Leeds Castle

Summary

A medieval castle set on two islands in a lake near Maidstone in Kent, used as a filming location for Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Doctor Who: The Androids of Tara (1978), Darkest Hour (2017), and The Hollow Crown.

About this location

Leeds Castle sits on two small islands in a lake formed from the River Len, near the village of Broomfield, six miles east of Maidstone in Kent. The site is historically distinct from the Yorkshire city of Leeds; the castle takes its name from Ledian, a Saxon chieftain. A castle has stood on the islands since the 9th century; the current structure is largely the result of 12th and 13th-century construction under the Norman and Plantagenet kings, followed by substantial 19th and 20th-century restoration. The castle was a royal residence for six medieval queens of England — Catherine de Valois, Catherine of Aragon, and others — and was used by Henry VIII as a palatial retreat.

After passing through several private hands, Leeds Castle was left to a charitable trust in 1974 by the last private owner, Lady Olive Baillie. The Leeds Castle Foundation now manages the castle, gardens, and 500-acre estate as a public attraction. The moated setting — towers reflected in the surrounding lake — gives the castle a fairy-tale appearance that has attracted period productions for seven decades.

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, Ealing Studios, director Robert Hamer, starring Dennis Price and Alec Guinness) used Leeds as the stand-in for the ancestral home of the aristocratic d’Ascoyne family. Doctor Who used the castle and for the entire filming of the serial The Androids of Tara (1978, Season 16). Other film appearances include The Moonraker (1958) and Waltz of the Toreadors (1962). Darkest Hour (2017, director Joe Wright, starring Gary Oldman as Churchill) used the castle for period government scenes. The castle has also appeared in The Hollow Crown (BBC Shakespeare cycle) and the Bollywood action film Rustom.