I got a job at a Ukrainian museum.
On the first day someone asks me if I have any Ukrainian heritage. I say I had ancestors from Odesa, but they were Jewish, so they weren’t considered Ukrainian, and they wouldn’t have considered themselves Ukrainian. My job is every day I go through boxes of Ukrainian textiles and I write a physical description, take measurements, take photographs, and upload everything into the database. I look up “Jewish” in the database and there is no result.
Some objects have no context at all, some come with handwritten notes or related documents. I look at thick hand-spun, hand-woven linen heavy with embroidery. Embroidery they say can take a year or more. I think of someone dressed for a wedding in their best clothes they made with their own hands. Some shirts were donated with photographs of the original owners dressed in them, for a dance at the Ukrainian Labour Temple, in 1935. I handle the pieces carefully, looking at how they fit the men in the photos, and how they look almost a hundred years later packed in acid-free tissue. One of the men died a few years later, in the war. He was younger than I am now. The military archive has more photographs of him with his mother, his father, his fiancé. I take care in writing the catalogue entry, breathing in the history, getting tearful.
I imagine people dressed in their best shirts at Easter, going around town in their best shirts burning the houses of Jews, in their best shirts, killing Jews. A shirt with dense embroidery all over the sleeves and chest has a note that says it is from Husiatyn. I look it up and find that it was largely a Jewish town, and Ukrainians lived in the outskirts. There is a fortress synagogue from the Renaissance period, now abandoned.
When my partner Aaron visits I take him to an event at the museum where a man shows his collection of over fifty musical instruments from Ukraine, and he plays each one. Children are seated on the floor at the front. We’re standing in a corner, the room full of Ukrainians, very aware that we look like Jews, but not sure if anyone recognizes what that looks like anymore. Aaron gets emotional over a song played on the bandura.
A note with a dress says it came from the Buchach region. I find a story of Jewish life in Buchach in the early twentieth century, preparing to flee as the Nazis take over. I cry over this.
I’m cataloguing a set of commemorative ribbons that were placed on the grave of a Ukrainian Nationalist leader, Yevhen Konovalets, after he was assassinated. The ribbons were collected and stored by another Nationalist, Andriy Melnyk, who took over leadership after Konovalets’ death. The ribbons are painted or embroidered with messages honouring the dead politician. I start to recognize the word for “leader”, the Cyrillic letters which make up the name of the colonel, the letters “OYH” which stand for Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN in English). The OUN played a big part in the Lviv pogroms in 1941, I learn. The Wikipedia article has a black and white image of a woman in her underwear, running in terror from a man and a young boy carrying a stick of wood. The woman’s face is dark, her nose may be bleeding. Her underwear is torn, her breast exposed. I’m measuring, photographing, recording the stains and loose threads in the banners that honour men who would have done this to me.
Every day I can’t stop looking at my phone, looking up the news from Gaza, tapping through Instagram stories that show what the news won’t. Half my family won’t talk to the other half, after I share an article by a scholar of Holocaust and genocide studies, who says Israel is committing a genocide. My dad makes a comment that compares Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. This gets him in trouble. My aunt says I must have learned this antisemitism at university, but there is no excuse for my dad.
This morning I see images from Israeli attacks in the West Bank, where they are not at war. There are naked bodies on the dusty ground. I’m not sure if they are alive. This is what I think of when I see the image from the Lviv pogrom. If what it means for Jews to be safe from oppression is to become the oppressor, I don’t want safety. I don’t want to speak about Jews as if we are one People, because I have so little in common with those in green uniforms and tanks. I am called a self-hating Jew but I think I am a self-reflecting Jew.
I don’t know how to articulate how it feels to be handling objects which remind me of Jewish traumas I inherited only from history classes and books. Textiles hold evidence of the bodies that made them and used them. I measure the waist of a skirt and notice that it is the same as my waist size. I think of clothing and textiles that were looted from Jewish homes during pogroms. I think of clothing and textiles that were looted from Palestinian homes during the ongoing Nakba. Clothes hold the shape of the body that once dressed in them. Sometimes there are tears, mends, stains. I am rummaging through personal belongings in my nitrile gloves.
