Across six seasons of ambitious storytelling, The Crown’s filming locations have lent epic scale and authenticity to the series.

In 10 years of production, The Crown has filmed in seven countries — England, Wales, Scotland, France, Spain, Hungary, and South Africa. And, in total, production on the drama series has traveled to 719 filming locations. Over 110 locations were utilized per season, with Season 3 featuring the most at 130. There have been a staggering 2,000 sets for the whole series. 

“After nine years on The Crown, you get a hankering of what’s good to use and what’s not,” location manager Mark Walledge tells Tudum. For his team, which includes key location scout Michelle Pianca, he says, “It’s a mixture of trying out stuff, going to places you know, getting tips from people of what might be good, and [using] location libraries in some cases.”

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While 80% of the series was filmed on location in the UK and other parts of Europe, as well as South Africa, the rest was filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire — just 20 minutes outside of central London. “It’s like a big old machine that rolls and rolls for nine months,” says Walledge. “You don’t realize until it’s finished and then you sit back and go, ‘God, how did I do that? How is that even possible?’ ”

When selecting locations for the series, Walledge’s team was often dependent on their partnership with production designer Martin Childs. After the location team find a few options, Childs would then whittle them down before they presented them to an episode’s director for approval. “They trusted ours and Martin’s judgment on these locations,” says Walledge. 

Before filming began on Season 6, Walledge’s team had about three months of lead time. “You’ve got an idea of when you are going to be using your key locations, who you’ll be talking to about new stuff, and when they’re likely to be scheduled for the first two blocks [of shooting],” he says. The next three blocks of filming though? “You sort that out as you go along.”

Keen to discover where else The Crown filmed in Season 6? Below is a list of everywhere the royal family jet-setted in the final season  and its real-life location.

Justin Downing/Netflix

Did The Crown film at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland?

Yes. To follow Prince William’s (Ed McVey) years at uni in Part 2, and to see where he connected with his future wife, Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy), The Crown headed to the north of Scotland to the real school they both attended — at least for some of their university scenes. Others were shot back in England at Royal Holloway University west of London. “That was major for us to be able to get St. Andrew’s on board,” says Walledge. It was a good two or three months’ worth of back and forth with the powers that be at St. Andrew’s before they got the go-ahead. Read on to learn where else The Crown filmed in Scotland.

Library interiors and St. Salvator’s College interiors and exteriors
Filming at the real university where Will and Kate met helped Bellamy feel closer to Kate, she tells Tudum. “Ed and I revisited the coffee shop where Kate and Will supposedly met for coffee, and there’s an eerie sense of presence. You get to see where they ran in the morning, and that day-to-day life was really helpful to inhabit when you are re-creating that,” she said. “The town are so proud of that legacy of them being there, so everybody always wants to talk about it.” 

As itself
You can’t really beat Will’s gorgeous running path.

NPH Cinema, 117 North Street

Northpoint Cafe, 24 North Street

As itself

Molly Malones Pub, 5 Alexandra Place

Garry Bridge

No. 9 Hope Street
The Crown indeed filmed on the very same street where Will and Kate lived with two of their friends while students at St. Andrews. “We were shooting where it happened, which was great,” says Walledge. 

Ardverikie Estate, Kinloch, Inverness-shire, Scotland
In The Crown, the royal family learns of Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi Fayed’s (Khalid Abdalla) deaths while at Balmoral Castle. “I remember when we were filming in Scotland, Christian [Schwochow, who directed Episodes 2, 3, and 4 of Season 6] put together a reel about that moment. We watched it in Scotland in the hotel, and I could not stop crying,” recalled Jonathan Pryce (Prince Philip). “Neither could the cameraman who’d filmed it or the director who’d shot it. It was an extraordinary moment. It was reliving waking up and listening to the radio.”

Corriemuckloch, Amulree

Arbour Lodge, South Platt Hill, Edinburgh

Justin Downing/Netflix

Where did The Crown film Charles and Camilla’s wedding?

