England: see where Saltburn and Bridgerton were filmed – 04/03/2024 – Tourism

Film tourism, the practice of choosing travel destinations based on filming locations for movies and TV shows, is gaining popularity and influencing tourism offerings.

As a result, destinations, operators and even production companies are striving to offer more creative experiences to those who want to explore their favorite fictional universes.

“Harry Potter”, for example, is a great source of income for tourism in the United Kingdom. In London, it is common to see people queuing up at King’s Cross train station to take a photo in front of a wall with a cart attached, a place that in the plot serves as the starting point for the Hogwarts school of magic.

Other English cities have also offered tourists tours focused on film or series destinations. Get to know some of them.

Bath

Visit Bath, a picturesque city in the interior of England. It’s one of the best ways to enter the world of “Bridgerton” in real life. Known for its hot springs and 18th-century Georgian architecture, it’s more than ideal as the setting for Shonda Rhimes’ period drama. Walking, fans of the series can pass Bath Street, with its cobblestones and colonnades, used in street scenes in the first season.

The exterior of the Holburne Museum, in Sydney Pleasure Gardens, was used to film the entrance to one of the ballroom scenes also from the initial phase. The elegant facade and gardens of the building, originally designed and built to be a hotel, give an idea of ​​its grandeur and historical value. Currently, the Holburne Museum houses a collection of plastic and decorative arts and also hosts temporary exhibitions.

Other points of interest in Bath that are also the setting for “Bridgerton” are Ranger’s House, Wilton House, Castle Howard and the Royal Crescent, which became the homes of the series’ families.
A curiosity: Jane Austen lived in the city between 1801 and 1806 and two of her novels are set in Bath, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion”. It is possible to visit the Jane Austen Center, where the main exhibition deals with aspects of the writer’s life and the British aristocracy of the time.

London

The British capital is an excellent destination for those who want to visit film locations. You may be wandering the streets when suddenly you have that feeling of having already seen that blue door somewhere. This can happen to anyone who visits Borough Market, on the south bank of the River Thames and comes across the entrance to the apartment of Bridget Jones, the most famous bachelorette in cinema. If you want to go further, you can book a tour of all the locations of the three films featuring the character played on the big screen by actress Renée Zellweger (from 17 pounds, or R$108, on the website).

The list of films and places to visit is huge: Portobello Road Market, one of the most famous street markets in London, which appears in “A Place Called Notting Hill”, 20 minutes from the center; the Greenwich region, setting of the series “Dowtown Abbey”; the Sea Life Aquarium at County Hall, very close to the London Eye, where Clive Owen and Julia Roberts met in “Closer”. There is a lot to see and discover, just pay attention and be willing to hike.

Blenheim Palace

Ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough and the Churchill family, Blenheim Palace, in the county of Oxfordshire, 110 km from London, was a gift from Queen Anne to the first Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill, who defeated the French at the Battle of Blenheim , in 1704.

Built between 1705 and 1722, the beautiful building, a UNESCO heritage site since 1987, debuted in cinema in 1934 with the feature film “The French Revolution”. Since then, it has been the setting for several productions, such as “Barry Lyndon” (1975), “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2007), “The Young Queen Victoria” (2009), “Gulliver’s Travels” (2010) , “007 vs. Specter” (2015) and, recently, Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon”, with Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby.

But it wasn’t just Hollywood blockbusters. The place was also the setting for several BBC television dramas and even an iconic Bollywood production, “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham”, which had a grand dance scene shot outside Blenheim.

Those who visit the place, in addition to immersing themselves in the universe of curiosities and film locations, can also visit its beautiful gardens, learn about the lives of the people who work and have worked there over the centuries, see the room where Winston Churchill was born and much more. more.

Oxford

With its majestic buildings and arched towers, the university city has some of the most iconic architecture in the UK. It’s not surprising, then, that its historic, imposing buildings and beautiful surroundings have served as the setting for countless films and television shows.

As residents and tour guides will tell you, Oxford is the closest you can get to Hogwarts. Hidden in local colleges are several locations used in the young wizard Harry Potter’s saga.

The Christ Church College dining hall and the steps leading up to it, for example, were used in “The Philosopher’s Stone.” Harry also walks through the cloisters of New College in Goblet of Fire; and Harry, Ron and Hermione conspire in the Hogwarts library, also known as Duke Humphrey’s Medieval Library in the beautiful Bodleian.

Much of the filming for “Wonka,” the 2023 film starring Timothée Chalamet, also took place in Oxford, in and around the university’s ceremonial buildings, such as the Bodleian Library courtyard, Hertford Bridge (also known as the Bridge of Sighs) and the Radcliffe Chamber, which appears in the final scene of the film.

Walking around the city alone or with one of the specialized guides, you can also find locations for productions such as “The Golden Compass” (2007), “X-Men: First Class” (2011) and the recent hit “Saltburn” recorded at Magdalen College , one of the university’s most imposing colleges, St. Hugh’s College, full of beautiful gardens, and Brasenose College.

Birmingham

16 km from Birmingham it is possible to visit the Black Country, an open-air museum in Dudley, which tells the story of one of the first industrialized landscapes in Great Britain. Recognized for his appearances in major films and TV series, he gained worldwide recognition as the location for the acclaimed drama “Peaky Blinders”, produced by the BBC.

The canal that runs through the museum area was the scene of decisive moments in the series. From clandestine meetings under the canal bridge to chilling murder scenes at St James’s School, several Black Country locations played important roles in the series.

Interest in visiting the place grew a lot with each season of the series, so much so that the museum created a special event for Thomas Shelby fans. On Peaky Blinders Night, which will take place on two dates in 2024 (September 28th and November 26th), visitors can put themselves in the shoes of the iconic characters, delving into the historical period and uncovering the production’s intriguing stories.

The journalist traveled at the invitation of Visit Britain