What do the Tim Burton films Batman, Sleepy Hollow, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; the political thriller V For Vendetta; the Russell Brand comedy Get Him to the Greek; and the Oscar-winning drama The Favourite all have in common? They represent just a small handful of the productions filmed at least partially at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, England, since the late 1960s. According to IMDB, no fewer than 69 television shows and movies have used the property. So what makes it such a popular location for period pieces (The King's Speech, set in 1930s England, and the Hulu show The Great, set in 18th-century Russia) and thrillers (the 2001 Angelina Jolie film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) alike?
When production designer Sarah Greenwood was searching for locations for the recent Netflix film Rebecca (a remake of the 1940 film by Alfred Hitchcock), what led her to Hatfield was location, location, location. “Part of the producers' brief was that we try to keep as much shooting in London as possible, because going away is so expensive,” she tells AD. “To be very prosaic about it, it is within the M25.” This is a major highway (“motorway” to any Brits reading) which forms a ring around the U.K. capital. “It is the best house by far within London.”
Hatfield House itself is a 223-room Jacobean estate built by the first Earl of Salisbury, Robert Cecil, in 1611. Today, it is the private residence of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, seventh Marquess of Salisbury, a Conservative British politician and former member of Parliament, and his wife, Hannah Ann Stirling. They live in one wing, and “all private areas are off limits to filming,” says Hatfield Park's visitor operations director Helen Landau, but the staff and any film crews still have to plan around the just shy of 100,000 tourists who visit the property each year. In addition to the main house, Hatfield Park encompasses 42 acres of scenic gardens, St Etheldreda's Anglican church, nearly 200 residential properties which are available for rent, and a brick structure known as the Old Palace.
Built in 1485, this medieval palace belonged to Henry VIII in the 1500s. Two of his children, Elizabeth and Edward, spent their childhood there, and Elizabeth famously learned that she was to become queen while sitting under an oak tree on the property in a spot now referred to as Elizabeth Oak.
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So while history buffs may visit to see the place where her legendary reign began, movie buffs will also recognize some distinct architectural details at Hatfield. Remember the poster for the 1992 film Orlando where Tilda Swinton is standing in male Elizabethan garb on a black-and-white checkered floor? That's the floor of Hatfield House's Marble Hall, a grand room once used for balls and banquets with intricate wood carvings covering most of the walls and ceilings. In Rebecca, Lily James's character marvels at the same space as she arrives at the home of her new husband, played by Armie Hammer. In the 2019 video for the Jonas Brothers song “Sucker,” band members Nick, Joe, and Kevin Jonas serenade their ladies—Priyanka Chopra, Sophie Turner, and Danielle Jonas, respectively—in the same room. (Later, they pose in what looks like a library and, for some reason, splash around in bathtubs placed in one of the gardens.)
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You may recall that The Favourite is full of shots of Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, and Rachel Weisz in rooms absolutely plastered in tapestries and gold-framed portraits. Some of these were added by production designer Fiona Crombie, but many were original to Hatfield, and the estate's vast collection of paintings is sometimes a draw. “Hatfield just has layers and layers of character and amazing portraiture,” says Greenwood. And in the case of Rebecca, this reinforced the idea that Lily James's character was “being looked at and watched wherever she goes.”
And because the home is privately owned—as opposed to being part of Britain's National Trust—crews are allowed to do some rearranging. “We have specialist fine art removers and conservators who work with us to move objects within the house,” explains Landau. “It is a very flexible house that lends itself to being dressed,” says Greenwood. “They are amenable.”