The series finale of The Crown filmed in the northeast of England, with York Minster standing in for St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle for Charles (Dominic West) and Camilla’s (Olivia Williams) April 9, 2005, nuptials. West considered the last third of the season to be “much happier” for Charles, “as it ends with his marriage to Camilla, which was unquestioningly the best wedding I’ve ever had,” he said. “It was amazing. We were in York Minster with 500 extras bowing.” Read on to learn where else The Crown filmed in the Northeast of England.

York Minster, Deangate, York
Hearing the bagpiper rehearse before filming Prince Philip’s final scene with Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) took the edge off for Pryce a bit. The whole thrust of the scene was talking about their legacy and what was coming after. “It was a good feeling. The whole thing was great. And the location, we were in this huge, huge vaulted cathedral — and I mean, massive. It seemed right that the two little figures were in this enormous building,” Pryce tells Tudum. “It always seems to put life and certainly these two characters in context, that they are just a very small part of this whole thing that’s going on.”

Queen Victoria Square, Carr Lane, Hull

Keith Bernstein/Netflix

Are the royal residences in The Crown the real thing?

Nope. “Stately homes are really hard, availability-wise. Especially in the summer because of weddings,” says Walledge. For the more stately homes and higher echelon buildings, Walledge’s team would have to “go through the dance of talking to the right people,” he says. Most of the locations used are in the Southeast of England specifically, like the locations for Prince Charles’ home at Highgrove and Kensington Palace. Season 6 kicks off with Camilla’s 50th birthday bash at Highgrove, which Williams said was “as lavish as ever.” She “loved the set at Somerley, which was standing in for Highgrove.” Read on to learn where else The Crown filmed in the Southeast of England.

Botanica Ditton Park, Riding Ct. Road, Datchet

Dunsfold, Stovolds Hill, Cranleigh
Every day Schwochow would show up on a set he hadn’t seen before, he’d be thinking, “How in the world did they do that?” Childs would share concepts and “then a very sad business park somewhere in the middle of nowhere in outer London suddenly turns into a private airport. It’s incredible. You can almost hear airplanes, even though there are no airplanes, just because it looks so real, and honestly we have that almost every day, or every second day, when we’re not shooting in the studios.”

Upper Heyford, Camp Road, Bicester

Stanford End Farm, Barge Lane, Reading
The one piece of memorabilia that Debicki snagged from set came from filming scenes with Abdalla at psychic Rita Rogers’ house. “It was just this amazing scene where Dodi and Diana take a helicopter to go and see a woman who was a psychic who Diana was very close to,” said Debicki. “I spied a bunch of business cards on the table, so I snapped some of them up. And it’s in my wallet.”

Building 2, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road, London

Discovery Park Visitor Centre, Innovation House, Sandwich, Kent

As itself

“Dodi was never really known... and so he was never really mourned,” said Khalid Abdalla, who portrayed him. “I hope, in terms of my journey, we take him somewhere he is mourned, where, in some way, he is put to rest, and where we attend his funeral. In a way, culturally, something feels wrong. We never attended his funeral. Hopefully, in this portrayal over these two seasons, you get to that place where you do.”

St. Mary’s Church, Worplesdon, Perry Hill, Guildford

Hampton Estate, Elstead Road, Seale, Farnham

Pednor, Chesham

Shiplake Memorial Hall, Memorial Avenue, Shiplake

National Rifle Association, Kings Way, Bisley Camp, Brookwood

Pristine Quarry, Clark Contracting, Leighton Buzzard

Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill, Egham

RAF Halton Officer’s Mess, Aylesbury

Wadhurst Castle, Durgates, Wadhurst

Somerley Park, Somerley Estate, Ringwood

The location for Highgrove developed over time. Earlier on, Walledge’s team used local house High Cannons. But when the series started expanding more into Highgrove they also used Somerley Estate in Ringwood. Walledge says the owners of the massive, private estate, Lord and Lady Normington, were “quite interested in having filming because they love The Crown.” But the one problem? “Weddings, weddings, weddings!” says Walledge. But they got there eventually and “it was a great location for us. That did about three seasons.”

