Searching for just the right spots was a delight for production designer Will Hughes-Jones. “I was like a kid in a sweet shop,” he told Shondaland, the show’s production company. “For a designer, what’s not to like about creating a heightened pastiche of the Regency world?” Because the show’s style is period romance to the extreme, everything’s more vibrant and more lush than real life. “I always refer back to the historical side of design, but we weren’t making a period drama in the truest sense of the word; I could take period and push it to the max,” he said. Bridgerton used 35 locations around England, along with some built sets, to create its sumptuous feast for the eyes. Let’s take a virtual Bridgerton tour around the country to visit some of the filming spots of the show.
Bridgerton Filming Locations
Grosvenor Square, London: Royal Crescent, Bath
The well-preserved city of Bath stood in for London for many of the street scenes, including shots of the Bridgertons’ and Featheringtons’ neighborhood of Grosvenor Square in London’s Mayfair district, which was played by Bath’s remarkable Royal Crescent. The Featherington home’s exterior is No. 1 Royal Crescent, now a museum; the interiors of the house were built as sets in order to get the specific color palette of yellows and greens the production team was looking for. Other street scenes were also filmed around Bath. Gunter’s Tea shop is played by 12 Trim Street, now a recently opened hair salon, and The Abbey Deli at 2 Abbey Street stood in for Madame Delacroix’s modiste shop.
The Bridgerton House: Ranger House
The exterior of the Bridgerton family’s home is a historic London property called Ranger House, which today also houses an art collection. The Bridgertons’ amazing staircase and entrance hall were filmed at RAF Halton—but most of the rest of the interiors were sets. “Because [the show] revolves around the Bridgertons and the Featheringtons, it was a very tall order to find those properties—their houses,” production designer Will Hughes-Jones told Condé Nast Traveler. “And to be honest, we built them. In terms of the Bridgerton House, the only interior location was the salon, or the entrance hall, and one of the wood paneled rooms—the rest of it, we built on a stage.” Like the Featherington house, the Bridgerton house set has its own specific color palette, this time of pale blues, which the production team couldn’t get from a real location. “We were never going to be able to repaint [protected historic] properties and start changing fabrics on walls to get the color palette that we needed,” Hughes-Jones said. “So that was a very early decision that we made.”
Queen Charlotte’s residence: Several historic homes
Queen Charlotte’s opulent royal palace wasn’t one location, but many. Daphne Bridgerton (Phoeve Dynevor) and the Featherington sisters make their debut to Queen Charlotte in the Double Cube Room of Wilton House, a 16th-century estate near Bath that’s home to the 18th Earl of Pembroke. Wilton House’s Single Cube Room (both cube rooms are named for their proportions) is the Queen’s parlor, and a garden party was also filmed on the estate grounds. “Filming the Queen’s world is actually very limited; there are probably only five places in the country that work for Buckingham and St. James Palaces, and Wilton House is one of them,” Hughes-Jones told Shondaland. Wilton House has also been used in The Crown, 2019’s Emma and many others, and is normally open to the public. London’s Lancaster House also plays part of the royal palace: Its Long Gallery is the spot where Simon (Regé-Jean Page) makes his impassioned speech to the Queen about his future bride. The Music Room is also used for several scenes, including the one in which Daphne’s mother takes tea with the Queen, and where Daphne is given a necklace by Prince Friedrich. Other royal palace locations include the Long Gallery at Syon House, a 16th century estate just outside London, where the Queen reads about Daphne’s engagement to Simon as she’s walking her dogs.
Hastings House: Wilton House and others
The exterior of the London home of Simon, Duke of Hastings, is played by Wilton House as well. “It was a fantastic location that gave us all sorts of interesting things: parts of the Hastings house were shot there, parts of Lady Danbury’s house, and the Queen’s parlors,” Hughes-Jones told Condé Nast Traveler. Several locations stood in for the Hastings House’s interior, including an amazing hall at Syon House lined with statues and a black and white checkered floor. The property’s courtyard also inspired the setting for the final ball of the season at the Hastings’ home. Yet another location, Badminton Estate, was used for the drawing room, where Daphne arranges a meeting between her brother Colin and his one-time fiancée, Marina.