I am hands-on learning about the violence caused by Ukrainian Nationalism while more than nine thousand Palestinians have been killed by the State of Israel in three weeks, not to mention all those who have been killed in the last seventy-five years of occupation, in the name of the Jewish Nation, the Jewish People — me? If we (and I am hesitant to say “we”) learned anything from the centuries of being killed, it was how to kill. This should not have been the lesson learned. Zionism wants us to feel constantly like the victims, like we need to defend ourself, like violence is necessary, inevitable. I need community that believes in freedom for all, not just our own People. I need the half of my family who believes in this necessary “self-defence” to remember our history, and not just the one that ends happily ever after with the creation of the State of Israel. Genocide should not be this controversial. We should not be okay with this.
Tomorrow I will go to work and keep cataloguing banners that honour the leader of an organization which led pogroms. I will keep checking the news, crying into my phone, coordinating with organizers about our next actions, grappling with how we can be a tiny part in ending this genocide that the world won’t acknowledge, out of guilt over the ones it ignored long ago.
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Good Omens filming locations masterpost! ❤ 🐍😊 Part 2
(here to part 1 :))
Here to the map :)
Others in England (cont):
Tadfield Manor (S01E01, S01E02) - Bulstrode, Gerrards Cross
Scene: The Tadfield Manor where the satanic nuns run the hospital in the first episode and Aziraphale and Crowley visit in the second episode
Availability (as of 2024): The manor has been in private hands since 2016 - in 2023 sold again, I didn't find on the internet that it would be available to visit in any form, the manor is not visitble from the public road.
Link on the map
Four Horsemen meeting (S01E05) – Old School Cafe, Longcross Road B386
Scene: The cafe where Four Horsemen meet
Availability (as of 2024): street all day, the cafe Mon-Fri 7:30-15:00, Sat-Sun 8:30-15:00
Link on the map
Heaven middle floors (S01E01, S01E03, S01E04, S01E05) - Weybridge Business Park, Addlestone
Scene: The Heaven middle floors scenes in season 1 were filmed here
Availability (as of 2024): The places can be sort of seen from the street but I don't think that visiting is possible
Link on the map
Pollution by the river (S01E04) – River Wey Navigation, Guildford
Scene: The International Express Man delivers the package to Pollution
(fun fact: this one was the harderst one to pin down the exact location, I only knew bc of an article that the schooting took place by "Wey Navigation" which is a river long 32km (miles), I tried to find a better mention or through google maps comparing place for a long time but couldn't, finally I wrote to the River Way Navigation organization on facebook but they had no record of the shooting. Finally, in one of the photos I noticed that in the background there is a footbridge that I saw a photo of a similar footbridge while searching on a history of Wey Navigation river on the UK National Trust page and fortunately the previous mentioned facebook page knew where it was, WAHOO! :))
Availability (as of 2024): all day
Link on the map
Hogback Wood (S01E01, S01E02, S01E04, S01E05) - Painshill Park, Cobham
Scene: The Hogback Wood where The Them play, seen in several episodes.
Availability (as of 2024): The entrance to the park is paid (£11 with prebooking online on https://painshill.co.uk/visit-us/ticket-prices-booking/) They open at 10 and close at 16-18 depending on the season. The World Word II crater they shot the main scene at should be in the west-south tip of the park. The whole path there and back is 4km (2,5 miles).
Link on the map
International Express Man's house (S01E04) - Shetland Close, Guildford
Scene: The International Express Man leaves the house to make deliveries
Availability (as of 2024): street all day
Link on the map
Agnes Nutter's village (S01E02) - Weald & Downland Living Museum, Chichester
Scene: The Agnes Nutter's village in episode two. In the map I highlighted which part we see the villagers and Witchfinder Major Pulsifer to through in the show.
Availability (as of 2024): The entrance fee is paid (£15.50 for an adult ticket prebooked online https://www.wealddown.co.uk/), it opens at 10 and closes at 16-17 depending on the month.
Link on the map
Tadfield Air Base (S01E05, S01E06) - RAF Upper Heyford, Bicester
Scene: For the shooting of the Tadfield Air Base the former RAF Upper Heyford was used, by the examining the google maps and screenshots from the series I think that the area labeled as 'Shelter 9' was used.
