Hosting everything from zombies and wizards to Regency romances and windswept dramas, our landscapes are seasoned film stars. Base yourself at YHA Alnwick, YHA Bath, YHA Hathersage (Partner) or YHA Swanage and step straight into some of the UK’s most cinematic locations.
YHA Bath
Yep, Bridgerton. Set in a period when everyone was exceedingly good-looking and immaculately colour-coordinated, Bridgerton, the raunchy Regency romance, could never really be filmed anywhere but Bath. The most recognisable location in the Netflix show is No. 1 Royal Crescent, the home of the Featherington family. It’s also a lovely little museum. Other Bridgerton filming locations in Bath include The Holburne Museum and the Assembly Rooms, as well as the city’s well-preserved historical streets. The streets of Bath — notably the Circus — also featured in the 2022 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. The writer herself spent four years in Bath, mostly avoiding potential suitors, and the novel itself is based on her observations of high society in the city.
Dozens of other films and TV shows have also used Bath as a backdrop. The 2012 version of Les Misérables was partly filmed here, as was The Remains of the Day, and The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley.
YHA Bath could have quite happily stepped in for a scene. This Italianate Grade II-listed mansion on Bathwick Hill was built by Henry Goodridge in 1848 in the recognisable yellow Bath stone.
YHA Alnwick (Partner)
Now, we’re not saying that Northumberland is full of zombies, but you could be forgiven for that impression if you’re still reeling from watching 28 Years Later. The marauding living dead at least know where to spend their holidays — this is a beautiful part of the country, and whether you’re a horror fan or not (and don’t watch it if you're not *shudder*), the locations in the film are spectacular. On screen, the causeway to Holy Island serves as an effective barrier to protect residents, much as it did in medieval times, and Lindisfarne Priory makes an impressive backdrop.
This north-eastern swathe of the country is replete with filming locations, with many of them close to YHA Alnwick (Partner), YHA Berwick or YHA The Sill at Hadrian's Wall. Alnwick Castle alone has earned its place in Harry Potter, Downton Abbey, Elizabeth and even Transformers: The Last Knight, but perhaps most pleasingly of all in Blackadder. The ever-impressive Bamburgh Castle, meanwhile, appeared in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and the latest The Last Kingdom film.
YHA Alnwick (Partner) itself, meanwhile, could be a film set in its own right. Set in the heart of the medieval town, this hostel was once the town’s first courthouse, built in 1856.
YHA Hathersage (Partner)
If you want someone on a hilltop looking brooding, it’s to the Peak District your film crew should go. In fact, if you need a backdrop for a Victorian romance, a medieval period drama or a supernatural thriller, then the Peak District landscapes and historical houses tick those boxes too.
Perhaps the most famous film scene in the Peak District is Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennet standing on Stanage Edge wistfully dreaming of Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. The magnificent Chatsworth House featured in the same production, also appearing in The Duchess and the BBC’s Death Comes to Pemberley. If you want an older period, Haddon Hall was used in 2019’s successful Mary Queen of Scots, as well as The Other Boleyn Girl and cult classic The Princess Bride. Similarly, the Elizabethan Hardwick Hall appeared in Mary, Queen of Scots, as it also did in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Derwent Reservoir and Ladybower Reservoir were also used in the film The Dam Busters, as they were for the real practice runs.
YHA Hathersage (Partner), in this historical town known for its associations with Charlotte Brontë, is also a pleasingly dramatic Gothic Victorian villa.
YHA Swanage
YHA Swanage is a seaside villa that was built by Sir James Anderson, the captain of The Great Eastern, the vessel that laid the first transatlantic cable. It’s a beautiful hostel with oak-panelled walls and a chandelier or two. It has a filmic charm itself, but also serves as a perfect launch point to explore some of Dorset’s most evocative movie locations.
One of the most recent outings for Dorset on the silver screen was in Wonka. In it, you can see Timothée Chalamet skipping along The Cobb, which curves around a harbour wall in Lyme Regis. Other movies shot in the town include Ammonite, starring Oscar-winner Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, Persuasion and, most famously, The French Lieutenant's Woman starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. Saoirse Ronan returned to Dorset to film the adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel On Chesil Beach, and the county’s coastline also had a starring role in TV drama Broadchurch with David Tennant and Olivia Colman. It’s also fitting that various adaptations of Thomas Hardy books — among them Far From the Madding Crowd and Tess of the D'Urbervilles — have been filmed in the county. It was, after all, his home and muse.
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Photo credit: Alexey Fedorenko / Jim / Adobe Stock
