Hampton Court: interior locations

By Rich Cross   Last updated on 21 October 2023, 09:40:20

Several interior Survivors locations at Hampton Court now accessible to visitors


Hampton Court - main entrance, exterior, side view
HAMPTON COURT CASTLE is now closed to visitors for its regular autumn and winter shutdown, and will re-open on 23 March 2024. Check the visitors' page page on the Hampton Court Castle site for details

SEVERAL MEMORABLE SERIES one Survivors' filming locations inside Hampton Court are now accessible to visitors to the Herefordshire stately home and its grounds, as part of a series of recent enhancements to the tourist attraction. These interior locations, which can be accessed for a small additional entrance fee, have previously only been viewable on rare occasions and by special arrangement.

Access to these interior locations is available for a small additional cost on top of the standard entrance fee payable at the ticket office on arrival. Guided tours of the interiors are available on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Photography (including flash photography and video recording) is permitted throughout the area of the tour.

Hampton Court - Akwright courtyard
Hampton Court - Akwright courtyard

To begin a tour, make your way through the walled gardens (behind the ticket office) and approach The Orangery restaurant. Walk through the entrance to the newly-accessible Awkright Courtyard (this area is now open even to those not taking the tour). The stone building which occupied the centre of the courtyard (a much more recent construction than the main building) has been demolished since Survivors was filmed at Hampton Court in 1975, and (prior to the opening up of the courtyard to visitors in 2011) the entire area has been renovated and landscaped.

It is still possible to identify a number a filming locations, including those seen in Starvation (when Jenny and Greg leave the kitchen in search of food); the opening scenes of Spoil of War (when Jenny and Abby lead the pony to the grassland they hope to plough, and the children head off from the kitchen to give Barney his breakfast); in Something of Value (when Lawson discovers the tanker; Greg unblocks the flooded drain; Arthur spots the puncture on the vehicle; and Buckmaster's gang returns and finds John) and A Beginning (including the setting for the children's raising of the alarm about the 'strange people' approaching the settlement).

Hampton Court - Akwright courtyard - doorway into the house
Hampton Court - Akwright courtyard - doorway into the house - [Starvation; A Beginning]
Hampton Court - Akwright courtyard
Hampton Court - Akwright courtyard - [Spoil of War; Something of Value; A Beginning]
Hampton Court - Akwright courtyard
Hampton Court - Akwright courtyard - [Spoil of War; Something of Value; A Beginning]

The tour begins by entering the house through the same door that Greg and Jenny are seen to leave the kitchen from in Starvation (before Greg returns to the house after hearing the children wake). Passing the entrance to the cellar seen in Something of Value the tour then emerges into the interior courtyard seen in several episodes, including Revenge and A Beginning.

Hampton Court - main inner courtyard
Hampton Court - main inner courtyard - [Starvation - A Beginning; and Revenge in particular]

The tour showcases the impressive main doors to the Castle, and provides visitors with the chance to enjoy the vista of the main Gatehouse and the lawns stretching away along the main driveway to the front entrance.

Hampton Court - main entrance, exterior
Hampton Court - main entrance, exterior - [Starvation - A Beginning]
Hampton Court - main entrance, exterior, side view
Hampton Court - main entrance, exterior, side view - [Starvation - A Beginning]
Hampton Court - main driveway, looking towards the front gate
Hampton Court - main driveway, looking towards the front gate - [Starvation - A Beginning; and the closing scene of Revenge in particular]

In the Spring of 2013, the tour was extended slightly to include the foot of the cantilever stone stairwell down which Tom Price descends the morning after Wendy's death in Law and Order; and on which Greg and Abby keep night time vigil during Huxley's siege in The Future Hour.

Hampton Court - the cantilever stone stairwell
Hampton Court - the cantilever stone stairwell - [Law and Order and The Future Hour]

The interior tour then continues by leaving the interior court to enter Coningsby Hall (the location in Starvation where Greg, Jenny and the children spend their first night in the Grange).

Hampton Court - fireplace in Coningsby Hall
Hampton Court - fireplace in Coningsby Hall - [Starvation, Spoil of War, The Future Hour]

You next pass through the historic Chapel (not used during the filming of Survivors), turning right to arrive (after the toilets) at the foot of the main stone staircase (used as a location throughout the latter part of series one).

Hampton Court - area at the foot of the main stone staircase
Hampton Court - area at the foot of the main stone staircase - [Starvation - Something of Value; and The Future Hour and Law and Order in particular]

Since the 2011 season, the main stone stairway and landing is now accessible as part of the tour. The stairway features in many episodes in the latter part of series one. The tour climbs the stairs to the newly accessible landing above.

Hampton Court - the main stone staircase - from the ground floor
Hampton Court - the main stone staircase - from the ground floor - [Starvation - A Beginning]
Hampton Court - main stone staircase - from the landing
Hampton Court - main stone staircase - from the landing - [Starvation - A Beginning]
Hampton Court - main stone staircase - looking down
Hampton Court - main stone staircase - looking down - [Starvation - A Beginning]

Four bedrooms on the first floor in close proximity to the stairway are now viewable (though not directly accessible) as part of the tour. The doorways of two of these bedrooms (if not the rooms themselves) feature in separate episodes of Survivors. Looking towards the landing from the stairs, the first bedroom on the right appears as Lawson's bedroom in Something of Value (John knocks on the door with the aim of waking Lawson, who has already left the Grange to reunite with his gang). The doorway of the second bedroom on the right features in Starvation (as Barney emerges to inadvertently terrify Lizzie).

