Filming Locations: Where was The Shape of Water filmed?

The new movie of Guillermo del Toro is a visually powerful film, featuring some interesting filming locations. This is a love story between a mute woman working in a hidden high-security government laboratory, and a sea creature that was found in the rivers of South America.
The cast is led by Sally Hawkins (Elisa) and Octavia Spencer (Zelda), as the facilities cleaning women. Doug Jones gets -literally- into the skin of an other-worldly amphibian. Michael Shannon is the temperamental Colonel Richard, and Richard Jenkins is Elisa's friend, Giles.
The Shape of Water was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton in Ontario (Canada). However, the movie is set in Baltimore (Maryland) during the years of the Cold War, around 1963. A large part of the film, including the Occam Aerospace Research Center and Elisa's apartment, was shot at Cinespace Studios.
The cast is led by Sally Hawkins (Elisa) and Octavia Spencer (Zelda), as the facilities cleaning women. Doug Jones gets -literally- into the skin of an other-worldly amphibian. Michael Shannon is the temperamental Colonel Richard, and Richard Jenkins is Elisa's friend, Giles.
The Shape of Water was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton in Ontario (Canada). However, the movie is set in Baltimore (Maryland) during the years of the Cold War, around 1963. A large part of the film, including the Occam Aerospace Research Center and Elisa's apartment, was shot at Cinespace Studios.

The exteriors of the research facility were filmed at the John Andrews Building in the Scarborough campus of the University of Toronto.
(Tip: you can open all the locations on Google Maps clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight and Sean Marshall - Map

The water man goes to the cinema in the beautiful Elgin Theatre in Toronto, where the film premiered during the Toronto International Film Festival. This is the same location where the Umbrella Academy was filmed in season one. Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight and Anton Bielousov - Map

The exteriors of the Orpheum theatre were filmed at Massey Hall, also in Toronto.
Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight and Secondary Waltz - Map

Dundas and Ossington street (Toronto) were filled with vintage cars, and diner scenes were set in The Lakeview Restaurant. Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight and Google Maps

The Shape of Water crew shot Dr. Hoffstetler's apartment outside a building at 181 MacNab St S in Hamilton.
Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight and Google Maps

According to local newspaper TheSpec.com filming also took place in Hamilton City Hall, that served as Giles' former company building (pictured), and the old Delta Bingo at 46 King Street E. Image by Saforrest - Map

The meeting place of the Russians is the Lakeshore Sand Company in Hamilton.
Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight - Map

The scenes at the docks were filmed in the Don River area around the Keating Channel, Lake Shore Boulevard E and Villiers St in Toronto. This is also one of the locations where The Boys is filmed.
Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight - Map
Can you help to improve this article about the shooting locations of The Shape of Water? To complete and correct this report, any feedback, info or images that you may have are more than welcome, thank you!
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For further information to go behind the scenes, we recommend you the book Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water:
Creating a Fairy Tale for Troubled Times, including amazing concept art and design work created for the film. Also it's available the atmospheric soundtrack
by Alexandre Desplat, and the novel
of the movie, co-written by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus:
This article contains affiliate links, which means as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This article was written completely independently.
Any information on the scenes at the docks??
ReplyDeleteI'm traveling to Toronto in a week and I'm gonna hit all these places... what an incredible movie...
The dock scene was definitely near the Gardiner Express Way, possibly near Cherry Street.
Delete62 Villiers St... found it. :) But you need permission from the Toronto Port Authority...
DeleteAwesome, thanks a lot for your help. Updated!
DeleteI absolutely loved it, wow what a screenplay. I write screenplays and I was blown away.
DeleteThe diner scenes are filmed st The Lakeview Diner, 1132 Dundas St. West, Toronto
DeleteThanks, updated!
DeleteIn the background of one of the scenes you can see the old ferries from the Toronto Island Airport.
ReplyDeleteJust FYI: Delta Bingo is in the process of being demolished, in Hamilton, to make way for Condos.
ReplyDeleteIt's now entirely demolished.
DeleteI believe the Russian pick-up and extraction scenes were shot on location at a company called Lakeshore Sand in Hamilton
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Andrew, we can confirm this thanks to Google Maps!
DeleteThe diner Jiles goes to is Lakeview diner in Toronto on Dundas St.
ReplyDeleteHamilton City Hall also featured in interior scenes, notably the striking mosaic tiles.
ReplyDeleteAll comments are reviewed prior to publication