Availability (as of 2024): The place is no longer used by RAF purposes, there are several companies that use certain areas it but it is not available for public. The Upper Heyford Heritage though organizes (paid - £25.00) tours through the airbase: http://www.upperheyfordheritage.co.uk/home-page/tour-booking/
Link on the map
Soho (S1) – Bovingdon Airfield Studios
Scene: The Aziraphale's bookshop and Soho in season one were built at Bovingdon Airfield Studios
Availability (as of 2024): The studios can be rented but I don't think they are publicly available – the Soho is not there anymore though, it is now build in studios in Scotland.
Link on the map
The motorway on fire (S01E05) - M96 Training Motorway at Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh
Scene: The motorway on fire when Crowley is heading for Tadfield was filmed at M95 Training Motorway at Fire Service College that is usually used for training emergency service professionals
Availability (as of 2024): Not publicly available.
Link on the map
South Africa:
The 1941 church (S01E03) - St. Saviour's Church, Claremont, Cape Town
Scene: The scene in Season 1 where Aziraphale is outsmarted by the Nazis and is saved by Crowley
Availability (as of 2024): Their facebook says Always open
Link on the map
Famine at a fancy restaurant (S01E03) - Mutual Heights building, Cape Town
Scene: The restaurant where we meet Famine for the first time
Availability (as of 2024): It is a building with flats, offices and a reception, not available to public.
Link on the map
Crowley in a cinema (S01E04) - Joseph Stone Auditorium, Cape Town
Scene: Crowley in a cinema (with Neil Gaiman cameo) watching animated rabbits when Hastur interrupts
Availability (as of 2024): Not publicly available as such but they there are presentations and and such happening there https://www.facebook.com/josephstone1968/
Link on the map
Aziraphale dancing gavotte (S01E04) - Casa Labia, Cape Town
Scene: Aziraphale dancing gavotte in a discreet gentlemen's club in Portland Place in the late 1880s was filmed at Casa Labia in Cape Town
Availability (as of 2024): Casa labia is hotel and a restaurant so it can be visited in that way https://www.casalabia.com/
Link on the map
Anathema's child home (S01E02) - Llandudno Rock Villa, Cape Town
Scene: The home which we see Anathema as a child with The Book (in the show it's Malibu, California)
Availability (as of 2024): street all day, the villa itself seems that it can be rented
Link on the map
Eden desert and ep6 time bubble desert (S01E01,S01E06) – Atlantis Dunes, Cape Town
Scene: The Eden desert scenes and the time bubble with Adam and AC were filmed in the Atlantis Dunes at the outskirts of Cape Town
Availability (as of 2024): The Atlantis Dunes – or Witzands Aquifer Conservation Area – is a protected natural area. Biking adventures can be booked through https://atlantisdunes.com/ or also other activities through https://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/see-all-city-facilities/our-recreational-facilities/Nature%20reserves/Witzands%20Aquifer%20Nature%20Reserve
Link on the map
The apple tree in the Garden of Eden (S01E01) - Waterfall Valley (formerly Cascade Country Manor), Paarl
Scene: The Eden apple tree with the waterfall in the background was filmed at the retreat Waterfall Valley (then Cascade Country Manor) (the tree was added by the film crew for the scene)
Availability (as of 2024): I am not sure if you can visit the waterfall like that or you have to be a guest in the restreat. The retreat is available for booking: https://www.waterfallvalley.online/
Link on the map
There were other scenes also filmed at South Africa (thought not specified exactly where): Hell was filmed in Cape Town in a former abattoir. The Noah’s Ark scene and the Crucifixion scene were filmed on a windswept plain just outside Cape Town. Also the Meggido scenes. The entire village used for the scene with War causing mayhem in an african village is in fact a set, built on scrubland over a sand mine just outside Cape Town. The French Revolution scene wa shot on a set that had been used twenty-four hours earlier for the scene in Ancient Rome. Famine visiting a burger place with Elvis was shot on a set in Cape Town. Also some scene's in Anathema's cottage with Anathema and Newt.
SEASON 2
Most of season 2 has been shot inside the film studio in Bathgate (f.e. the whole Soho has been built there), the Hell in S2 has been shot in an old disused factory (not specififed which one). The shots of the Edinburgh castle have been shot from the top of the The Caledonian hotel.