Hampton Court - landing at top of the main stone staircase
Hampton Court - landing at top of the main stone staircase - [Starvation; Something of Value]
Hampton Court - landing - bedrooms one and two
Hampton Court - landing - bedrooms one and two - [Starvation; Something of Value]

After returning to the ground floor, you turn left into the Ballroom (used to stage the well-remembered - and lengthy - party scene in the opening part of Law and Order).

Hampton Court - Ballroom
Hampton Court - Ballroom - [Starvation and Law and Order]

Turning right out of the far end of the Ballroom (and passing through the wooden double-doors, you will arrive in the Library (seen in so many different episodes, Law and Order amongst them).

Hampton Court - library
Hampton Court - library - [Starvation - Revenge; and Law and Order in particular]

Straight through the adjoining door is the Dining Room (scene of many Grange meetings and councils of war throughout the later episodes of Survivors' first series).

Hampton Court - dining room
Hampton Court - dining room - [Starvation - A Beginning]
Hampton Court - entrance to the cellar
Hampton Court - entrance to the cellar - [The Future Hour; Something of Value]

Passing out of the far end of the Dining Room and turning right down a short corridor will see you arrive in the Inner Courtyard (another recurring location, used in episodes including Starvation, Revenge and A Beginning).

The tour then concludes as you pass back along the corridor to re-emerge in the Awkright courtyard. Close to outer-door is the entrance to the cellar seen in Something of Value, where the community stores its supplies. (Scenes inside the cellar - including the sequence showing the flooding out of the stores - were filmed elsewhere; in a now-sealed-up cellar located underneath the toilet block next to the Orangery.) The cellar entrance is also briefly glimpsed in The Future Hour, as the Grange community hide Laura and Norman away during a visit from Huxley.

Although many of the interior Survivors Hampton Court locations (including several of those on the upper floors) still remain inaccessible, the opening up of these key interior locations to regular visitors (and at so modest an additional cost) is a major plus-point for Survivors enthusiasts visiting Hampton Court to enjoy finding so many of the classic exterior locations discoverable throughout the picturesque grounds.

The tour of these interior locations should add no more than an additional 45-minutes to your visit time, and normally run at 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3pm. Be sure to check opening times and the availability of the interior tour ahead of making a visit (as the Castle is sometimes closed to the public for private functions).


Cite this web page
19 March 2024202131 January

 Cross, R. (2021). 'Hampton Court: interior locations,' [online] Survivors: A World Away, 31 January. Available at: https://survivors-mad-dog.org.uk/a-world-away/Hampton_Court_Interiors.php. Accessed on: 19 March 2024.

 
   

Current style: Harvard

 

 TAGS


 

Search
 Survivors 9:1 The Farm

Episode image for Survivors 9:1 The Farm

 Living under the rule of the Protectorate can be hard, even more so when your true purpose is hidden from you

 Survivors 2:2 Mother's Courage

Episode image for Survivors 2:2 Mother's Courage

 The search for Peter leads to Aberystwyth, and a community of women who have cut themselves off from the outside world

 The Fourth Horseman location find

Jenny Richards encounters Tom Price on a rural hillside in Survivors episode The Fourth Horseman

 A long sought-after location from Survivors first ever episode has finally been tracked down

Find out more

 Site sections

Terry Nation's Survivors

 Survivors is a 38-episode, three series British post-apocalyptic TV series, created by Terry Nation, and first shown on BBC 1 between 1975 and 1977

 Two Survivors novel were published in the UK, USA and Italy in the seventies: Terry Nation's part-novelisation of the first TV series Survivors was published in 1976; with John Eyers' original follow-up Genesis of a Hero appearing the following year

 A 12-episode, two series remake of Survivors was broadcast on BBC One between 2008 and 2010

 A 36-episode, nine series run of new and original Survivors audio adventures, set in the time and place of the original programme, were released by Big Finish between 2014 and 2019

 Terry Nation's Survivors novel was released as an audiobook, voiced by Carolyn Seymour, in 2014

 Genesis of a Hero was reprinted and republished as a paperback and as a Kindle title in 2015

 A sequel to Genesis of a Hero, entitled Survivors: Salvation, was published in February 2021

 A six-episode original audio drama, Survivors: New Dawn, set two decades on from The Death was released in two three story box sets by Big Finish in November 2021 and February 2022

 Survivors: New Dawn, ghosts and demons beckon
Survivors: New Dawn, ghosts and demons beckon

BIG FINISH HAVE released new information about the two new Survivors audios scheduled for release next month: the full-cast audio series Survivors: New Dawn 1 and the narrated audiobook Survivors: Ghosts and Demons.

 Survivors on Britbox
Survivors on Britbox

ALL THREE SERIES of Survivors are available to stream, and to download for offline viewing, from the subscription-based and ad-free Britbox service.

 Bid to reinstate Monsal rail line opposed
Bid to reinstate Monsal rail line opposed

A CONTROVERSIAL BID to reinstate the rail line along what is now the Monsal Trail has run into opposition from the public and the Peak Park authority.

 Hampton Court features in Antiques Road Trip
Hampton Court features in Antiques Road Trip

HAMPTON COURT IN Herefordshire, a key filming location in the first series of Survivors, features in a new episode of the long-running BBC auction show Antiques Road Trip.