Boyz n the Hood: South Central Los Angeles Filming Locations

The film opens in 1984, with 10-year-old Tre living with his single mother in South Central Los Angeles. According to the Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, the opening scene, where a pool of blood fascinates the schoolkids, was shot at the junction of Lawrence Street and Woodworth Avenue. This is the street where director John Singleton himself grew up. Singleton wrote it from his own life and the lives of people he knew, and shot it in sequence from October 1990.

Location precision: The guide names the junction, but the pin marks Woodworth Avenue in Inglewood, not the exact corner.

Young Tre gets into an altercation at school, and his teacher tells his mother that he is intelligent but lacks maturity and respect. The school on screen is Singleton's own old school, Clyde Woodworth Elementary, at 3200 West 104th Street in Inglewood. Reva decides the boy needs a firmer hand and sends him to live with his father in Crenshaw.

Location precision: The pin marks the school's street address, not a checked building footprint.

Tre's father, Furious Styles, lives on Cimarron Street. The location guide puts the house on Cimarron Street between 59th and 60th Streets, with Brandi's home a few doors to the north. It is the setting of the burglary night, when Furious fires at an intruder and calls the LAPD. The houses are private homes, so the pin marks the street only.

Location precision: The houses are private homes; the pin marks the Cimarron Street block, not a specific door.

Seven years later, Ricky is a star running back at Crenshaw High School, and a USC recruiter tells him he needs an SAT score above 700 to win a football scholarship. The school is real: a public high school on 11th Avenue in the Hyde Park neighbourhood.

Visitor guidance: Crenshaw High School is a working public school; look from the street and do not enter without permission.

The film's turning point begins at a night street gathering on Crenshaw Boulevard, where Ferris, a member of the rival Bloods, provokes Ricky and a confrontation follows. The guide describes the boulevard as a north-south cruising strip a block from the school and the setting for the slight that escalates into tragedy. Its Hyde Park stretch is called the heart of African American commerce in Los Angeles.

Location precision: The scene is set on Crenshaw Boulevard; the pin marks its Hyde Park stretch near Crenshaw High School, not a verified corner.

Visitor guidance: Crenshaw Boulevard is a busy public road and easy to view from the sidewalk.

In the film, Furious Styles and Reva have a heart-to-heart in a restaurant called Westside. The location guide says the scene was shot at Coley's Kitchen, a Jamaican restaurant at 4335 Crenshaw Boulevard, a much more colourful place than it looks on screen. It is a rare calm moment between the two parents in a film otherwise built around street violence.

Visitor guidance: The address is on Crenshaw Boulevard; check what is open there now before you go.