The East of England has a long association with some of the biggest names in film and TV and over the years, the region has doubled for many contrasting places all over the world in terms of landscape, coastline and buildings.
St Albans Abbey - Westminister Cathedral
The magnificent Abbey Church dominates St Albans City's skyline on every main approach. Interior scenes for Johnny English, starring Rowan Atkinson, were filmed at the Abbey with its half medieval and half gothic arches providing a perfect interior double for Westminister Abbey. With St Albans City and the Abbey’s film friendly approach to filming and its proximity from London (23 miles), it really has a lot to offer the filmmaker.
Heath & Reach Quarry - Egyptian Desert
Heath & Reach Quarry became the Egyptian Desert in The Mummy Returns. The sand quarry has steep sides, is flat in some places and very terraced in others. The owners are very film friendly and can provide earth movers for any company to move sand around. The operational site is situated approximately 43 miles from London.
Deepdale Farm - North Korean Paddy Fields
Deepdale Farm is an arable farm sprawling 1140 acres of marshes, woodland and undulating hills and fields. In 2002, it doubled as North Korean paddy fields in Die Another Day after EON productions decided that the open fields would be an ideal substitute for the Far East. The dramatic sequence involving a Lamborghini sports car appears near the end of the film.
Holkham Beach - US Virginia
Holkham Beach is arguably one of the most unspoilt and beautiful stretches of sand in the country. It doubled in Shakespeare in Love for the spectacular beach of ‘Illyria’ in the end sequence where we see Gwyneth Paltrow walking from the sea across the beach. It was this that inspired the pop groun All Saints to film their pop promo ‘Pure Shores’ for The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Stansted Airport - JFK Airport
London Stansted Airport is extremely film friendly with its own dedicated filming contact. The main passenger terminal is spacious, light and airy and ultra modern. Stansted Airport cunningly doubled for JFK in Bridget Jones when Darcy heads off to ‘New York’.
Millbrook Proving Ground - Montenegro
This test track comprises 45 miles of track set in 700 acres of land. The track represents all road conditions including areas of woodland, gravel roads, water troughs, diagonal ditches, severe off road, undulations, circular track, horizontal straight, hill routes, test slopes to 33% gradient, and a city-simulation course. The test track has been utilised for filming on many occasions and has worked with all sizes of shoots, from 3 -300 people. The Aston Martin car crash scenes for Casino Royale were shot here, where it doubled for roads in Montenegro. The Aston Martin scene even won a place in the Guinness World Records for most cannon rolls in a car!
Hylands House - The White House
A beautiful Grade II Listed building set in 574 acres of parkland. The grounds feature gardens, a lake, private roads and a Grade II listed stable block attached to the house. The interior of the property features a wide range of rooms including a ballroom, basement and industrial kitchen, together with a grand staircase, galleried landing and marble floors. Hylands House doubled for The White House in Chasing Liberty.
Luton Hoo Estate - Victorian England
Fantastic site offering lots of different locations including disused Victorian farm buildings which have been used in the past to recreate a period London street for productions such as Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Little Dorrit and Fanny Hill. There is a large walled garden, a glasshouse which is in slight disrepair, but is due to be restored to its former glory. The site has numerous private roads one of which is tree-lined. There are various cottages on site most of which are tenanted.
Coalhouse Fort - South East Asian prison
Coalhouse Fort was built in 1860 and its walls are made of concrete and 20ft thick; the ceilings are also concrete. There are two large parade areas, a number of artillery and military vehicles that may be available for filming purposes and an ingeniously designed rather extensive Victorian tunnel system (accessible and in good condition) complete with magazine areas. There is the remains of a jetty by the river, which has been used for filming purposes along with a number of other WWII look out features. In the film Batman Begins, Coalhouse Fort became a South East Asian prison.
Wrest Park - French Chateaux
This impressive house was built in the 19th century and was inspired by 18th century French Chateaux design. It is now used as offices in part but has some fantastic ground floor rooms that are not used as well as a very grand staircase. It has a vast formal garden that includes many different styles. There is a long water feature running from the main house to the baroque pavilion, woods with avenues, temples, cascade bridge, bowling green house, columns and a bath house which was built as a classic ruin. The film Flyboys filmed here when Wrest Park doubled as a French Chateaux, where Lafayette Escadrille lodge.