Wellington College, Duke’s Ride, Crowthorne
The last time Diana sees her boys, William (Rufus Kampa) and Harry (Fflyn Edwards), is when she’s sending them off with their father, Charles, outside Kensington Palace. “It’s desperately moving, and you can’t help the knowledge that it’s the last time they see each other,” said West. “You can’t help that coloring the way you play it even though, of course, they wouldn’t have known it was the last time.” The scene by the car outside is brief, but West says Charles is sincere in telling Diana that he looks forward to the next chapter of their lives as friends and co-parents. Added West, “They’ve sort of relaxed and they found, hopefully, what they like about each other again.”

Denham, The Pyghtle

West Wycombe Park, High Wycombe

Basildon Park, Lower Basildon

Kingston University, Penrhyn Road

Cranfield Airport, Bedfordshire

Rochester Guildhall Museum, 17 High Street, Rochester

Rochester Cathedral, Garth House, The Precinct, Rochester

“The last scene we ever shot was at that location on the High Street with the registry office,” says Walledge. “It was quite emotional.” Luther Ford, who plays Prince Harry in Part 2, looked back on that last day, filled with cake and wine and Champagne fondly as well. “We walked out, past the cameras out of shot. There was a brass band playing and everyone just started spontaneously dancing,” he said. “Olivia Williams just grabbed me by the hand. So we had a little dance and that was great.”

Cobham Hall, Brewers Road, Cobham

For much of the interiors, including the schoolrooms, conference rooms, and the canteen, they filmed at Cobham Hall School, which is a girls’ international school. “You can film there during term time,” says Walledge. “So it’s always available. It’s just great.”

Keith Bernstein/Netflix

Where does The Crown film Buckingham Palace?

There are eight locations used to portray the magnitude of Queen Elizabeth II’s primary residence in The Crown. “I never really go to Buckingham Palace, but I love walking into the queen’s bedroom,” said Debicki. “I’m like a kid in a candy shop on this job. I love it.” The series’ most frequently used location for the palace and for the entire production is actually an open-to-the-public home called Wilton House in Wilton, Salisbury. Read on to learn where else The Crown filmed in the Southwest of England.

Winchester Cathedral, 9 The Close, Winchester

Winchester College, College Street, Winchester, as itself for interiors and exteriors

Winchester was the other main location used to capture William’s time at Eton. Its quads, gated entrance (where the press gather, waiting for William), and the areas where the cast could walk between buildings, made it perfect for filming.

Winchester Guildhall

Bath Theatrical Costume Hire, 8 The Industrial Estate, Wallbridge, Frome

Hatch House, West Hatch, Salisbury

Chernocke House, Roman’s Road, Winchester

Wilton House, Wilton, Salisbury
One of the eight locations used to capture Buckingham Palace’s majesty, Wilton House is the site The Crown has returned to most often throughout the entire run of the show. Here, the crew filmed scenes set in the palace’s ballroom and formal dining room. The Crown’s additional Buckingham Palace locations include Lancaster House (state rooms and queen’s office), Wrotham Park (the Audience room), and Elstree Studios (the royal family’s private quarters and offices) and backlot (Buckingham Palace gates and exterior).

Keith Bernstein/Netflix

Where did The Crown film Balmoral Castle?

You’d think filming scenes at Balmoral Castle would take place in Scotland —  the real castle is in the Scottish Highlands — and you’d be right. But while many of the Balmoral exteriors and interiors were filmed in Scotland, others were also filmed in Hertfordshire, England. “For Season 6, we expanded Balmoral beyond what we normally shoot up in Ardverikie in Scotland,” says Walledge. “Up to that point, all our exteriors are always up there and they still are, but the interior was quite limited.” Read on to learn where else The Crown filmed in the East of England.

