Blog

May 5, 2023

By Guest Author

Bath and Bridgerton go hand in hand. The city has become synonymous with Netflix’s incredibly popular TV show, having provided street locations and ballroom locations to all the series made thus far. So, it was only natural that the new spin-off series, Queen Charlotte, should also take advantage of Bath’s magnificent Georgian architecture.

Filming in England Partners Bath Film Office worked with the makers of Queen Charlotte for about 3 months prior to filming, which took place at some of the city’s most iconic locations. In this guest blog, they walk us through the behind-the-scenes of the filming of the series in Bath.

Royal Crescent

The largest and most impressive Georgian crescent in Bath. Number One Royal Crescent has become the family home to the Featherington family in the Bridgerton TV series. This magnificent street was used once again to film for the new Queen Charlotte show.

We’re always looking for ways to minimise the impact of filming and in this instance the production shut just half the crescent, leaving the other half open to residents and for access to the hotel. The Royal Crescent is usually a no through road but we arranged for bollards at one end to be temporarily removed so that vehicles could still access the portion of road not closed for filming.

There’s actually very little 21st century street furniture such as street signs and bins in the Royal Crescent, but we facilitated what little there is being temporarily removed so that it could be dressed to look like it would have done 200 years ago. We also arranged for streetlights to be turned off for filming at night.

We arranged for the production to hire an area of Royal Victoria Park directly in front of the crescent, so they could place lights and green screens, crew dining and toilet facilities. One particularly large light on a crane was brought into the park to stand in for the moon!

TV dramas and feature films come with large numbers of technical vehicles and crew cars. The vast majority of these are kept at what is known as a ‘unit base’. Unit bases are usually situated a little further outside of the city, with kit being dropped off at the filming location and the vehicles then being parked at the unit base. And a fleet of minibuses ferrying cast and crew from the base to the filming locations. We then arrange for parking to be suspended nearby a location such as the Royal Crescent for essential tech vehicles that hold kit that needs to be accessed throughout the day.

When not acting as a home to the Featheringtons, Number One Royal Crescent is a museum completely decorated in original Georgian furniture and fittings. Details of how you can visit are here: https://no1royalcrescent.org.uk/.

The Holburne Museum

The Holburne, AKA Lady Danbury’s house in Bridgerton, was also used as a location in the Queen Charlotte series. We know from the trailers that the new show takes their friendship back to when they were young women.

We arranged access for horse boxes to Sydney Gardens so the horses could be kept close by and for other essential tech vehicles to be parked in the gardens. And we also facilitated for Sydney Place to be partially closed so that horse and carriages could be filmed entering through the gates and pulling up outside the Holburne.

The Holburne started life as the Sydney Hotel, set within Georgian pleasure gardens. It became a fine art museum in 1916, housing collections bequeathed by Sir Thomas William Holburne. The museum continues to be open to the general public. https://www.holburne.org/.

Sydney Place

Sydney Place holds some of the largest and most beautiful terraced Georgian houses in Bath. Queen Charlotte actually stayed in 93 Sydney Place when she came ‘to take the waters’ in 1817.

We organised for the street to be closed and used for a scene in the Queen Charlotte TV series. Residents also got in on the act, offering up their houses up to be dressed and front doors used for filming.

The Assembly Rooms

The Tea Room in the Assembly Rooms was used to film the scene where Daphne and Simon first met at Lady Danbury’s ball in Bridgerton series one. 

This amazing original Georgian function room complete with priceless chandeliers was also used in the Queen Charlotte show. We liaised with the Council’s room hire team to set up this filming.

Who knows what exciting events will happen there this time!

The Assembly Rooms are currently closed for redevelopment by the National Trust. Check the National Trust website for updates.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is now available on Netflix.

Bath Film Office facilitate filming in Bath and North East Somerset – for more information on their services, please visit www.bathfilmoffice.co.uk.

Across the English regions, Creative England’s Filming in England work with Bath Film Office alongside our other local and regional partners to facilitate high-end TV and feature film productions. For more information on the support we offer, please visit www.filminginengland.co.uk.