Abhiroop Das
Directed by Chris Columbus, Netflix’s ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ follows four retired friends, each with unique backgrounds, coming together to solve cold cases every Thursday in their retirement home. While this initially begins as a way to pass the time, they soon find themselves entangled in a real case when someone close to them dies a mysterious death. With the culprit still lurking in the shadows, Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce begin their most difficult case yet. When it becomes evident that there is more to the mystery than meets the eye, the protagonists go on one daring adventure after another, inching their way to the truth, only to find the culprit one step ahead. The friends’ pursuit eventually leads them to a flower shop named Thorny Blooms. Initially unassuming, the shop hides many skeletons and takes on a meaningful role in the story. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Thorny Bloom is a Fictional Flower Shop Brought to Life Through an Intricate Set
While Thorny Blooms is a fictional construct specifically made for the narrative of ‘The Thursday Murder Club.’ It was originally created by writer Richard Osman for his eponymous novel, and later put to screen by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote. Given that the flower shop is featured in the novel, bringing its details to life was a challenging task. The production designer for the film, James Merified, spoke to Condé Nast Traveller about his rendition of the book’s location, while shedding light on the production process: “I’d always seen Thorny Blooms as Columbia Road, famous for its flower market, but it’s impossible to film there for all the obvious logistical reasons (…) We had a version (of a set) that was like Brick Lane in the 70s, then we reconfigured it and redressed it to turn it into Columbia Road and Thorny Blooms.”
Columbia Road, located in the heart of the Bethnal Green region in London, is famous for its urban flower market, which is active every Sunday. The strip is lined with Victorian shops, which bring a unique aesthetic to the place with colourful flowers. Columbia Road is famous for many flower shops and boutiques, with one of the most popular ones being Siansah’s Florist, located at 216 Bethnal Green Road, in London. The similarity of the naming style, coupled with the nature of the establishment, encourages the possibility of this shop being used as a reference point for the fictional Thorny Blooms. Another shop that fits the bill includes The Garden Shop, situated at 120 Columbia Road in Bethnal Green. While both of these are flower shops, they do not match the deeper history of the film’s counterpart.
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Thorny Blooms Tells the Story of its Mysterious Owner
Over the course of the story, we learn that Thorny Blooms, as well as its owner, Bobby Tanner, holds a darker secret, and Elizabeth’s investigations soon reveal that Tanner is a fearsome gangster. She initially expects the flower shop to be a cover front for his criminal organization; however, that appears to be far from the case. During a heated exchange, Tanner unexpectedly reveals that his true passion lies in caring for flora and that he takes his work at Thorny Blooms very seriously. While this stumps the protagonist, it helps ground her opponent back in reality. In addition, this brings up the idea that people involved in illegal activity often find their true calling in other pursuits. Tanner’s shift in personality, as such, can be interpreted as him finding a vessel for his creativity through flowers.
While Bobby Tanner may have found his calling in the form of Flower Shops, that does not mean that his time as a criminal has been erased from his life. On the contrary, Tanner’s experience with flowers and poison makes him one of the prime suspects in the central mystery of the narrative. When he gets to know of the Thursday Murder Club members chasing him, he uses his experience as a flower seller to his advantage, sending bouquets with symbolic meaning. Nonetheless, it is this endeavour that eventually brings him face-to-face with Elizabeth. Their following exchange becomes one of the key moments in the story, shaping the ultimate course of not just the case, but also the future of the Coopers Chase Retirement Village.
