Peaky Blinders: Birmingham and Liverpool

The story opens in 1919, a few months after the First World War, with a Birmingham family of mixed Irish Traveller and Romani origins and its street gang. Small Heath is the Shelbys' home base, where the core members of the Peaky Blinders live and work. The show's pub, the fictional Garrison Tavern, was inspired by a real pub of the same name in Small Heath.

Location precision: The show names the district, not one street; the pin marks Small Heath.

Watery Lane, the Shelbys' street in 1920s Birmingham, was really filmed in Liverpool. Powis Street, one of the Welsh Streets in Toxteth, doubled for it, and all the house exteriors were painted black to get the look and feel of the period. Filming on the street had to stop in 2017 when refurbishment work began, so the black-painted terraces of the early series belong to a Birmingham that never existed.

Visitor guidance: Visit the public street, but the houses are homes or building sites; keep to the pavement.

All the train scenes were filmed on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, a heritage line in West Yorkshire, with railway sequences shot between Keighley and Damems. They include the series 1 confrontation between Grace and Inspector Campbell, which ends with him shot in the leg.

Location precision: The scene is set on a train; the pin marks Damems station, at the end of the Keighley–Damems stretch where the railway sequences were shot.

Visitor guidance: Heritage services run on selected days; check the timetable.

The house used to film Aunt Polly's home stands in Port Sunlight on the Wirral, near Liverpool. The village was built by Lever Brothers for workers at its soap factory, and each block of houses was designed by a different architect, so no two look alike. Self-guided tour maps are available at Port Sunlight Museum.

Location precision: The exact house is not named in our sources; the pin marks the village.

Visitor guidance: The village streets are public, but the houses are private homes; pick up a map at Port Sunlight Museum.

Many scenes of series 1 were filmed at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, and VisitBritain calls it a chance to step into Tommy Shelby's Birmingham. It is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings where demonstrators portray life across 300 years, with a focus on 1850 to 1950. Its rebuilt streets gave the production a ready-made industrial streetscape.

Visitor guidance: Open as a museum; check opening days and tickets in advance.

In the TV series, the Shelby brothers' warehouse is filmed in Little Germany, the neoclassical district of Bradford. It was named after the German textile merchants who settled here in the 1850s, and its architecture has an Italian influence. VisitBritain notes that Little Germany has one of Britain's highest concentrations of listed buildings, which makes it popular with film crews.

Location precision: Sources name the district, not the individual warehouse; the pin marks Little Germany.

Visitor guidance: Look around the streets of the district; most buildings are not open to the public.

Arley Hall in Cheshire doubled as a house in Arrow, Warwickshire, the home of Tommy Shelby. In series three it was the backdrop for a showdown with Alfie Solomons. The country house was built between 1832 and 1845 in the Jacobethan style. Visitors can enter its library to find Tommy's study.

Visitor guidance: The hall and gardens are open to visitors on advertised days.

The confrontation between Tommy Shelby and Alfie Solomons, played by Tom Hardy, at the end of series 4 was filmed on the sands of Formby Beach near Liverpool. The beach is owned by the National Trust, and its sandy dunes and coastal views are a sharp contrast to the factory yards and smoke of the early series.

Location precision: The exact stretch of sand is not named in our source; the pin marks Formby Point.

Visitor guidance: The beach and dunes are open to the public through the National Trust.