Victoria Street

Victoria Street is a curved, sloping street in Edinburgh’s Old Town, running between George IV Bridge and the Grassmarket. The street is known for its colourful shopfronts, bowed curve, cobbled surface and two-level structure, with Victoria Terrace running above parts of the street on the north side. Built in the nineteenth century as part of the redevelopment linking the Old Town to the lower Grassmarket area, Victoria Street has become one of Edinburgh’s most photographed streets. On screen, it works as a distinct Old Town location because of its shape, steepness, shopfronts and layered architecture, separate from both the Royal Mile and the elevated Victoria Terrace above it.

Victoria Street has appeared in F9: The Fast Saga (2021) and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020). It is also closely connected to Edinburgh’s screen geography through nearby locations used in Cloud Atlas (2012), although that film uses Victoria Terrace rather than the street below. Victoria Street should be used when the street itself, its curve, shops or road surface are visible, while Victoria Terrace belongs to scenes filmed on the raised pedestrian level above it.

In Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), Victoria Street appears during the Edinburgh section of the film. Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdóttir drive into West Bow from the Cowgatehead end, standing up through the sunroof of the car while the camera faces them from the front. This places Cowgatehead and parts of Grassmarket in the background as the car begins moving uphill. In the next shot, the camera angle changes and the car is seen continuing up the same curving route, where West Bow runs directly into Victoria Street. The sequence therefore uses the full West Bow / Victoria Street approach from the Grassmarket area toward the upper Old Town. The colourful shopfronts, steep incline and layered street layout make it one of the clearest Edinburgh street scenes in the film.

In F9: The Fast Saga (2021), Victoria Street appears during the Edinburgh action sequence. The production filmed in several parts of the city centre, including Victoria Street, the Royal Mile, Parliament Square, Waterloo Place, George Street and other Old Town/New Town locations. The film uses Victoria Street as part of the chase geography, turning the steep, curving street into one section of the larger vehicle action through Edinburgh. The street’s real layout is compressed and rearranged through editing, as the sequence moves quickly between different parts of the city that are not always geographically connected in the way the film presents them.

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