Penshurst Place
Tonbridge · TN11
Amenities
Summary
A 14th-century manor house in Kent, one of the most complete surviving examples of English domestic architecture from that period, used in The Princess Bride (1987), Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Wolf Hall (2015), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Merlin, and The Hollow Crown.
About this location
Penshurst Place stands in the Medway valley village of Penshurst, near Tonbridge in Kent. The house was built in 1341 for Sir John de Pulteney, a London merchant and four times Lord Mayor of London, as a country residence within easy riding distance of the capital. The Great Hall, with its original chestnut-beamed roof, is one of the finest surviving medieval halls in private ownership in England and remains substantially as built in the 14th century. The house was substantially extended in the 15th century when it was held by the royal family under Henry IV, and again under the Sidneys after Edward VI granted it to Sir William Sidney in 1552.
The Sidney family — latterly the Viscounts De L’Isle — have owned Penshurst since the reign of Edward VI. Sir Philip Sidney, the Elizabethan poet and courtier, was born here in 1554. The house holds one of England’s oldest recorded private gardens, with documentation going back to 1346; the current walled gardens preserve much of their Elizabethan layout. The house is open to the public during the summer season; the Sidney family remain in residence.
Penshurst’s medieval character has attracted period productions across five decades. Anne of the Thousand Days (1969, starring Richard Burton and Geneviève Bujold) filmed here. The BBC series Elizabeth R (1971, starring Glenda Jackson) used the house. The Princess Bride (1987, Rob Reiner) used Penshurst for exterior scenes. The Other Boleyn Girl (2008, starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson) returned to the house’s Tudor associations. The BBC’s Merlin (ongoing from 2008) used the estate for Camelot scenes. The Hollow Crown (BBC Shakespeare cycle, 2012) filmed here. Wolf Hall (BBC, 2015, starring Mark Rylance as Cromwell) drew on the house’s authentic Tudor setting.
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