Something sinister has been going on near Erith marshes, with a mad scientist creating outrageous experiments in his lab.

In the forthcoming movie Victor Frankenstein - released on Thursday, December 3 – Crossness Pumping Station in Thamesmead was used as the title character’s lab.

Loosely inspired by Mary Shelley’s gothic horror classic, the film stars James McAvoy (X Men: First Class, Atonement) and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) as scientist Frankenstein and his – in this version – equally brilliant sidekick Igor as their research into immortality leads to horrifying consequences.

It is directed Paul McGuigan, who has form for working on new versions of cherished texts, having directed episodes of Sherlock and that show’s Andrew Scott (who played Moriarty) also features.

While it may seem odd to shoot a movie at a sewage works, Crossness is regarded as a Victorian gem.

It was designed by the famous engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and features ornamental ironwork that was described by famous architectural scholar Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘a masterpiece of engineering – a Victorian cathedral of ironwork’.

It was also used as a location for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes in 2009.

Victor Frankenstein also filmed exterior shots at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and in studios at Longcross in Surrey and Twickenham Film Studios.

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