Netflix’s The Gentlemen: Where Is Halstead Manor?

The Gentlemen is making a splash on Netflix, a TV spin off from Guy Ritchie’s 2019 film of the same name. Instead of Matthew McConaughey in the lead role, however, we have Brit Theo James (who recently starred in The White Lotus) playing Eddie Horniman, a former UN Peacekeeper who unexpectedly inherits his father’s Dukedom and 15,000 acre estate, with his deceased father’s will snubbing his first born son, Freddy (Daniel Ings). Eddie has mere minutes to settle into his new title of the Duke of Halstead before bumping into Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario, our C&TH March/April cover star) and discovering the beloved family estate is a key part of a huge weed growing empire spearheaded by gangster Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone) – and that Freddy owes a different gangster £8 million. What ensues is a baptism by fire as Eddie learns to navigate the eclectic and dangerous underworld, all the while protecting his family and their beloved Halstead Manor. But where was The Gentleman filmed, and where is the real Halstead Manor? Here’s everything you need to know.

Theo James as Eddie Horniman in The Gentlemen. © Kevin Baker/Netflix

Where Was The Gentleman Filmed?

The Gentlemen was mainly filmed in London and at British stately homes, including Badminton House, Loseley Park, and Stoke Court.

‘The locations are like characters in the show and when it comes to capturing the essence of aristocracy they do a lot of the work for you,’ says Daniel Ings (Freddy). ‘We were shooting in Oxfordshire, for example, at this house that’s meant to be the home of Lord Whitecroft, who has also leased his land to the gangsters, and it’s a crumbling castle with a moat around it. We filmed a lot at Badminton, too, for the Halstead Manor scenes and when you’re in those vast halls with their antiques and their huge 15ft oil paintings, you can’t help but get a sense of all the privilege and the history and the beauty. And when you’re standing there in a dressing gown with a vape and a shotgun it also really helps to ram home that clash of styles.’

© Christopher Rafael/Netflix

Halstead Manor Was Filmed At Badminton House

No, the Halstead Dukedom isn’t real, and neither is Halstead Manor – but The Gentleman was filmed on a real estate called Badminton House. Badminton like the sport? Yes indeed – the racket sport was invented in 1863 by the children of the eighth Duke of Beaufort in Badminton House’s Great Hall, with the shuttlecock perfect for not damaging any of the paintings. (That, or the sport was reintroduced here from India.)

‘Badminton felt immediately right for Halstead,’ location manager Iggy Ellis says, ‘because it’s a proper, lived in, home, rather than a National Trust museum. So inside there’d be some walking sticks by the door or a few shotgun rounds from where they’d been out shooting. There were cracks and tired bits as you’d get in every family home. But there was also oil painting and history and majesty. It felt perfect for our story.’

This Gloucestershire manor house’s 52,000 acre estate is brimming with history, dating back to 1086 at least, when the property was recorded in the Domesday Book. Today, the estate is best known for hosting the Badminton Horse Trials. If you recognise it, that might be because it was also used for filming Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, The Remains of the Day, 28 Days Later, The Pursuit of Love and Pearl Harbor.

‘When you’re in these places it makes you very aware of this huge family lineage that dates back centuries,’ Theo James said on filming. ‘There are oil paintings of ancestors on the walls, so you can literally see how wealth and land is handed down through the generations. The idea of how deep set privilege and class is in our society is really at the very heart of The Gentlemen and you feel it viscerally in those locations.’

It’s not just Badminton House, though: more scenes were filmed at Loseley Park and Stoke Court and spliced together to produce the Halstead estate we see in The Gentlemen.

Can You Visit?

Badminton House may not be home to the Duke of Halstead, but it is home to another (real) duke: the Duke of Beaufort, along with the Duchess of Beaufort. You cannot normally visit, unless it’s for a wedding, but the house does open its gardens three times per year – in April, June and September – where visitors can witness gorgeous tulips, roses and dahlias.

Details: 10am–4pm on 21 April, 16 June & 8 September 2024 at Badminton House (Badminton GL9 1DB). Tickets can be purchased for £10 in advance, or cost £12.50 on the door. badmintonestate.com

Daniel Ings as Freddy Horniman. © Christopher Rafael/Netflix

More The Gentlemen Filming Locations

• Loseley Park, Surrey: Geoff’s cottage, the weed farm, the woods
• Stoke Court: Some interior scenes at Halstead Manor
• Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire: Stanley Johnston’s house, Bridgewater House
• Bramshill College: Leyhill Prison
• Billingsgate Market, Poplar: The fish market and Tommy’s office
• Brandon Estate, Walworth: The tower block in Croydon, although the interior of the flat was filmed on a set
• St Paul’s Church, Southwark: The church
• Printworks, Rotherhithe: One of the boxing venues
• The Magazine Building, Greenwich Peninsula: The boxing venue with the skyline view
• The Reform Club, St James’s: Pinky’s Club.

Kaya Scodelario as Susie Glass. © Christopher Rafael/Netflix

WATCH

All episodes of The Gentlemen are streaming now on Netflix.