Following the raving success of Netflix’s Regency-era Bridgerton series — which became one of the streaming giant’s biggest hits of all time — it comes as no surprise that a sequel series was quick to follow.
Taking place roughly 50 years before the events in Bridgerton‘s first season, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story brings back some of our favorite characters from the period drama, and gives us a sense of how life was in the Ton during the early days of Queen Charlotte and King George’s marriage.
Much like the original series, Queen Charlotte relies heavily on spectacular palaces, ancestral homes, and sprawling historic estates to recreate the opulence of times long past.
From Queen Charlotte’s palace to King George’s Kew House, to the already familiar Danbury Estate, each and every single property featured in the Bridgerton sequel is a piece of real estate eye candy.
So naturally, we had to track them down and see which real-life estates served as filming locations for Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Editor’s note: if you’re a Bridgerton fan that hasn’t yet had the chance to binge the new series, we’ve also written about all the Bridgerton houses here.
Queen Charlotte’s Buckingham House
Staying true to historic facts, the main royal residence on the show is the Buckingham House — which didn’t get its ‘Palace’ moniker until later on, in the last years of King George IV’s reign, when the estate was enlarged and became the imposing U-shaped building we now know as Buckingham Palace.
However, the Netflix series did not film scenes on location at the real Buckingham Palace in London.
To recreate the grandeur of the King’s official London residence, the crew turned to other magnificent locations, a central one being Blenheim Palace — a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, best known as the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.
Built between 1705 and 1722, Blenheim Palace is one of England’s largest houses and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The imposing estate now serves as the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and is the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace.
It was owned by Winston Churchill’s family for close to 300 years before the 9th Duke of Marlborough saved it from ruin with funds secured by marrying American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt — whose family famously owned some of the most opulent mansions in the United States.
While Blenheim Palace played the part of Buckingham House in Queen Charlotte, a few other locations were also used for interior shots — namely Hatfield House and Hampton Court Palace — with garden scenes being filmed at Lincolnshire’s Belton House.
King George’s Kew Palace
Standing in for the king’s Kew Palace in Queen Charlotte is the stately Belton House in Lincolnshire, England.
For three hundred years, Belton House was the seat of the Brownlow and Cust family, and its history dates all the way back to the late 1600s, when it was built by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet.
To this day, the historic Belton House is considered to be the quintessential English country house, with its principal façade said to have served as inspiration for the modern British motorway signs which give directions to stately homes.
Which naturally made it a top choice for King George’s Kew Palace in the new Bridgerton series.
MORE: All the ‘Bridgerton’ houses and where to find them in real life
However, scenes showing the king’s conservatory were filmed elsewhere, at the Waddesdon Manor, a country house in the village of Waddesdon in Buckinghamshire, England.
Waddesdon Manor also lent its botanical gardens and fields for some scenes showing the exterior of Kew Palace.
The Danbury Estate
Despite the grandiosity of the two aforementioned palaces, we find ourselves utterly smitten by Lady Danbury’s house in Queen Charlotte — which has quickly become our favorite filming location for the Bridgerton sequel.
Hampton Court Palace, a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, played the part of the Danbury Estate — as well as several other locations throughout the first season of the Bridgerton spin-off.
The same Hampton Court Palace was used to film interior scenes of Buckingham House and several interior and exterior shots of Queen Charlotte’s St. James’s Palace (which made a brief appearance in the first episodes, before the young future queen is shipped off to England to marry the king).
Violet Bridgerton’s childhood home
We couldn’t sign off before looking up Violet Bridgerton’s (formerly Violet Ledger) childhood home, which makes some brief yet memorable appearances throughout the series’ first season.
Reminiscent of the ivy-covered Bridgerton house from the original series, the Ledger Estate is said to be in the vicinity of the Danbury Estate, facilitating the encounters between Violet’s dad, Lord Ledger, and Lady Danbury.
But in real life, the Ledger Estate is played by the Firle Place, a 15th-Century manor house set in Firle, Sussex, in the United Kingdom. That’s roughly 60 miles away from Hampton Court Palace, where Lady Danbury’s house scenes were filmed.
And if it felt somewhat familiar looking, there’s a reason for that. Firle Place is often used as a filming location, with many BBC series shooting here, including Jonathan Creek, the three-part miniseries The Line of Beauty, and Bake Off Creme de la Creme Series 2.
It was also prominently featured in the 2020 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Bill Nighy, Johnny Flynn, and Miranda Hart.
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