Luton Hoo

Summary

A Grade I listed neoclassical country house and estate near Luton in Bedfordshire, designed by Robert Adam from 1767 for John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, with a 1,200-acre park by Capability Brown including two lakes formed by damming the River Lea; the house was substantially restored by Robert Smirke in the 1830s; the estate passed to Sir Julius Wernher and was subsequently developed as a hotel; described as one of the busiest non-studio filming locations in England, with credits including A Shot in the Dark (1964), Never Say Never Again (1983), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), The World is Not Enough (1999), War Horse (2011), Little Dorrit (BBC), and Enola Holmes (2020).

About this location

Luton Hoo stands on the southern edge of Luton in Bedfordshire, its 1,200-acre park extending into Hertfordshire. The estate has a long history: the de Hoo family held the manor for four centuries from the Norman period; it later passed through the Boleyn family — great-grandmother Anne Hoo married Geoffrey Boleyn, great-grandfather of Anne Boleyn — before being sold repeatedly until purchased for £94,700 by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, in 1763.

Lord Bute commissioned Robert Adam to design a new house, with work beginning in 1767. The project was one of the largest Adam undertook, but was never fully executed to his original plans; a fire in 1771 interrupted construction, and the house as it stood in 1774 when first occupied was incomplete. While Adam worked on the house, Capability Brown was engaged to redesign the park, enlarging it from approximately 300 acres to 1,200 acres and damming the River Lea to form two ornamental lakes, the larger of which covers 60 acres.

The house passed from Bute’s family in the early 19th century and in the 1830s Robert Smirke substantially redesigned the exterior, adding the massive classical portico that defines the present appearance. After further changes of ownership, the estate was acquired in 1903 by Sir Julius Wernher, a South African diamond magnate, who extensively refurbished the house and assembled an important art collection. Wernher’s widow Lady Zia held the estate until her death in 1977, after which it was sold and eventually converted into a luxury hotel. The Phillips family, descendants of the Wernhers, retain part of the historic estate and manage it as a filming location.

The estate is described as one of the busiest non-studio filming locations in England, with credits spanning more than sixty years. Productions at Luton Hoo include: A Shot in the Dark (United Artists, 1964, directed by Blake Edwards, starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau); Never Say Never Again (Warner Bros., 1983, starring Sean Connery as James Bond); Four Weddings and a Funeral (PolyGram/Working Title, 1994, directed by Mike Newell, starring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell — the house served as the principal wedding venue); Eyes Wide Shut (Warner Bros., 1999, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman — the Luton Hoo interiors were used for the masked ball sequence); The Secret Garden (Warner Bros., 1993); The World Is Not Enough (MGM/Eon, 1999, starring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond); War Horse (Disney/DreamWorks/Amblin, 2011, directed by Steven Spielberg — filming took place in October 2010); Little Dorrit (BBC One, 2008, scripted by Andrew Davies, adapted from Charles Dickens — the farm buildings represented Bleeding Heart Yard); and Enola Holmes (Netflix/Legendary, 2020, starring Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes and Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes).