With The Walking Dead finale just having aired on UK TV (I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it but that scene where Daryl died was HEAVY) I thought it only fitting to talk Atlanta.
We were originally planning on passing through Birmingham AL on the way up from New Orleans to Nashville but after the fun we had tracking down the True Detective filming locations I really wanted to do the same with The Walking Dead.
The prison apparently is a film set and not a real prison which was dead disappointing. The hospital and ‘Woodbury’ are about 30 miles South of downtown Atlanta in places called Newnan and Senoia. We still got to see quite a few of the key sites from Series 1 though.
The iconic view on the way into Atlanta where you see Rick riding the horse and Glenn stealing the car is located on the Jackson St bridge by Martin Luther King Park. They CGI’d the train tracks in, made the roads wider and added a bridge but that’s the place it was shot.
Rick’s house is at 817 Cherokee Avenue
Morgan’s house is literally round the corner at the intersection of Ormond St & Rawlin Street, you can see the window from which he had to shoot his wife.
The CDC is actually the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center (sic) about 20 minutes away at 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway.
It’s also possible to visit the intersection where Rick got stuck in the tank but I didn’t see the point. If you’re interested it’s at Forsyth St & Walton St.
You can do an official Walking Dead tour for about $60 but if you’re on a road trip and you have a car it’s just as easy to do it yourself though – we got loads of info from walkingdeadlocations.com
Other cool things about Atlanta (bear with me, I was there less than 12 hours) – The Marriott is the tallest hotel in the city and it’s like staying in a rib cage. On the 10th floor you can get a 360 degree view of the city.
Just down the road from the Marriott you’ll find the Metro Café which is a 24 hour bar with karaoke on every night – which for those of you who are old enough to remember could have been exactly modeled on De Coubertins sports bar which used to be under what is now The Hard Days Night hotel. I miss the steamboats and dancing on the bar coyote ugly style…
XOXO
