After much anticipation, Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift premiered their music video for "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" and it was just as sexy and tormented as fans wanted it to be. While Swift and Malik don't spend much time together in the video, they are singing about their intense love in the same location, so where was "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" filmed? An iconic London hotel provided the gorgeous backdrop for Malik and Swift's music video for their song off of the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack— and you've most definitely seen this hotel in another famous music video before.
Even before the music video dropped on Jan. 27, the British paper The Sun reported that Malik was spotted filming at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London. (Makes sense since Malik is English after all.) In the video, his car pulls up in front of the St. Pancras Hotel on a rainy night and then he strides through the lobby while being hounded by paparazzi. Swift also filmed at the hotel, as she can be seen pacing the halls. And although both Malik and Swift are in anguish in the video, they got to have some fun trashing the elegant hotel rooms at St. Pancras.
While the Fifty Shades of Grey films primarily take place in Seattle, I'm fairly confident that Christian Grey would approve of the luxurious UK hotel that Malik and Swift are hanging out in. Plus, E.L. James, the author of the Fifty Shades of Grey series, is British.
If you had time to process all the sultriness, you may have thought that the location of "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" looked familiar. That would be because the Spice Girls filmed "Wannabe" there over 20 years ago (!!). The steps where Sporty, Posh, Baby, Ginger, and Scary danced on are in the same hotel that Swift and Malik are in.
The St. Pancras website provides some history on the hotel, which originally opened in 1873, and when the Spice Girls filmed there, the hotel had been abandoned. In the 1960s, there were discussions about demolishing the building and it had been empty since 1985. It wasn't until 2002 that a plan to renovate the hotel to its former glory was agreed upon.
However, no matter if it was a working hotel or not, the striking building served as a filming location for movies, as well as music videos, like Batman, 102 Dalmatians, Bridget Jones' Diary, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Batman Begins. As the hotel is situated near King's Cross, Harry Potter filming there made perfect sense.
Although the five-star hotel may not have been functional when the Spice Girls filmed there, it most certainly was when Malik and Swift filmed "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" in early January 2017. That means, you can stay at St. Pancras next time you're in London to recreate the magic that Malik and Swift made in "I Don't Wanna Live Forever." I just wouldn't advise trashing the rooms like the two music superstars did.
