The Filming Locations of Netflix's "Bridgerton" That Tourists Can Visit

Bridgerton, the soapy, sexy take on Regency England courtesy of executive producer Shonda Rhimes, is a certified smash on Netflix—but fans of period drama will be forgiven if they can't shake the sense and sensibility that they've seen several of the show's locations before. 

That's because the series re-created Georgian-era style by shooting in some of Britain's last surviving country homes and classical gardens. The modern-day owners of these sumptuous showplaces often subsidize daunting maintenance costs by renting space to movies and TV shows—and, in many cases, open the doors to tourists for at least part of the year.

Here are some of Bridgerton's most important settings, along with links and directions—so you can have a ball there, too.

Before visiting any of the historic homes below, check their websites for temporary closures affecting interior spaces, tours, and amenities. In some cases, you may need to make advance reservations for timed entry. 

The exterior of the Bridgerton family's home is played by the Ranger's House on the western edge of Greenwich Park in southeast London. The mansion, once known as Chesterfield House, dates to the 1720s and is a lesser-known museum containing the bulk of the art collection of Julius Wernher, a German-born baron of South African diamond mines.

A few minutes' walk away, you can visit some of Greenwich's other great sights, including the Royal Observatory and Meridian Courtyard, Maritime Greenwich (which stood in for Paris in the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables), and the spectacular National Maritime Museum, connected by portico to 1616's Queen's House, which was shot as Somerset House for Bridgerton. All of them can be visited.

Ranger's House: Chesterfield Walk, Greenwich, London. Train stations: Greenwich or Cutty Sark. Closed over the winter.

Clyvedon Castle, the home of Bridgerton's Duke of Hastings, is not a real place. Massive Wilton House, 3 miles west of Salisbury, supplied many of the interiors instead. The portrait hall, hallway, and entrance hall all make appearances on screen. The drawing room and grand hall, meanwhile, stood in for chambers in the residence of another character, Lady Danbury, and the grounds were shot as a substitute for London's Hyde Park. 

Wilton House is also featured in nearly every episode of another Netflix series, The Crown, posing as Buckingham Palace. Wilton's Double Cube Room (pictured above) serves as part of Her Majesty's family living quarters. 

Wilton, Salisbury. Train station: Salisbury, then bus R3 or R8; trains to Salisbury from London take about 90 minutes.

The outside of the show's Clyvedon Castle is actually Castle Howard, an 18th-century architectural hodgepodge about 200 miles north of London near the city of York. This vainglorious pile is so oversized that its creator demolished the village of Henderskelfe because it spoiled his view. You might have also seen the Castle (which, despite the name, isn't one) in 1981's Brideshead Revisited miniseries. 

Like most of the other Bridgerton locations, Castle Howard is open for tours; you can see rooms in which some of the show's balls were staged. Those magnificent, village-eating gardens are accessible for strolls as well. And yes, as in the show, the estate's Temple of the Four Winds, a rococo folly built on the grounds, would make a secluded spot for a little lovers' folly of your own—but out of decorum, kindly refrain.

Castle Howard Estate, York. Train station: Malton

Syon House, a well-preserved private home for nobility just west of London, is a frequent movie star, appearing in dozens of productions including Gosford Park and The Madness of King George. In Bridgerton, the place stands in for King George III's pad once again, but this time it pretends to be Buckingham House, the smaller precursor to today's Buckingham Palace (itself open summers in central London). 

Bridgerton scenes set in the King's hallway and dining room were shot at Syon, but that's not all: It was also used for the study and dressing room of the Duke of Hastings, Simon Basset. Outside, the 30-acre gardens are often open on weekends, and there's a free 200-acre public park beyond. 

Syon Park, Brentford, Middlesex. Train station: Brentford or Syon Lane. House interior open only three days a week from March to October (check ahead).

Hatfield House, 21 miles north of London, is frequently used as a location in period pieces—it also provided the setting for the Oscar-winning The Favourite. The building makes appearances in Bridgerton as the home of the Featheringtons and as the Gentleman’s Club.

Great North Road, Hatfield. Train station: Hatfield; park and gardens closed for winter; house open only in summer.

The streets of Bath, an ideally preserved oasis of historic architecture and Roman mineral springs, actually did most of the on-camera work for London's Mayfair neighborhood. Bath Street, Alfred Street, and Beauford Square all hosted scenes, and the Bath Guildhall served as the show's Rambury Ballroom. (The Guildhall is only open for private hire, but you can take a virtual tour.) 

The front doors of No. 1 Royal Crescent (pictured above), a popular townhouse museum preserving Regency style, also stood in for part of the Featheringtons' home. The rest of Royal Crescent was used as Siena’s London home as well as Grosvenor Square.

Train station: Bath Spa

The exterior of wealthy widow Lady Danbury's mansion is actually Bath's Holburne Museum, which houses the eclectic art collection of a rich 19th-century naval officer. It was built in 1799 as the Sydney Hotel, and it still has the last remaining English pleasure garden from the 1700s. 

A few storefronts in Bath also served as settings. The Modiste dress shop is a real commercial space at 2 Abbey Street, and Simon has too much to drink at a bar that's actually a cafe called The Colombian Company at 6 Abbeygate Street. One of the show's many balls was filmed beneath the chandeliers of Bath's handsome Assembly Rooms—already part of the standard tourist circuit.

The Holburne Museum: Great Pulteney Street. Train station: Bath Spa

The interior of Badminton House, on yet another luscious country estate, also performed split duty as portions of the homes of both the Duke and Lady Danbury. But it also served as the inside of the Foundling Hospital. It may surprise some viewers to see such a well-appointed orphanage, but the real Foundling Museum in London's Coram Fields still attests to how luxurious such public facilities could be—in the years before government support, foundling homes served as social centers for philanthropists.

Because the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort still live at Badminton House, the gardens are open to the public for only one day a year, and the interior is usually restricted to group tours. 

Badminton House: South Gloucestershire, Badminton

Pictured above: The North Hall

For people who have to put on so many layers of clothing, tie so many laces, and attend so many balls, the characters of Bridgerton sure have a lot of time to spend outdoors. Instead of filming at London's actual Battersea Fields and Rotten Row, scenes were shot in Windsor Great Park, a public green space on the doorstep of the monarchy's principal residence and burial place: Windsor Castle, located a town west of London (train station: Windsor & Eton Riverside or Windsor & Eton Central) . 

Meanwhile, what is meant to be North London's Hampstead Heath is actually the grounds of Somerley House in Hampshire, about 100 miles southwest of London. Primrose Hill is actually Painshill park in Cobham (20 miles southwest of London). Not far from there, Sunbury Walled Garden was used for Kensington Gardens.

Plan your trip with our guide to England and Scotland and our guide to London (both in paperback and ebook).