This week on Friday Five…
This week it’s Movie Mansions. The list below features some wonderful properties that most of us could only ever dream of owning. Let us know what your favourite is by leaving a comment below.
1. Hogwarts Castle
It has ‘castle’ in the name but it’s been a home to hundreds of witches and wizards, dark lords, basilisks, trolls etc. Multiple buildings across the UK were used to film interior and exterior scenes, as well as in Leavesden Film Studios, to piece together the iconic boarding school. Principal filming was done at Alnwick Castle and Gloucester Cathedral while other notable places include Durham Cathedral and Oxford University’s Divinity School.
Despite the entire property being fictional, it’s one of the most recognisable buildings in film. J.K Rowling describes it as “a huge, rambling, quite scary-looking castle, with a jumble of towers and battlements.”
2. Rich Manor
Riding high on the success of Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin went on to greener pastures, more specifically Biltmore Estate and its 8000 acres of land in Asheville, North Carolina. He played the world’s wealthiest kid, Richie Rich, who is forced to take-over the family company when his parents go missing. In the film, this mansion has a large laboratory for Mr Rich’s quirky inventions, a personal McDonalds and more famously ‘Mount. Richmore’.
Unlike Highclere, however, Biltmore is open for visits and guests to stay over. It was completed in 1895 by George Washington Vanderbilt II and has 250 rooms. This extravagant mansion hosts multiple activities and in the words of Vanderbilt, is a “little mountain escape”.
3. Wayne Manor (2005)
Home to the orphaned caped crusader, Bruce Wayne, the Christopher Nolan Batman Films used Grade I listed Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire as Wayne Manor. However the Manor was burnt down by one of Batman’s nemeses and the rebuilt version will be Wollaton Hall in Nottingham. Mentmore was initially built in 1855 for Baron Mayer de Rothschild but was eventually passed into other hands over the years.
By the mid 20th century the property had accumulated a lot of fine furniture and an auction was organised in the 1970s that rose to over £6,000,000. Currently there is an air of mystery over the future of the property as its last known owner became bankrupt while maintaining this stately country house.
4. Downton Abbey
Another castle makes the mansion list but this building is very much real. The fictional Downton Abbey is the country house, Highclere Castle, home to the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon. It is a Grade I listed building and construction began in 1839, almost 175 years ago. The property however, is kept in a good condition and has over 50 rooms, most of which are furnished with luxury pieces of period furniture.
Admirers can visit the castle and its grounds in Hampshire (2 miles south of Berkshire) from £9.50 upwards. An unexpected feature of the castle is its educational Egyptian exhibition with antiques from over 4000 years ago.
5. Pemberley (1994)
In the BBC adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, Colin Firth shot to fame as Mr Darcy. Darcy earned at least £10,000 a year (jackpot in the late 1800s) and lived in the estate, Pemberley. The Grade I listed Lyme Park was Darcy’s mansion, which is located in Cheshire.
The most distinctive feature of this property is reflection lake, so named as it perfectly reflects the image of this vast estate. It is currently owned by the National Trust but has only been in the hands of two families since it was built in the 17th century, although it was restored in 1816. With Edwardian furnishings and a nearby medieval deer park, this mansion can be visited from £9.90.
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