Burghley House

Summary

A Grade I listed Elizabethan prodigy house near Stamford, Lincolnshire, built for Sir William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Lord High Treasurer to Elizabeth I, between 1555 and 1587 at a cost of £21,000; the exterior largely retains its Elizabethan appearance with oque-ornamented roofline; interiors remodelled from the late 17th century with Antonio Verrio painted ceilings in the Heaven Room and Hell Staircase; Capability Brown park; owned by the Burghley House Preservation Trust (Cecil family); used as a filming location for Middlemarch (BBC, 1994), The Golden Bowl (2000), Bleak House (BBC, 2005), Pride and Prejudice (2005), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), The Crown (Netflix, 2016), The Flash (2023), and Frankenstein (2025).

About this location

Burghley House stands near Stamford in Lincolnshire, approximately one mile south of the town, on the boundary of Barnack and St Martin’s Without parishes. Sir William Cecil, later 1st Baron Burghley, built the house between 1555 and 1587 as one of the great prodigy houses of the Elizabethan period: residences built partly to display status and to accommodate royal progresses. Cecil served as Lord High Treasurer and principal secretary to Elizabeth I for most of her reign. The house was modelled on the privy lodgings of Richmond Palace and cost approximately £21,000 to complete.

The exterior retains its Elizabethan character with ashlar-faced facades, a profusion of chimneys and chimney stacks, and an elaborate oque roofline of obelisks, heraldic beasts, and ornamental stonework — one of the most extravagant Elizabethan rooflines in England. The Tudor great court within is of dressed stone with an entrance range carrying a large clock tower. Most interior spaces were remodelled in successive campaigns before 1800. The most spectacular survival is the Heaven Room, with ceiling and wall paintings by Antonio Verrio executed between 1697 and 1699, and the adjacent Hell Staircase, whose walls were painted by Thomas Stothard approximately a century later to complete Verrio’s programme. The Bow Room carries ceiling paintings by Louis Laguerre.

The park was laid out by Capability Brown and includes the lake he created, parkland trees, and the Burghley Horse Trials course — one of the premier three-day eventing competitions in the world, held annually in the park. The house has been run by the Burghley House Preservation Trust, established by the Cecil family in 1961. The Marquessate of Exeter, the senior Cecil title, is now held by a Canadian branch of the family; the most active trustee resident is Miranda Rock, granddaughter of the 6th Marquess.

Film and television productions at Burghley House include: Middlemarch (BBC, 1994, written by Andrew Davies, starring Juliet Aubrey as Dorothea Brooke and Patrick Malahide, adapted from George Eliot’s novel); The Buccaneers (BBC/WGBH, 1995); The Golden Bowl (Merchant Ivory/Miramax, 2000, directed by James Ivory, starring Uma Thurman and Nick Nolte, adapted from Henry James’s novel); Bleak House (BBC One, 2005, written by Andrew Davies, starring Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock, adapted from Dickens’s novel — Burghley served as Chesney Wold); Pride and Prejudice (Working Title/Universal, 2005, directed by Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley); The Da Vinci Code (Columbia/Imagine Entertainment, 2006, directed by Ron Howard, starring Tom Hanks as Langdon — Burghley served as the Louvre Museum exteriors); Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Universal/Working Title, 2007, directed by Shekhar Kapur, starring Cate Blanchett); The Crown (Netflix, 2016 onwards, depicting the life of Elizabeth II); The Flash (Warner Bros./DC Studios, 2023, directed by Andy Muschietti, starring Ezra Miller); Frankenstein (Netflix, 2025).