Where was Nurse Jackie shot? Revisiting key filming locations of the Showtime drama

Nurse Jackie was shot in full in NYC, but that didn’t mean it was just a Manhattan production. The series used everything from busy city streets to meticulously built hospital sets to visually depict the All Saints’ Hospital world. You could see the vibrancy of the city in every shot, but the reality behind the camera was much more complicated.

For the whole seven seasons, Nurse Jackie had the challenge of keeping the authentic look and controlling the production by mixing Manhattan's outer areas, Queens sound stages, and filming in neighborhoods. Jackie was either rushing through the streets or entering the hospital, but the locations that were chosen were very exclusive to have the grounded feel of New York.

Here’s a complete list of the actual filming locations for Nurse Jackie.

Kaufman Astoria Studios: The cores of All Saints’ interiors in Nurse Jackie

Every hospital interior scene of Nurse Jackie was shot at Kaufman Astoria Studios, located in Astoria, Queens. Patient rooms, ER bays, nurse stations, hallways, offices, and administrative areas are all part of the discussions. The complete construction of these interiors on studio soundstages allowed the production to have total control over the lighting, camera angles, and the placement of medical equipment.

No interior scenes were shot at a functioning hospital. Utilizing a studio setting, the production was able to conduct filming for the whole series without losing the effect of light and sound, and through seven seasons, making it the hospital's constant presence in different scenarios, including emergencies, stunts, and medical procedures.

The whole corridor and patients' rooms displayed in Nurse Jackie were part of a specifically designed set, made to feel like a real hospital, that gave the show its unique and persistent visual identity.

Baruch College: The early seasons’ hospital outside

In the first three seasons, the main exterior view of All Saints’ Hospital was Baruch College on East 25th Street in Manhattan. The identification was accomplished by location logs and visual comparisons that were consistent, indicating that Baruch College had laid the modern urban facade upon the series, which was a requirement to show the arrival of ambulances, to have hospital entrances, and also to have street-level establishing shots.

The hospital's large open space and glass-and-steel building allowed the filming to take place without interrupting any hospital activities, and the crew could shoot several exterior scenes at once. The viewers of Nurse Jackie during its first seasons were, in fact, seeing the flawless representation of Baruch College's All Saints' Hospital, though the indoor scenes were filmed in Queens.

Bellevue Hospital: The later seasons' iconic exterior

From Season 4 onward, the series replaced the hospital scene at Bellevue Hospital Center, Kips Bay, Manhattan, with its exterior. The historic facade of Bellevue Hospital is clearly seen in the opening scenes, sidewalk passing, and the famous ambulance drop-off moments. This transformation was a visual change in Nurse Jackie, but the later seasons were still somewhat different in cinematography from the earlier ones.

From Season 4 to Season 7, Bellevue was the main exterior location, offering the series a recognisable, real New York City hospital. Even though the studios in Queens provided the interiors, Bellevue's facade allowed the audience to feel like they were witnessing a real, operational hospital.

Kelly’s Bar & Grill: The Red Owl Bar in Astoria

The film crew used Kelly's Bar & Grill, located at 31-04 Crescent St. in Astoria, Queens, as the fictional Red Owl Bar outside the hospital. The site was Jackie and her coworkers' favorite retreat and was featured in the scenes of their off-duty interactions, personal disputes, and chit-chats across the hospital boundary.

The bar functioned to ease the hospital's dominant theme of the plot by providing a view of the characters' lives, all while being placed in the real, authentic Astoria neighborhood.

NYC Streets

Nurse Jackie not only used the different buildings but also relied on the real streets of New York City a lot to show the daily life of Jackie Peyton. The filming took place in different neighborhoods like Midtown Manhattan, Hell’s Kitchen, and Kips Bay. These places contributed to the reality of the scenes where Jackie was commuting, going to work, or even meeting patients and doctors in the hospital corridor.

Filming on streets enabled the series to get the city's sounds, movements, and visual energy, another aspect that was impossible to get with just studio sets. Nurse Jackie used Manhattan streets, stony interiors, and Baruch or Bellevue exteriors to build a world that seemed animated, crowded, and unequivocally New York.

Why was a hybrid approach essential?

Nurse Jackie’s production intentionally paired studio interiors with Manhattan exteriors for several reasons:

Actual hospitals are quite difficult to film inside; interior filming in real hospitals is not possible due to patient privacy, hospital safety, and logistical hurdles. Studio sets allow for total artistic control. Medical stents, lighting, and camera placement could all be planned into hallways, rooms, and ER bays made just for the purpose.

Manhattan exteriors bring in authenticity. Viewers of the series will bond with New York if they see real city buildings, sidewalks, and streets. Having multiple exterior sites provides seasonal flexibility. Baruch College was conveniently located for Seasons 1-3, whereas Bellevue Hospital was more advantageous for the following seasons.

Although this hybrid approach was a common feature in hospital dramas, it was, nevertheless, a perfect fit for more laid-back productions like Nurse Jackie. The series never had a single building representing the entire hospital, yet the viewers were rarely aware of the transitions due to meticulous production planning.

Nurse Jackie was a New York City production in the truest sense of the term, mixing studio interiors in Queens with outdoor shots in Manhattan and real streets to depict the iconic world of All Saints’ Hospital. Confirmed locations from Baruch College in the beginning seasons to Bellevue Hospital in later years, and from Kaufman Astoria Studios to the Red Owl Bar at Kelly’s Bar & Grill contributed to the show’s authenticity.

The innovative method used to film the series allowed the production to have a blend of the realistic and the practical, thus creating an urban environment with the immersion that the fans of Nurse Jackie associate with the show.

In the end, Jackie Peyton’s hospital was a melting pot of different neighborhoods, soundstages, and streets, but through careful planning, it was perceived as one cohesive, living hospital, just as the viewers remember it.