RAGLEY HALL (Warwickshire): Charles and Diana first encounter.
Charles and Diana first met in 1977, at the Spencer family home: Althorp House. In order to recreate on the screen the place where Lady Diana grew up in, the The Crown team travelled to Ragley Hall.
This 17th century building located 35 kilometres south of Birmingham, in Warwickshire. A county famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare.
Such coincidence is perfect for the way their relationship starts (at least in the TV series): A young Diana meets Prince Charles dressed up as a tree for a play she is rehearsing. And the play is none other than A Midsummer Nights’s Dream.
If you want to visit the very same room this scene was shot in, please click on the ‘Activities’ button to know more!
BELVOIR CASTLE (Leicestershire) AND BURGHLEY HOUSE (Lincolnshire): Windsor Castle in the show.
From season 1 to 3 the medieval inspired Belvoir Castle featured in The Crown as Windsor Castle. A royal residence, strongly associated with the British royal family, with almost a millennium of history.
In reality, Belvoir Castle dates back to the 11th century and it is located in the county of Leicestershire, about 110 kilometres northwest from Birmingham.
Nowadays, the castle is open to the public and in our ‘Activities’ section you’ll find further details about how to visit this dreamy building.
However, things changed in season 4 and Belvoir Castle was replaced by Burghley House as Windsor Castle. Burghley House is an Elizabethan stately home in Lincolnshire (120 kilometres to the east of Birmingham) which was built under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the last monarch of House Tudor.
Its Elizabethan façades and historic interiors were also the ideal locations for another historical drama called Pride and Prejudice.
Burghley House makes an appearance once again in season 5 as Windsor Castle to recreate the terrible 1992 fire that threatened to completely destroy the castle.
