WHAT do Downton Abbey and Brideshead Revisited have in common? At the top of a long list would be television titles that refer to estates in the country, rather than the two families' more valuable London homes. Grantham House or Marchmain House Revisited would have less allure for a nation that is still rooted to the land. By coincidence, both programmes used the same London property for exterior filming. It was also a stand-in for Clarence House in The Crown.
The real location, Bridgewater House, SW1, remains unknown to most viewers, as do the Dukes of Bridgewater. There were only three of them, although the 19th-century 'father of inland navigation' was among the richest men in England. All the publicity has gone to Highclere Castle, Hampshire, and Castle Howard in North Yorkshire. The interiors used for both fictional houses were in rural locations, far from Bridgewater House and St James's.
The television producers couldn't use an authentic, palatial, lived-in London family home of the aristocracy-because there are barely any left. The names are all that remain, in central London, anyway. If we head west to Brentford, there is Syon House, TW8, which appears in the costume romp Bridgerton. The Duke of Northumberland promotes this property as the ducal home in London for four centuries. In reality, it was more of a halfway house-albeit positioned in the wrong direction for the North-and a prison for Henry VIII's wife Catherine Howard before her execution in 1542. The M25 was truly a travel gift for the Percy family.
Denne historien er fra June 19, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 19, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
