Find out where ITV filmed the new Julian Fellowes drama Belgravia
Claire Webb - 8 April 2020
You can rely on a Julian Fellowes drama to showcase some spectacular stately homes, and Belgravia hasn’t disappointed. No scenes were actually filmed in the well-heeled district of London that gives the show its name. Instead, the cast and crew decamped to a clutch of Scotland and England’s most resplendent manors. The Belgravia pad of the nouveau-riche Trenchards (played by Tamsin Greig and Philip Glenister) is an amalgam of four houses: an Edinburgh townhouse, an Edwardian mansion in the Scottish Borders, a Palladian pile in Berkshire and a west London mansion with a past as colourful as Fellowes’s tale.
EDINBURGH’S ‘BELGRAVIA’
Belgravia was once a patch of marshland frequented by bandits and highwayman. In the first half of the 19th century, Thomas Cubitt (fictional James Trenchard’s business partner) built an estate of stucco crescents, squares and terraces that soon became London’s most desirable address. Today, it’s home to embassies and Russian oligarchs, and townhouses regularly fetch tens of millions of pounds, which is probably why it was impossible to get permission to shut the streets and replace the black cabs and 4x4s with horse-drawn carriages. Edinburgh’s New Town doubled for Belgravia’s grand squares. With its symmetrical rows, i t ’s a n e l e g a n t contrast to the city’s labyrinthine, medieval Old Town and possibly the UK’s finest example of Georgian town planning. Take a stroll down Moray Place and you’ll pass the exterior of the Trenchards’ townhouse at No 50 and the façade of the Brockenhursts’ London abode at No 9, while the Duchess’s bedroom is inside No 4. The Natural Trust for Scotland has carefully restored No 7 Charlotte Square, so visitors can see the splendour in which New Town’s original residents resided and glimpse how the other half lived below stairs. nts.org.uk
A TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY PALACE
Scotland’s finest Edwardian mansion doubles as the interior of both the Trenchards’ and Brockenhurst s ’ London townhouses. Manderston House in Berwickshire has 109 rooms, a silver-plated staircase, and a stable house that could be mistaken for a stately home. The original owner, Sir James Miller, was described by Vanity Fair as being “one of the most wealthy commoners in the country” and told his architect that it didn’ t matter how much he spent (probably because he wanted to impress his father-in-law who resided at Derbyshire’s sumptuous Kedleston Hall). Today it’s the residence of the Fourth Baron Palmer, who once appealed for volunteers to clean his silver balustrade in return for wine and sandwiches, claiming he couldn’t afford to have it professionally cleaned. manderston.co.uk
A GOLDEN GEORGIAN MANOR
Tamsin Greig et al also temporarily took up residence in Basildon Park, a honey-hued Palladian pile near Reading. Built by Sir Francis Sykes, who amassed his fortune working for the East India Company, it was neglected in the first half of the 20th century and used as a prisoner-of-war camp and officers’ mess in the Second World War. It was lovingly restored by newspaper magnate Lord Iliffe and his wife Rénee, who gifted it to the National Trust. The opulent interior has a few surprises, such as a mint-green 50s kitchen and a room dedicated to shells. Another National Trust house
has a cameo in Belgravia: West Wycombe House, a butter-yellow mansion in Buckinghamshire, was the backdrop to the Duchess of Bedford’s afternoon tea in episode one. nationaltrust.org.uk
A BLOODY HISTORY
Syon House in west London has elaborate Robert Adam interiors, Capability Brown-designed parkland and a grisly past. The original house was built by Edward Seymour, brother of Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour; he was executed for treason in 1552. A year later, ill-fated Lady Jane Grey was persuaded to accept the crown in Syon’s Long Galley, but was swiftly deposed by Mary I. A few years earlier, when Henry’s body lay in state at Syon, legend has it that dogs lapped up blood that seeped from his coffin. It’s belonged to the Percy dynasty for 400 years, who have their own
claim to TV fame: Blackadder’s dim sidekick Lord Percy was inspired by one of their ancestors. In Belgravia, Syon’s rooms are used for the Trenchards’ London home, as well as the abodes of Lady Grey and Lady Templemore. syonpark.co.uk
You can rely on a Julian Fellowes drama to showcase some spectacular stately homes, and Belgravia hasn’t disappointed. No scenes were actually filmed in the well-heeled district of London that gives the show its name. Instead, the cast and crew decamped to a clutch of Scotland and England’s most resplendent manors. The Belgravia pad of the nouveau-riche Trenchards (played by Tamsin Greig and Philip Glenister) is an amalgam of four houses: an Edinburgh townhouse, an Edwardian mansion in the Scottish Borders, a Palladian pile in Berkshire and a west London mansion with a past as colourful as Fellowes’s tale.
