London has never looked quite as grimy, urgent and quietly brilliant as it does in Slow Horses, Apple TV+'s spy drama about a team of disgraced MI5 agents stuck working at Slough House, the service's dumping ground. With Gary Oldman's foul-mouthed Jackson Lamb back for a sixth season, it's a good moment to turn the show's filming locations into a self-guided walking route across the city.
Start at the obvious place: Aldersgate Street, a minute or so from Barbican Underground station, where the exterior of Slough House has stayed the same since the show launched in 2022. You'll find it right beside Vecchio Parioli, a family-run Italian restaurant that's been dishing out pasta since 1950 — a handy lunch stop if you're doing the full tour.
From there, head into the centre of town to the Duke of York column, the tall memorial off The Mall that formed the backdrop for Lamb and Diana Taverner's tense final exchange in season one. Green Park and Regent's Park follow: season three filmed Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Lamb's off-the-books meeting at Regent's Park's North Gate entrance and on a bench beside the canal.
North to King's Cross next, where Granary Square's fountains staged River and Frank's season four showdown. In Mick Herron's novels that fight happens by the Thames, but the production switched locations — apparently the logistics of throwing actors into the river didn't pass health and safety. Round things off at Beppe's Cafe near Smithfield Market, the real greasy spoon where Lamb takes his breakfasts, and popular with the market's workers.
It's a tour that costs nothing beyond a tube fare or two, and it doubles as a route through some genuinely interesting parts of London — the Barbican's brutalist corners, the markets, the parks — rather than the usual tourist drag. Seasons one to five are streaming now, with new episodes landing weekly, so you can brush up before you set out.
Fans of the show (or anyone who likes walking a city with a bit of story attached) will get the most out of it; budget half a day for the full loop, longer if you stop for that Italian lunch. — Condé Nast Traveller UK