Allied|Dean Street, Soho — the corner where the Free French drank, rebuilt for one night

For the London stretch of the story the production dressed a stretch of Dean Street in Soho, building an exterior on the corner where the pub once known as the York Minster stands. Londoners call it something else now. Since 1984 it has been The French House.

The name is not decoration. During the Second World War the pub at 49 Dean Street became the unofficial headquarters of the Free French in London — the place where de Gaulle's people gathered, where messages moved between exiles, and where a French woman working against the occupation could sit in a room full of her own language. Marianne Beauséjour is exactly the kind of person who would have been in that bar. The film pins its London half to a corner that already carried the history it needed.

The pub itself keeps its habits. It still serves beer in half pints by tradition, still refuses to install music or television, and still hangs photographs of its regulars on nicotine-coloured walls.

Stand on the pavement outside and look at how narrow the corner is — barely enough room for a camera and a period taxi, which is why so much of the street had to be dressed rather than found. Then go in and order a half. You will be standing where the actual resistance drank, which is a rarer thing than standing where a film crew stood.