Studio 434, Unit 9A, Cranbourne Avenue Industrial Estate, Potters Bar

Wrotham Park, Barnet, Hertfordshire
“Wrotham is probably one of our most versatile locations,” says Walledge. The privately owned house is about five minutes away from Elstree Studios. The home comprises the interiors, exteriors, and front of house for Gatcombe Park (the country residence of Princess Anne) as well as bits of Kensington Palace at various stages. It also became the main audience room for Buckingham Palace. One of the biggest fans of the audience sessions with the prime ministers was Queen Elizabeth II herself, Imelda Staunton. “They’re fantastic scenes to play,” she said. “That’s probably why Peter Morgan did the play The Audience.” Reflecting on what it was like to portray the queen opposite two prime ministers, Jonny Lee Miller’s John Major and Bertie Carvel’s Tony Blair, “it’s been very nice and very different,” Staunton said. “I imagine the queen could not show any true colors that she felt. She always had to be the diplomat at all times, even privately, and of course, none of us know what went on in those rooms.”

Ewen Hall, Wood Street, Barnet, Hertfordshire

University of Hertfordshire, College Lane

Duxford Airfield, Cambridge

Southend Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea

St. Mary’s Church, North Mymms Park, Hertfordshire
Schwochow was “worried and a bit scared” to film the scenes the morning after Diana dies in the series, where the royal family goes to church. “I thought, ‘This is so difficult because there are no lines. There is just a hymn that everybody is singing, and they all had a different relationship to Diana. Also, the service is in public so there are other people around them,” he said. Twelve-year-old Fflyn Edwards, who plays young Harry, blew the director away with his emotional maturity. “ ‘I do feel that Harry’s the only person who might not be able to contain his emotions,’ ” Schwochow remembers telling the actor. “And Fflyn just gave me a nod. He understood. On the next take, he was in tears, and I think everybody in the crew thought this was a very rare, magic moment.”

Pitstone Quarry, Clark Contracting, B488, Leighton Buzzard

King’s College Cambridge, King’s Parade, Cambridge

North Mymms Park, Hertfordshire

To film more of Balmoral’s interiors this season, Walledge’s team found another location quite close to Elstree Studios in North Mymms. “It used to be an old SmithKline Beecham Conference Center/hub for their training, which, exterior-wise, looks just like Chequers,” he says. “So it became our exterior Chequers, but the interior was very Balmoral-like.”

Justin Downing/Netflix

Did The Crown film the royal stables on palace grounds?

As Prince William tells Kate Middleton and her family, Queen Elizabeth II is often more comfortable around dogs and horses than she is around people. Seeing the monarch at peace in the stables in Season 6 is to witness her feeling truly at home. However, those scenes, including a royal reunion with Olivia Colman (who played Queen Elizabeth II in Seasons 3 and 4),  were not filmed on royal grounds but at Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire. Read on to learn where else The Crown filmed in the East Midlands of England.

East Midlands Airport, Castle Donington, Derby

Owen and Hartley, Number 2 North Street, Oundle

Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire

Burghley House, Stamford, Lincolnshire
“Everywhere you went, you just marveled at what [the set decorators] had done,” said Dominic West, who continued in the role of Charles in Season 6. “A lot of the time, if we’re filming in, say, Burghley House, or Wilton House, or [any of] these amazing places, you walk into a room and it looks like they haven’t done anything. And then you talk to the owners, or the people who are standing guard, and they say, ‘Oh, no, none of this is our furniture. The paintings are ours, but none of the furniture, none of the knickknacks.’ That’s all set dressing and that’s amazingly impressive.”

Keith Bernstein/Netflix

Did The Crown film at the Ritz Hotel in Paris?

No, but the production did build a replica of the imperial hotel suite capturing Diana and Dodi’s final moments together. “We weren’t allowed to film in the real Ritz,” said head set decorator Alison Harvey. Locations in London stood in for both the Ritz in Paris in Season 6, and in London on VE Day, 1945, where Elizabeth Windsor let loose before she became queen. Read on to learn where else The Crown filmed in London.