EDINBURGH’S ‘BELGRAVIA’
Belgravia was once a patch of marshland frequented by bandits and highwayman. In the first half of the 19th century, Thomas Cubitt (fictional James Trenchard’s business partner) built an estate of stucco crescents, squares and terraces that soon became London’s most desirable address. Today, it’s home to embassies and Russian oligarchs, and townhouses regularly fetch tens of millions of pounds, which is probably why it was impossible to get permission to shut the streets and replace the black cabs and 4x4s with horse-drawn carriages. Edinburgh’s New Town doubled for Belgravia’s grand squares. With its symmetrical rows, i t ’s a n e l e g a n t contrast to the city’s labyrinthine, medieval Old Town and possibly the UK’s finest example of Georgian town planning. Take a stroll down Moray Place and you’ll pass the exterior of the Trenchards’ townhouse at No 50 and the façade of the Brockenhursts’ London abode at No 9, while the Duchess’s bedroom is inside No 4. The Natural Trust for Scotland has carefully restored No 7 Charlotte Square, so visitors can see the splendour in which New Town’s original residents resided and glimpse how the other half lived below stairs. nts.org.uk
A TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY PALACE
Scotland’s finest Edwardian mansion doubles as the interior of both the Trenchards’ and Brockenhurst s ’ London townhouses. Manderston House in Berwickshire has 109 rooms, a silver-plated staircase, and a stable house that could be mistaken for a stately home. The original owner, Sir James Miller, was described by Vanity Fair as being “one of the most wealthy commoners in the country” and told his architect that it didn’ t matter how much he spent (probably because he wanted to impress his father-in-law who resided at Derbyshire’s sumptuous Kedleston Hall). Today it’s the residence of the Fourth Baron Palmer, who once appealed for volunteers to clean his silver balustrade in return for wine and sandwiches, claiming he couldn’t afford to have it professionally cleaned. manderston.co.uk
A GOLDEN GEORGIAN MANOR
Tamsin Greig et al also temporarily took up residence in Basildon Park, a honey-hued Palladian pile near Reading. Built by Sir Francis Sykes, who amassed his fortune working for the East India Company, it was neglected in the first half of the 20th century and used as a prisoner-of-war camp and officers’ mess in the Second World War. It was lovingly restored by newspaper magnate Lord Iliffe and his wife Rénee, who gifted it to the National Trust. The opulent interior has a few surprises, such as a mint-green 50s kitchen and a room dedicated to shells. Another National Trust house
has a cameo in Belgravia: West Wycombe House, a butter-yellow mansion in Buckinghamshire, was the backdrop to the Duchess of Bedford’s afternoon tea in episode one. nationaltrust.org.uk
A BLOODY HISTORY
Syon House in west London has elaborate Robert Adam interiors, Capability Brown-designed parkland and a grisly past. The original house was built by Edward Seymour, brother of Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour; he was executed for treason in 1552. A year later, ill-fated Lady Jane Grey was persuaded to accept the crown in Syon’s Long Galley, but was swiftly deposed by Mary I. A few years earlier, when Henry’s body lay in state at Syon, legend has it that dogs lapped up blood that seeped from his coffin. It’s belonged to the Percy dynasty for 400 years, who have their own
claim to TV fame: Blackadder’s dim sidekick Lord Percy was inspired by one of their ancestors. In Belgravia, Syon’s rooms are used for the Trenchards’ London home, as well as the abodes of Lady Grey and Lady Templemore. syonpark.co.uk