Gandalf’s Staff, used in The Lord of the Rings, is in Gandalf’s Pub on the River Thames and Sir Ian McKellen, who plays Gandalf

took on the lease with two others in 2013.

The Grapes pub is on Narrow Road in Limehouse and has a history that would fill books. The house backs onto the River Thames, as does the pub terrace. Three regular cruise guest speakers, photographer Ken Lennox, composer Mark Blackledge, and director Stuart St Paul, met for lunch there. It is best reached by Uber River Taxi, which is a long route should you wish to take it all.

https://www.thamesclippers.com/plan-your-journey/route-map

The staff sits in the centre of the bar. Relica’s of this sell for over $1200 on ebay.

The pub is full of pictures, mainly of Charles Dickens, who mentioned the pub in chapter one of Our Mutual Friend. Tolkien took the name “Gandalf” from the Old Norse “Catalogue of Dwarves” in the Völuspá.

It is a short walk from Canary Wharf, but an even shorter walk from the Uber River Boat Taxi. The film goes down to the bridge and sees it rise for a cruise ship to pass.

The epic trilogy started with the release of The Fellowship of The Ring in 2001, followed by The Two Towers in 2002, and then The Return of the King in 2003. The closeness of these three films of the epic take was achieved by having show all the film as one project, and then only the editing (and pick ups) had to achieved after. It was shot at Camperdown Studios and Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand with a large international crew that included many British members.

Gandalf was also known temporarily as the Grey and later the White, and originally named Olórin (Quenya).

The Hobbit films started to be released ten years afterwards, and shooting was also located in Hinuera Valley, Matamata. Filming locations included Mount Ruapehu, Milford Sound, Upper Hutt, Twizel, and Rangipo Desert.

For the cruisers following this vLog, the film of the Muse, and interviews with the guest lecturers who went to search out the pub are all below.