It was Nottingham, the main location being the Raleigh bike factory
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And it was there, to the turnery department, that Reisz' cameras went. Finney actually spent two days on a Raleigh lathe, so he would look convincing.
The film company used some of the turnery employees as extras, paying them Equity rates for the scenes in which they appeared. They were paid on a "cash in hand" basis, £2 a day.
At one point Finney rides a Raleigh bike. He was filmed on Salisbury Street, Radford, for a scene in which he is supposedly going home after work.
A similiar scene, with Finney on the same sports bike, was also filmed in Beaconsfield Terrace, one of Nottingham's then-still-cobbled streets. Sillitoe himself had lived there, at No 5, and his mother still did when the film was made.
A number of Nottingham pubs were used, notably the notorious Eight Bells in St Peter's Gate. The pub had a striking ground-floor tiled frontage.
To ensure the film's smooth-running – and that everything was in place when necessary – maker Woodfall Films set up production headquarters in the Co-op offices in Toll Street at least a month before the cameras started rolling. It became the hub of productivity.
It was from there the company issued its appeal for extras – general extras as opposed to the Raleigh workers – for the filming scenes in Old Market Square and elsewhere in the city centre.
More than 900 people answered. In the event, about 150 were picked."
This is Nottingham | Nottingham screening for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning