The show depicts the mum stubbornly clinging to her Chiswick roots when she moves to South Harlesden or ‘SoHa’
Series 2 of much- loved Amandaland was released on May 6 – about the the egotistical alpha mum Amanda. as she navigates life in neighbourhood ‘SoHa’ in West London. But does this place exists? Where it the show actually filmed?
In the series, Amanda moves to “SoHa” as a post-divorce migration, stubbornly clinging to her Chiswick roots while raising her teenagers, Georgie and Manus. As she settles in, she juggles running her lifestyle brand, “Senuous,” with working at “Kitchen’s Bathrooms and Kitchens,” and eventually comes to terms with her new surroundings. Still, she can’t resist a bit of snobbery when a new hipster coffee shop opens on the local high street, declaring: “She came, she saw, she gentrified”.
“South Harlesden,” or “SoHa” as Amanda tries to rebrand it, is not actually a real place. The BBC sitcom Amandaland is set in the real-life sprawling Victorian neighbourhood of Harlesden, located in north-west London’s NW10 postcode. Divided by the unlovely A404, the real Harlesden is a bustling, incredibly diverse Zone 3 community situated in Brent, where an impressive 149 languages are spoken.
Despite the show being set in Harlesden, the television magic tells a different story. The series is not actually filmed in Harlesden; it is shot in the much more upmarket north London neighbourhoods of Islington and Muswell Hill. While Amanda’s South Harlesden is filmed in Islington, the television universe does have one authentic tie to the area: the original pilot for Motherland (the show Amandaland spun off from) was actually filmed in Harlesden back in 2016 at the Gracelands Café
To capture the purportedly “gritty” and “run down” aesthetic of Amanda’s new life, set designers had to artfully distress these affluent streets with props like discarded shopping trolleys. This set dressing actually sparked outrage from some local Islington residents who were deeply offended that their streets were being used to depict a “fallen on hard times” version of Harlesden.
The real-life Harlesden, however, is a vibrant and gentrifying area with a lot to offer. It is highly sought-after by young professionals and down-scaling north Londoners for its high-ceilinged Edwardian properties, strong community spirit, and excellent transport links, which will eventually include the super-fast HS2 rail network at Old Oak Common. Real-life residents enjoy community-spirited green spaces like Roundwood Park, shop for international ingredients at the local Way 2 Save, and spend their evenings at independent cinema The Lexi or gastropubs along Chamberlayne Road.
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