead structure above the rail lines. The occupies a block of open pavement between the warehouses, and restaurants and bars fill the ground floors of the old buildings along Cary Street.
Shot in Shockoe Bottom
Hulu's Dopesick used Bookbinder's Restaurant on East Cary Street as one of its Richmond filming locations. The restaurant sits inside a converted tobacco warehouse toward the eastern end of the district, near the railway trestle.
Dopesick, 2021
The restaurant, housed in a converted tobacco warehouse with exposed brick and beams, was used as a location for the Hulu series. It has operated as a seafood and steakhouse since 2000, with a private courtyard for outdoor seating on one side.
What Shockoe Bottom can double for
American Tobacco Historic District in Durham, North Carolina
Durham's American Tobacco Historic District is built from the same red brick tobacco warehouses, some in Italianate and Romanesque Revival styles like the buildings along Shockoe Bottom's own warehouse row. The district has been converted into offices and apartments with modern signage, outdoor seating and a fountain, so a wide shot needs careful framing to keep current tenants' branding out of frame. Try searching red brick tobacco warehouse now.
DUMBO's cobblestone streets run beneath the elevated Manhattan Bridge between rows of brick warehouse buildings, one of the few other places where an elevated crossing runs directly over a warehouse lined street the way the Triple Crossing does here. The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge rather than a railway trestle, so a shot that includes its cables and towers will not match the structure here. Try searching cobblestone street brick warehouse now.
Innovation Quarter in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem's Innovation Quarter reused the former R.J. Reynolds tobacco factory buildings, red brick and close in scale to the warehouses here. Many ground floors now carry glass storefronts and lab signage, so the upper storeys hold the period look while the street level needs dressing. Try searching red brick factory building now.