Clyvedon: Castle Howard and others
The 18th-century Castle Howard plays Simon’s country estate of Clyvedon, including its impressive exterior and domed entrance hall. “It is one of the grandest country houses in the country,” Hughes-Jones told Condé Nast Traveler. “The beauty of the interior is just off the charts. We were very lucky to be able to film there, since the family that built it still lives there. And the dome, it was the first kind of dome in a private residence in England. When we started filming there, we all had our breath taken away by that dome.” Daphne and Simon’s nighttime romp in the rain takes place at the estate’s Temple of the Four Winds. The castle also famously appeared in both the 1981 and 2008 versions of Brideshead Revisted, and is normally open to the public. Wilton House also plays Clyvedon’s dining room; but perhaps the most memorable interior scene, in the library where Simon and Daphne have sex, was actually filmed at London’s social and dining spot The Reform Club. “It was so much fun that that’s what we were shooting there,” director Julie Anne Robinson told The Hollywood Reporter. “It seemed like it was blowing up the conventions of that place, by the way, which was until very recently a male-only club.”
Promenade: Painshill Park and Wilton House
Scenes at the gorgeous parklands where the characters stroll, ride horses and picnic were filmed at several locations including Painshill Park outside London, with its lovely Chinese Bridge and Five Arch Bridge, where Simon suggests self-pleasuring to Daphne. The gorgeous Palladian bridge on the Wilton House grounds also features in some outdoor scenes. “The gardens [at Wilton House] were an extra bonus—not just because they’re fantastic, but they allowed us to ride horses on their lawns,” Hughes-Jones told Condé Nast Traveler.
Lady Danbury’s house: Holburne Museum of Art and others
The exterior of Lady Danbury’s home is the grand facade of Bath’s Holburne Museum. In addition to Wilton House, other interiors include the Bath Assembly Rooms’ Tea Room. This lovely venue, with its high ceiling and gallery, is where the very first ball of the series takes place and where Daphne and Simon first meet. And if you want to get married Bridgerton-style, its available for weddings.
Many a ballroom: Leigh Court
Speaking of balls, several of them were shot among the different rooms at Leigh Court, a 19th-century historic property 45 minutes west of Bath, which today is a conference and wedding venue. “We shot three balls in three days; those three—the Ingenue Ball [episode 3], which was the blue and white one with the big staircase; the Crystal Ball [episode 2], which was the one with obviously lots of crystal in it; and the Bird Ball [episode 3] with terracotta walls and a bird theme with live birds who were very loud during filming—were all done in one building at Leigh Court in Bristol,” Hughes-Jones told Shondaland. “The rooms were next door to each other, and it was a pretty small space for what we were doing in there,” he said. “That was probably the most intense moment of the season for me and my team.” The Crystal Ball was filmed in the Salon and Tapestry Rooms; the Bird Ball in the Morning Room and Library; and the Ingenue Ball in the Great Hall. In addition to Leigh Court and the Bath Assembly Rooms’ Tea Room, other balls were filmed in the Assembly Rooms’ Ball Room, and the Guildhall Banqueting Room in Bath.
Boxing hall: Chatham Dockyards
Not all the locations in Bridgerton are grand and stately. The boxing arena where Simon and his friend Will practice was filmed at the historic Chatham Dockyards in Kent, east of London. Will’s modest home was also filmed there, along with the slums where Mrs. Featherington takes Marina. The final boxing match was filmed at the No. 3 Covered Slip. Viewers might also recognize the Chatham Dockyards as the location for Call the Midwife.
Trowbridge Ball: Hatfield House Marble Hall
The “provocative” black and white ball hosted by Lady Trowbridge in episode 4, after which Daphne and Simon passionately kiss in the garden, was filmed in the Marble Hall of Hatfield House, a 17th-century country abode north of London. With its wood paneling and checkered floor, the room lends a mood that’s darker than the more whimsical and romantic ball scenes we’d seen before in the show. Nicola Coughlan(Penelope Featherington) was especially excited to film at the property. “We shot at Hatfield House, which was the house that they filmed The Favourite in,” she said in a Netflix press interview. “I did sneak upstairs because I wanted to see Olivia Colman’s room. I was trying to rub the walls so that her acting talent would rub onto me!”
Outdoor Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens Ball: Temple of Venus, Stowe House
The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London is a real place, but for the outdoor ball scene that takes place there at the end of episode 1, a different location was used to recreate the stunning spectacle: the grounds in front of the Temple of Venus at Stowe House in Buckinghamshire. “We used 2.5 kilometers [1.5 miles] of stringed lighting in the avenue of trees with 800 flicker bulbs in the Vauxhall Gardens scene,” Hugh-Jones told Shondaland. “The bulbs gave the effect of whale oil burners, which is what they would have used at the time.” With the fireworks, sparklers, gas lamps and flambeaus, the whole place looks like a fairyland—even the cast was amazed. “When you read the scripts you can only imagine what it’s going to be like; you have a certain image but actually being here and seeing it all, it’s just amazing, it’s overwhelming,” Dynevor told Shondaland while filming the scene. Want to see more historic houses? Check out these22 sexy, scandalous shows just like the Netflix hit!