The Royal Exchange

Lancaster House, Stable Yard, St. James’s
“For me, Lancaster House is the most royal location because it’s just amazing,” said Ford. “The king lives next door.” Ford filmed his first day on-set at Lancaster House with McVey at the Queen Mother’s funeral. “The whole cast was there — so Imelda, Jonathan, Dominic, everyone. But for our scene, they were essentially supporting artists. They are all in the background. They were all miming,” he said. At lunchtime, Ford went downstairs with McVey, only to see all the cast “in full costume, talking to each other. And I just sat down at the end and was watching them. I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to watch. It was truly surreal.”

146 Park Road
It’s a “quite a major coup” for Walledge’s team when they can film in real locations, like at the Regents Park Mosque. “We basically re-created Dodi’s funeral there, and it’s exactly more or less the way it happened. Even one of the ushers from the mosque was actually involved in the original funeral as well,” he says.

Dartmouth House, 37 Charles Street

Old Royal Naval College, King William Walk

As itself

Savoy Hotel, The Strand 

Phoenix Arts Club, Charing Cross Road
Lesley Manville (Princess Margaret) was thrilled with Season 6’s Episode 8, a defining one for her character. “Peter Morgan really made it an episode about two sisters who really love each other,” she tells Tudum. The sisters celebrate VE Day first at the ballroom of the Ritz Hotel, but then they head downstairs to the Pink Sink, the club where the real fun begins. “It takes you back, looking at them when they were young teenagers escaping and having a night out,” Manville says. “It’s really beautiful, because it takes you right into the world where they are now and helps you see where their relationship is in Margaret’s dying years.”

Victoria Park (Bonner Gate), Grove Road  

Savile Club, 69 Brook Street

Ouronyx, 20 St. James’s Street

Empire Cinema, Haymarket

North London Business Park, Building 2, Oakleigh Road

Six Fitzroy Square

77 Charlotte Street

62 Chatfield Avenue

35 New Broad Street

4-6 Throgmorton Avenue
Since The Crown wasn’t allowed to film in the real Ritz Hotel in Paris, “it was about seven different locations or built sets on stages that were amalgamated to create that sequence of the Paris Ritz,” says Harvey. Debicki described the production design of the series as a “constant raising of the bar.” When she arrived on the soundstage where the set of The Ritz was built, “it’s just this gray brick building,” she said. “Then you open a door and you just are completely transported. I found the Ritz set extraordinary and very moving.”

Finsbury Circus

RHS Lindley Library, 80 Vincent Square

33 Devonshire Place

14 Cornhill

As itself

Queen Anne’s Gate, Dartmouth Street

Banking Hall, 14 Cornhill

10 Cabot Square, Canary Wharf

IQOS, Jubilee Place

Canada Place Mall, Montgomery Street, Canary Wharf 

Jubilee Park, Bank Street

One Canada Square, South Colonnade

Colnaghi, 26 Bury Street, St. James’s

Queen Elizabeth Centre, Broad Sanctuary

Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, 24 Anerley Hill

95 Chancery Lane, Fleet Street

Frobishers Passage,  North Colonnade, Canary Wharf

Keith Bernstein/Netflix

Did The Crown Season 6 film in Paris?

Yes, a number of the moments set in Paris were actually filmed in the French capital. Paying the proper amount of respect and gravitas to the moments leading up to the terrible car crash were crucial to Schwochow. “Filming parts of the episode in Paris added a very special atmosphere to the shooting crew, to us, to the actors,” he said. “When you go to Paris and then you film those final hours of Dodi and Diana, you feel more responsible and try to be as truthful as possible, to be as dignified and sensitive as possible.” Read on to learn where else The Crown actually filmed in Paris.

Tunnel d’Alma, Pont de l’Alma

Rue Francois 1er 

40 Cours Albert 1er, Cours la Reine 

Rue Edmond-Valentin

Pont des Invalides 
“Paris seemed to give itself over entirely to the shoot,” said Williams (who plays Camilla). “They had incredible access to buildings and roads, and I believe that the lighting department had to light the Eiffel Tower for that part of the shoot.” 

