Entertainment

You Can Actually Visit One Of The Stately Homes Featured In 'Belgravia'

by Aoife Hanna
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
ITV

The UK's TV output is held in high regard across the globe but when it comes to period dramas — there's no beating Blighty. Entertainment in its highest form might well be watching actors in beautiful costumes, with silly names, constantly concerned about scandals. And those beautiful stately home!? Forget about it. So, with that in mind, we all want to know, where is Belgravia filmed?

As many of you will have twigged from the title, this show is based in London's swanky Belgravia. ITV's new period drama comes from the mind of Downton Abbey writer, Julian Fellowes, so you know it's going to be good. According to ITV, it's based on his bestselling novel of the same name and it's all about the secrets and scandals of high society London in the 19th century. The story begins with the Trenchard family in Brussels and is subsequently set between Belgravia and the Home Counties (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex).

According to the Radio Times, scenes based in the Trenchard's family home in Brussels were actually shot in Scotland's Hopetoun House. And this stunning location is actually free for the public to visit. So next time you're kicking around West Lothian, why not swing by?

ITV

Belgravia has long been a super posh spot, and swanky neighbourhoods tend to cost TV production companies a whole lot of money to shoot in. And that's just one of the inconveniences. Executive producer Gareth Neame spoke to History Extra and said, "It's the heart of London, it's filled with embassies; there's no way you can shut down these parts of London and have horses and carriages going around for four days." He continued, "It would never happen, so what we did was to go to the New Town of Edinburgh." Producer Colin Wratten told Film Edinburgh, "Edinburgh is an extremely film-friendly city, which provides the perfect backdrop to Julian Fellowes’ story of 19th-century society, against which intrigue and dynastic power struggles play out."

The Radio Times reports that 50 Moray Place in Edinburgh was a worthy stand in for the exterior of the Trenchard family's London house but that the house's interior shots took place at Basildon Park Mansion and Syon House in West London. Scenes in the Duchess of Bedford’s London townhouse, on the other hand, were in actual fact shot inside West Wycombe House in Buckinghamshire.

ITV

According to the Radio Times, Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire was the filming location for Lymington Earl of Brockenhurst’s ancestral country home. Seemingly, according to IMDB, Wrotham Park is especially well versed in location filming as many famous productions including The Crown, Bridget Jones' Diary, and Gosford Park have been filmed there.

With these lavish locations and Fellowes' talent for writing period dramas, Belgravia feels like a surefire hit.

Watch Belgravia on ITV1 at 9 p.m. from March 15.

This article was originally published on