Does The Golden Mile Pub Crawl From The World's End Exist In Real Life?
Edgar Wright's beloved "Three Flavours Cornetto" film trilogy came to close in 2013 with the "The World's End." Deviating from the other two entries of the loosely connected series, "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz," which lampooned the horror and action genres respectively, "The World's End" plays in the science fiction realm. The film follows a group of five friends who reconnect in their hometown for a night of hopping from pub to pub. Little do they know, an alien invasion has settled across the town and they must fight their way to make it out alive. Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike, "The World's End" is the second highest grossing entry in the trilogy after "Hot Fuzz," with a box office gross of $46 million (via The Numbers). The film would also go on to receive great acclaim from critics with an 89% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
As a film that primarily takes place in and centers its action around a series of pubs, ensuring that the locations are just right is of upmost importance. And with the group of friends in the film intending to go about and complete the Golden Mile — where they must visit 12 pubs and take down 60 pints — there was certainly a lot of decisions to be made when deciding which pubs should be used in the film. With the film released in 2013, one might wonder — do these pubs still exist?
Almost all of the pubs are still around
While the town featured in "The World's End," Newton Haven, does not exist, there were several real bars used in the film. Director Edgar Wright and production designer Marcus Rowland researched several during the film's pre-production stage, resulting in nine of the 12 bars being real pubs (via GQ Magazine).
The First Post was The Pear Tree. It also was used for interior shots for other bar scenes. The Doctor's Tonic would become The Old Familiar and The Cork (now known as The Two Willows) became The Famous Cock. Wendy's shop became The Good Companions, The Three Magnets transformed into The Trusty Servant, The Arena Tavern became The King's Head and The Colonnade pub acts as The Two Headed Dog. The Gardener's Arms would be turned into the titular World's End bar. The Parkway Bar, which became The Cross Hands pub in the film, closed down in 2018, later getting transformed into the Turkish restaurant Misya Meze & Grill. The other locations used in the film that were not bars included The Beehive (a Thai restaurant), The Hole in the Wall (Letchworth Railway Station) and The Mermaid (Letchworth's Broadway Cinema).
Despite the numerous locations, the film's location manager, Camilla Stephenson, noted (via Welwyn Hatfield Times) that the location and shooting process went smoothly, saying, "Nothing was too much trouble and they are a very efficient and helpful team ... they made sure things went very smoothly and that costs were very reasonable."