Place d’Alma

Avenue of trees, 34 Cours Albert 1er

Pont Alexandre III

Place de la Concorde

Pont Louis-Philippe

In working with the research team prior to filming Season 6, Abdalla gathered as many photos as possible of Dodi and Diana’s six-week love affair. He put them in chronological sequence. “For me, they tell an undeniable story of falling in love, but also you see these moments that are not iconic images but which have an incredible tenderness,” he said. 

Des Willie/Netflix

Where did The Crown film in Spain?

Spain was often used as a stand-in for other countries in Season 6, but you wouldn’t know it at first glance. Walledge says that for foreign shoots, the locations are normally handled by fixers or location managers based out of those countries. Which allowed the team back in the UK time to set up the next domestic shoot. “We get to a point where we’ve got two weeks where we can put all these things in place, so when they come back, everything runs smoothly,” says Walledge. Production on Schwochow’s episodes actually started in Spain, with shooting spots including the mountains outside Barcelona. But it was a bit of a “bumpy” start, according to the director, as the world was still deep into the pandemic at the time of the shoot. Although returning to film in Barcelona may have been unexpected, Schwochow was “especially impressed” by Spain. “There was a lot of work to do for our department, and I really believe once you watch the episodes, you can’t tell that this was Spain, or that we were filming in so many other places.” Read on to learn where The Crown filmed in Barcelona.

Plaça Francesc Macià, Barcelona

Carrer Mestre Nicolau    

Camí de la Riera, Barcelona

Camí de la Riera de Viladecavalls

Daniel Escale/Netflix

Did The Crown really film in Saint-Tropez?

Schwochow’s episodes included a lot of traveling. “It felt like we were shooting a James Bond movie,” he said. To capture the deep blue seas and summer sun of Saint-Tropez, “we shot in Mallorca in various locations.” Mallorca also stood in for locales in Monaco as well as Princess Margaret’s home away from home, Mustique, in the Caribbean. Read on to learn where The Crown filmed in Mallorca, Spain.

GPRO Valparaiso Palace & SPA hotel, C/ de Francesc Vidal i Sureda, Palma, Illes Balears, Spain

Port Andratx, Carrer d’Antoni, Mallorca
The Crown really did sail out to sea on a yacht in the Mediterranean. “It was a very big, fancy boat. It was enormous and kind of outrageous and exactly what the story needed,” said Debicki. “That was pretty extraordinary, to be on a big boat like that with bedrooms the size of people’s apartments. We never really took that for granted.” And when it came to re-creating the famous photo of Diana sitting on the end of a diving board, thankfully, the yacht already had “a diving board built in and ready to go,” says Harvey. “We were just lucky that it had that element that we could use.”

Puerto De Andratx, Avenida Gabriel Roca y Garcias 4-13, Andratx

Avinguda de Gabriel Roca i Garcías

Paula Del Consell, Carrer, del Palau Reial, 19, Palma

Real Club Nautico De Palma, Jardines de San Telmo, 1, Palma

Gran Folies, Carrer 21, 7,  Andratx

Plaza Tagamanent, Ciutat Antiga, Palma

Carrer  Montenegro, 14, Palma

Passeig del Born, Palma

Carrer de la Mar, Felanitx

Villa Sol De Mallorca, Av. Portals Vells 25

Son Bonet Airfield

Carrer Tintorera, 7,  Andratx

Villa Formentor, Carrer Zona Formentor, 66, Pollenca

Villa Castillo de Mallorca, Cami Reco Des Murter 26, Andratx
“I adore every location,” says Salim Daw (al-Fayed). “Every location was wonderful for me. I enjoyed my time, and I gave what I can give to this amazing character and to this amazing series, and I’m so happy. I’m still happy. I remember every day, every hour, every minute, every second on this set.”

Stream The Crown Season 6, Parts 1 and 2 now, only on Netflix.

Additional reporting by Lucy Ford.

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