After discovering that the Marvel Secret Invasion team went to Dunsfold Park, home of Top Gear and my former employers, Memset Ltd., to film a variety of stuff for the show – another former employer’s building turns up in this week’s episode! Ten Trinity Square.
Former home of Willis Faber, this was where my dad spent the majority of his career, and I would occasionally accompany him to work during the school holidays. It introduced me (and got me hooked) on computer communications, and later I’d spend a couple of summer holidays on work experience for Willis Faber doing data entry work on powerful Macs (we’re talking late Motorola 68000, early PowerPC stuff). It’s now an exclusive member’s club and hotel – something I could never afford to stay at (unlike the Eurobet House Premier Inn in Woking where I could – and indeed, did).
We see the majestic pillars of Ten Trinity Square when Talos and Gravik leave the art gallery. It’s a small, but instantly recognisable location for me. But it’s certainly not the first time Ten Trinity Square has been in the movies – James Bond, Alexi Sayle (yes, really), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (the fictional Lara is from Guildford, Surrey – double co-incidence), Bridget Jones, The Professionals, The Bill, and Luther.
Marvel’s Avengers also shot at my former university, the University of East Anglia (UEA), a few years back at the Sainsbury’s Centre, which stood in for the Avengers HQ. Which is directly opposite Constable Terrace, the block of student accommodation I lived in.