Edinburgh:
Crowley and Shax in St James's Park (S02E01) – Inverleith Park, Edinburgh
Scene: Crowley and Shax meet to discuss the news in St James's Park – the scene though was actually filmed in Scotland.
Availability (as of 2024): All day
Link on the map
The place where Crowley parks the Bentley (S02E01, S02E02) – Circus Lane, Edinburgh
Scene: The place Crowley goes to to park the Bentley and sleep there
Availability (as of 2024): street all day
Link on the map
AC and Elspeth in Edinburgh (S02E03) - Moray Place, Edinburgh
Scene: Aziraphale, Crowley and Elspeth are taking the first "pickled herring" to be sold, Aziraphale and Crowley are debating good and evil
Availability (as of 2024): street all day
Link on the map
Detective Aziraphale parks the Bentley (S02E03) – Victoria Street, Edinburgh
Scene: Aziraphale arrives in the Bentley and happily goes to investigate
Availability (as of 2024): street all day
Link on the map
The Resurrectionist (S02E03, S02E06) - Cask and Barrel, Edinburgh
Scene: Aziraphale goes to investigate to The Resurrectionist bar (also in Gabriel's memories with Beelzebub) – filmed in the Cask and Barrel bar
Availability (as of 2024): outside all day, inside 12-24, Fri-Sat 12-1
Link on the map
Stirling:
Edinburgh cementery (S02E03) - Old Town Cemetery, Stirling
Scene: The cemetery in episode 3 was filmed at the Stirling cemetery (grave, some gravestones, Gabriel's statue and the crypt has been added by the crew for the shooting)
Availability (as of 2024): all day
Link on the map
AC and Elspeth going through Edinburgh (S02E03) – Broad Street, Stirling
Scene: Aziraphale, Crowley and Elspeth going through Edinburgh while Aziraphale is trying to persuade her that she could do something else
Availability (as of 2024): street all day
Link on the map
Meeting Wee Morag (S02E03) - Mar's Wark, Stirling
Scene: The small corridor behind the gate where Wee Morag is staying
Availability (as of 2024): The front all day, the corridor if not through the gate then hopefully from the other side
Link on the map
Others in Scotland:
AC drinking whiskey with Mr Darlymple and the corridor to Mr Darlymple (S02E03) – Hopetoun House, Queensferry
Scene: Aziraphale and Crowley drinking whisky with Mr Darlymple while he explains why he needs fresh dead bodies also at the house has been filmed the corridor reading to Mr Darlymple
Availability (as of 2024): Hopetoun is visitable, Friday 29 March 2024 to Sunday 29 September 2024 Open 5 days per week (Thursday – Monday) from 11am to 5pm, £13.50 for an adult ticket for House and Grounds (to see both), or £13.50 for Grounds (to see the corridor)
Link on the map
The Windmill Theatre in 1941 (S02E04) - Hippodrome Cinema, Bo'ness
Scene: The theatre that Crowley delivered the broken alcohol to and Aziraphale performed the bullet catch
Availability (as of 2024): You can visit the cinema for a movie or an event https://www.hippodromecinema.co.uk/whats-on/
Link on the map
Soho and more (S2) - The Pyramids Studio, Bathgate
Scene: The S2 Soho has been built in the Bathgate studio, also there were built and shot many other scenes
Availability (as of 2024): It is not available to visit for public
Link on the map
London:
Possibly only streets were filmed and the Bentley was added with VFX.
C on the way to A after A calls him (S02E01) - Wardour Street, London
Scene: Crowley on the way to Aziraphale after Aziraphale calls him (to tell him about Gabriel)
Availability (as of 2024): street all day
Link on the map
C rushing to A after Beelzebub's visit (S02E01) - Regent Street St James's, London
Scene: Crowley rushing to Aziraphale after Beelzebub told with that anyone who will be find helping Gabriel will be dealt with extreme sanctions
Availability (as of 2024): street all day
Link on the map
Whew! This masterpost took me several weeks, hope you enjoyed it and it might help you plan your trip to see the Good Omens places! :) ❤ 🐍😊 Wahoo! :)
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