Where was 'Sex and the City' filmed in New York?
And just like that, 22 years after Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte first arrived on US screens, a new chapter has been announced. The rebooted series has been given a new title, And Just Like That…, and will star Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis – a notable absence though is Kim Catrall, who played Samantha Jones. The revival, from HBO Max, will follow the trio as they navigate love and friendship in their 50s – and the series of 10 half-hour episodes began production in New York City in late spring 2021 ready for a UK release on Sky and NOW on Thursday 9 December.
The hit show was in part a success because it made living in New York at the turn of the millennium seem so much darned fun. With that in mind, and while we wait for more details on the new production, we take a look at where the two Sex and The City movies were shot, as well as the key locations from six seasons of SATC that put the sex in New York City.
Craig Blankenhorn/New Line Cinema/Kobal/ShutterstockWhere was 'Sex and The City' the movie filmed?
MOMA AND CONDÉ NAST, TIMES SQUARE
Released in 2008, four years after the end of the series, Sex and the City the movie picks up pretty much directly from the show. Carrie is still in her apartment but finds a new one on Fifth Avenue – supposedly at 1010 but actually filmed nearby on 82nd Street – that precipitates a marriage proposal from Big, while our protagonists visit the expected parade of high-gloss locations in New York. There’s the engagement-announcement meet-up at The Modern in MoMA on West 53rd, the wedding rehearsal dinner at Buddakan on 9th Avenue and Carrie's drinks with new assistant Louise (Jennifer Hudson) in Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle on East 76th. Carrie tells Samantha the news by phone from the Diane von Furstenberg store on 14th, attends an auction at Christie’s on Rockefeller Plaza and meets her editor at the old offices of Condé Nast on Times Square.
Craig Blankenhorn/New Line Cinema/Kobal/ShutterstockTHE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND MALIBU
Looming large is Carrie’s wedding venue of choice, the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. This Beaux Arts temple of the city’s early-20th-century Gilded Age has featured in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Ghostbusters and the 2002 Spider-Man; here, we see it both working its day job, when Carrie returns a book, and as an event venue. Almost as spectacular is Samantha’s home on the West Coast, an all-glamour glass construction on Malibu Road. The production takes advantage of the locale for the foursome’s trip out of NYC: supposedly they visit a Mexican hotel, but it is in fact a private villa near La Piedra State Beach, just west of Malibu.
New Line Cinema/Hbo/Village Roadshow/Kobal/ShutterstockWhere was Sex and The City 2 filmed?
New Line Cinema/Hbo/Village Roadshow/Kobal/ShutterstockTHE SAHARA PALACE MARRKECH
The foursome are put up in the Royal Suite of what is now the Sahara Palace Marrakech in the Palmeraie, with great views of the Atlas Mountains. Filming here took place before the hotel, sumptuously designed incorporating Indian, Venetian and Moorish styles, was complete. At the time expected to be the Mandarin Oriental Jnan Rahma, it opened three years later and was rebranded as the Taj Palace, and has since changed hands and name again.
New Line Cinema/Hbo/Village Roadshow/Kobal/ShutterstockTHE AMANJENA MARRAKECH
We also see another of the city’s grand hotels, the Amanjena, when Carrie dines with old flame Aidan, and there are the expected shots of the bustling medina and Jemaa el-Fna Square. When our stars head out to the Sahara Desert, they appear to be in Lawrence of Arabia territory with dune-walking near Ouarzazate, before feasting in a Bedouin tent and riding camels near Merzouga, on the edge of Erg Chebbi. Beach scenes took them to Essaouira, Morocco’s famed Sixties hangout, and the sands of Sidi Kaouki on the Atlantic Coast.
Of course, alongside all this carrying on abroad, there’s plenty of city action. We see them shopping at Bergdorf Goodman, we visit Samantha’s new office created in the Renaissance Times Square Hotel and catch Big at work in the real-life Third Avenue offices of law firm Hogan & Hartson. There are some big cameos, too: Penélope Cruz pops up at the Empire Hotel on West 63rd, while Miley Cyrus turns out in the same outfit as Samantha for a red-carpet event at the now-shuttered Clearview Cinemas Ziegfeld on West 54th.
