Basildon Park

Summary

A Grade I listed Palladian country house at Lower Basildon in Berkshire, built between 1776 and 1783 to designs by John Carr of York for Sir Francis Sykes, 1st Baronet, with neoclassical Adamesque interiors; the house fell into disrepair and was rescued from dereliction by Lord and Lady Iliffe from 1952, who gave it to the National Trust in 1978; used as a filming location for Pride and Prejudice (2005), Marie-Antoinette (2006), Dorian Gray (2009), Downton Abbey (ITV), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), Belgravia (ITV, 2020), Bridgerton Season 2 (Netflix, 2022), The Crown Seasons 5 and 6 (Netflix, 2022 to 2023), and The Gentlemen (2019).

About this location

Basildon Park stands in 400 acres of parkland approximately two miles south of Goring-on-Thames in West Berkshire. The house was built for Sir Francis Sykes, a former Bengal Tax Collector of the East India Company whose fortune, though diminished by financial difficulties and a parliamentary censure for corrupt practices, remained sufficient to commission one of England’s finest late-Palladian houses. Construction began in 1776 and continued until Sykes’s death in 1804; the principal rooms were never fully completed to his satisfaction.

The architect was John Carr of York, one of the leading Palladian practitioners in England. Carr designed the main block as a corps de logis flanked by lower service wings — a composition consistent with Palladian convention — while the interiors were executed in a neoclassical style with Adamesque plasterwork and decoration. The main facade presents a classical portico and rusticated basement to the south, with a long west elevation facing the park. Although Palladianism was giving way to neoclassicism in taste at the time of construction, the exterior maintains the rigour of the Palladian manner.

The house passed through multiple owners following Sykes’s death and was effectively derelict by the late 1920s, when a plan to dismantle and re-erect it in the United States narrowly failed. Fixtures, fittings, and decorative elements were stripped. The house stood empty and damaged for decades. In 1952, Langton Iliffe, 2nd Baron Iliffe, and Lady Iliffe purchased the property and emked on an extensive restoration, reinstating the decorative interiors and refurnishing the house over two decades. In 1978, the Iliffes gave the house, park, and an endowment to the National Trust.

Productions filmed at Basildon Park include: Pride and Prejudice (Focus Features/Working Title, 2005, directed by Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy — Basildon served as Netherfield Park); Marie-Antoinette (Columbia, 2006, directed by Sofia Coppola, starring Kirsten Dunst); Dorian Gray (Fragile Films, 2009, directed by Oliver Parker, starring Ben Barnes and Colin Firth); The Gentlemen (Miramax, 2019, directed by Guy Ritchie); Downton Abbey (ITV Studios — Basildon’s interiors represented Grantham House, the Crawley family’s London residence); Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Handsomely Co./Lionsgate, 2016, directed by Burr Steers); Belgravia (ITV/EPIX, 2020, written by Julian Fellowes); Bridgerton Season 2 (Netflix/Shondaland, 2022 — the garden room and parterre were used for a key evening party sequence); and The Crown Seasons 5 and 6 (Netflix/Left Bank Pictures, 2022 to 2023, created by Peter Morgan).