Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers revolves around an ageing artist, his unfinished paintings, and the opportunistic children determined to track them down. But the film’s real centrepiece may well be the house itself.

The artist’s house in The Christophers

Julian Sklar’s home becomes the film’s emotional and visual anchor. The exterior was filmed in London’s Fitzroy Square, its Robert Adam architecture bringing a restrained grandeur, while the interiors were constructed on set by merging two conjoined townhouses into one layered, believable world.

Fitzroy Square as seen in The Christophers

The result feels richly accumulated: Rooms unfold through pools of light, stacked books, worn surfaces and furniture that appears to have lived alongside the paintings for decades.

The set dressing is especially strong. Nothing feels overly arranged. Objects sit where they belong, contributing to the sense of an artist who has spent a lifetime working, collecting and resisting order.

The artist Julian Sklar’s house with Jieldé Signal Lamp in The Christophers

Among the details worth pausing for is the industrial Jieldé Signal Lamp, its articulated metal form bringing a concentrated, almost obsessive energy to Sklar’s studio scenes. 

In The Christophers, an Anglepoise lamp in a vivid orange sits on Lori’s desk amongst her artist’s equipment, adding a sharp hit of colour and reinforcing her creative, expressive world.

An unapologetically bright orange Anglepoise Lamp appears on Lori’s desk, injecting a sharper contemporary note into her own creative space.

Performance-wise, Ian McKellen is magnificent, delivering Ed Solomon’s dialogue with dry precision and flashes of mischief, alongside Michaela Coel.

And then there was one small personal moment of recognition. A familiar bench still sitting proudly inside The Griffin in Shoreditch. A reminder that the best film interiors often resonate because they feel connected to real lives, real places, and the memories we attach to them.

The pub scenes in The Christophers