Getty ImagesWhere was Sex and The City filmed in New York for the TV series?
PERRY STREET, WEST VILLAGE
First off, the brownstone apartment in which Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) voices-over her column-based learnings: supposedly on East 73rd Street, this is in fact in the West Village, on Perry Street. (Oddly, Number 64 was used for the first three seasons, then 66 for the last three.) It’s become a regular fan haunt, but since it’s a private residence it might be more polite to pay homage at Carrie’s spiritual home, Manolo Blahnik on West 54th Street (above), where she spends the bulk of that famous $40,000 on shoes.
Getty ImagesNEW YORK CITY'S SHOPS
As a top fashion maven, Carrie hits stores from Bloomingdales and Prada to discount outlet Century 21 (22 Cortland Street), where she picks up a Dolce & Gabbana kimono on the cheap. Appearing in the show raised that place’s kudos, as it did Magnolia Bakery (above), the cakeshop at 401 Bleecker Street in the West Village where Carrie tells Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) about a significant new love interest over cupcakes in Season 3. It’s since bloomed into a city landmark and a worldwide chain but the original is still going strong.
RESTAURANTS IN NEW YORK CITY
If anything, SATC has even more restaurants than shops: there’s Brasserie 8½ (9 West 57th Street), the French place Carrie describes as “on the corner of Right Now and Everyone Was There” and where she’s scouted as a model for D&G in Season 4, or Monkey Bar (60 East 54th Street), where she meets up with jazz bassist Ray, also Season 4. Another standout is Russian Samovar (256 West 52nd Street), where she dines on veal in aspic at 1.03am with Aleksandr Petrovsky, played by Mikhail Baryshnikov (above), one of the restaurant’s real-life owners.
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CENTRAL PARK
The most memorable dining scenes, though, are with her most significant other, Mr Big (Chris Noth, above). Da Marino (220 West 49th Street) is the Midtown Italian where he sweeps her off her feet with a rendition of Sinatra’s 'It Was A Very Good Year', while Eleven Madison Park (11 Madison Avenue) is the room with a great view where he breaks it to her that he’s getting married (lucky she has a Cosmopolitan at hand).
Other Big moments take place around Central Park. At the end of Season 2, she confronts him outside his engagement party at the Plaza Hotel (768 Fifth Avenue) and quotes The Way We Were at him, while the finale of Season 3 sees them meeting up for the first time after the end of his marriage at the Loeb Boathouse, on the lake – and, after he lunges for a kiss, in it.
Getty ImagesSTATEN ISLAND FERRY AND THE PLEASURE CHEST
Equally unforgettable, though, are times when Carrie and the gang are in rather less stylish surroundings: taking the Staten Island Ferry (departs from 4 Whitehall Street) in Season 3 to see the FDNY fireman competition, or shopping together for sex toys at The Pleasure Chest (156 Seventh Avenue South, above) in Season 1 or on the street after being thrown out of Soho House (29 Ninth Avenue) in Season 6.
Getty ImagesTHE PARIS THEATRE
And one of the series’ most memorable scenes is just Carrie and her best friend of all – New York. That’s in Season 5 when she takes a Saturday night off to spend by herself at classic arthouse cinema The Paris Theater (4 West 58th Street), a reminder that, in spite of the title, Sex and the City is really a love letter to New York.
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Carrie Bradshaw, played by actor Sarah Jessica Parker.
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Getty ImagesBarneys, New York, one of Carrie's regular haunts.
Getty ImagesManolo Blahnik, the high-end shoe shop where Carrie's iconic 'engagement shoes' come from.
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Shopaholic Carrie with a Dior haul.
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Carrie on the ferry.
Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Kim Cattrall, the cast of Sex and the City.