‘Saltburn’ mansion attracts fans to the region of England – 03/03/2024 – Did you see it?

London

The New York Times

Drayton House, a private mansion with over 100 rooms, has been located in Northamptonshire, England, for almost 700 years. For most of those seven centuries, the mansion was a silent presence in the countryside, known mainly to locals or experts with a taste for admiring beautiful homes belonging to the country’s upper classes.

But that peace and tranquility has changed since the release of “Saltburn” last November. Although the film didn’t impress critics much, it generated a flood of memes, jokes and comments on the internet.

And a pilgrimage to the once-quiet property was made even easier after Rhian Williams, who lives nearby, posted a TikTok video with detailed instructions on how to get to the site. Published on New Year’s Day, the clip ended up attracting more than 5.5 million views. Since then, she has made more videos, including another visit to the house, as well as a visit to the local pub.

“I don’t have a huge following on TikTok,” Williams said in a phone interview. “I didn’t see it coming,” she said.

The house is the center of “Saltburn”, the eponymous home of the Catton family, where Oliver Quick, played by Barry Keoghan, spends the summer. Many of the film’s most memorable scenes take place inside the house and on the estate’s vast, luxurious grounds.

Vanity Fair reported last summer that the filmmakers, as a condition of being able to use the property, could not reveal its location or who owned it. But in August, just before the film’s premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, British magazine Tatler identified the house based on a close look at the trailer.

Drayton House, a Grade 1 building (protected for its historic nature), has been privately owned for hundreds of years. Its ownership has changed over the centuries through inheritance and currently belongs to Charles Stopford Sackville, who inherited the house from his father.

The house has been in the hands of the Sackville family since the late 18th century, when it was inherited by Lord George Sackville, according to Historic England, the public organization that tracks these buildings.

However, the current owner is reportedly unhappy with all the attention his home has been receiving. He told British newspaper The Daily Mail on Sunday: “How would you feel if people were taking photos outside your house?” The Drayton Estate Office, located in the same town, declined to comment.

The house is visible from a public path, but some visitors have tried to get closer, Williams said, resorting to climbing fences or other methods to get closer to the private home (Williams said he hasn’t encountered any trespassers during his visits). Others posted videos of their own visits on TikTok, many posing in front of the gate through which Keoghan’s character enters his transformative summer.

England is full of majestic and dramatic houses, some of which were once filming locations — and the tourists that accompany them. Chatsworth House was seen in “Peaky Blinders” and the 2005 version of “Pride and Prejudice” and other productions. Highclere Castle, the house at the center of “Downton Abbey,” is open to the public.

The popularity of “Saltburn” has attracted hundreds of tourists to a part of the country that is not usually busy, especially in the dreary winter months. Steven Hyare, manager of local pub Snooty Fox, said he had seen a steady increase in visitors since the film’s release late last year.

In 2023, early January was a quiet time, he said. This year, weekends at his property were fully booked two weeks in advance. Many of the guests are younger than his usual clientele, Hyare said.

Hyare said while he welcomes the increase in business from “Saltburn” tourists and younger visitors, he doesn’t plan to do anything different. “We’re not out there selling T-shirts,” he said.