A Tour Of Bridgerton’s Filming Locations In Bath

As Bridgerton returns to our screens, Margaret Hussey takes a walking tour of Bath to see many of its filming locations and inspirations – as well as some surprises.

A Bridgerton Guide To Bath

Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte in Bridgerton season 4. (Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2025)

Fred Mawer is something of an expert on Bridgerton. He should be, after many hours and days pounding the streets of Bath showing fans the behind-the-scenes of the hit Netflix show. We join him on his Bath on Screen tour, which as well as taking you to Bridgerton hotspots also passes some other memorable film and television re-creations.

Fred, a Blue Badge-qualified tour guide, says the appeal of Bath is its size and ease. ‘It’s very affordable to film in Bath and it brings in an enormous amount of money to the city,’ he tells me. ‘The city is small, so logistically it is much more straightforward to film here than in London.’

Season 1 of Bridgerton had 14 locations around the city, he reveals. ‘Bath isn’t playing itself in Bridgerton,’ says Fred. ‘The Royal Crescent is pretending to be Grosvenor Square in London where the Bridgerton family is neighbours with the Featheringtons.’ The Royal Crescent is one of the most architecturally important streets in Bath; as well as being home to locals it is the site of the Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa which helps to organise walks like this.

The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa

Fred says life for residents and guests carries on as normal during filming. ‘They don’t kick the residents out or close the hotel, and blackout blinds are used to keep disruption to a minimum,’ he reveals. But some eagle-eyed fans noticed a very 21st century touch in season 1 when yellow lines on the road were left in.

No.1 Royal Crescent, a heritage museum, is the house of the Featheringtons, and Fred reveals pelmets and decorative swags were added to its frontage with CGI to give a more affluent feel. As Bridgerton soared in popularity, crowds of fans would be so intense that the streamer has avoided Bath entirely for season 4, which was instead filmed on a stage set at Shepperton. ‘It’s more affordable,’ says Fred.

We carry on walking to the Assembly Rooms, which plays a significant part in both Bridgerton and the 2008 film The Duchess starring Keira Knightley, where she gives a speech from its balcony. ‘It’s where people gathered for entertainment in Georgian times and where all the partying happened in Bath back in the 1700s,’ says Fred. ‘This is a good example of Bath playing itself.’ Lady Danbury’s ball from Bridgerton season 1 was also filmed in the tea room.

Claudia Jessie as Eloise Bridgerton & Hannah Dodd as Francesca Bridgerton in Bridgerton. (Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2025)

The building, owned by the National Trust, is currently undergoing a major restoration and is set to reopen in 2027. Fred says, ‘If it all goes to plan, it will be a themed experience, so you will go to the ball.’ Its nine chandeliers are often described as the most valuable Georgian chandeliers in the world. ‘They are original,’ Fred tells me. ‘They took them down before the start of the Second World War to keep them safe. It was a good decision because the building took a direct hit from a bomb in April 1942.

‘For Bridgerton, they lowered the chandeliers halfway down to get them into shot,’ he continues. ‘They are on a pulley system for cleaning as originally they had candles. Using the Assembly Rooms for the filming was the perfect overlap. Lots of the etiquette is very similar to how it was then with dance cards. Bridgerton is all about balls. It’s the lynchpin of the stories as well as this visual feast, lots of intrigue and gossip.’

At the city’s Alfred Street, concrete was covered and CGI added on shop fronts. It was particularly used for the paperboys delivering Lady Whistledown’s gossip papers into the doorways for season 1, while Number 12 Trim Street was Gunter’s tea shop where Simon, Duke of Hastings and Daphne got to know each other. Fred says it was an empty premises when they filmed here and now it is appropriately a hairdresser’s.

The Bridgerton family home is filmed at the Rangers House. (L-R) Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton, Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton, Simone Ashley as Kate Sharma, Will Tilston as Gregory Bridgerton, Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton, Claudia Jessie as Eloise Bridgerton in episode 301 of Bridgerton. (Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2024)

Trim Street is also significant for Jane Austen fans. It’s the last place the writer lived before leaving the city in 1806. Austen lived in Bath from 1801 with her parents and her sister Cassandra after moving from Hampshire. They rented houses in different parts of town and all of her six novels mention Bath with Northanger Abbey (1817) and Persuasion (1817) particularly setting a lot of scenes in the city.

Fred says: ‘You can see where she lived, where she visited and also walk in the footsteps of her characters as many of the streets and buildings are exactly as they were when she was living in Bath.’ Various versions of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion have been filmed in Bath too, including the 2022 Persuasion adaptation starring Dakota Johnson. ‘It took many liberties with the novel and was done in a Bridgertonesque way – much raunchier than Jane Austen would have intended,’ Fred weighs in.

We move on to Bath’s biggest and grandest thoroughfare, Great Pulteney Street. ‘We get lots of filming here,’ says Fred. ‘This was where Martin Freeman filmed for The Seven Dials Mystery on Netflix. It’s an Agatha Christie adaptation and it’s Bath pretending to be London.’ The three-part drama, set in a country house hotel in 1925, was released on Netflix on January 15. The 2004 version of Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon was filmed here, too.

Nearby is The Holburne Museum, Bath’s art gallery. ‘In Bridgerton it is Lady Danbury’s House,’ says Fred. ‘They have done more filming outside there than for anything else. It’s the only place they have filmed for seasons 1, 2 and 3, and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. In season 3, they used it for when Colin and Penelope had a tiff. The famous carriage scene comes later and that was not filmed in Bath.’

Persuasion. Image courtesy of Netflix

And even though Bridgerton is fiction, Queen Charlotte was a real person. The German-born wife of George III visited Bath in 1817 to bathe in the thermal waters. ‘By a nice coincidence, there is a portrait of her in the Holburne Museum,’ Fred tells me. ‘Some historians think Queen Charlotte had African ancestry on one side of her family and they cite various portraits of her that reflect that.’

At Abbey Green in season 1 they recreated Covent Garden market. The Colombian Company coffee shop became The Horse and Hop where Simon, Duke of Hastings, drowns his sorrows. The Abbey Deli also was used as Madame Delacroix’s Modiste dress shop, where the girls tried on ball gowns. ‘They filmed inside and this was a haberdasher’s back in the 1800s, so there is a very nice link,’ says Fred. ‘Netflix said it was the most complicated filming here they had to do because it was right in the centre of the city with lots of foot traffic and the cafés and shops.’ To avoid noise while filming, buskers were also paid £50 not to play for 45 minutes.

Bath was also used for filming 2023’s Wonka starring Timothée Chalamet, with fake snow; the flamingos were added on later with CGI. And it stood in for 19th century Paris in the 2012 film Les Misérables. Pulteney Bridge and Weir was used for the dramatic death of Inspector Javert. Some scenes from Apple TV’s Down Cemetery Road, starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, were filmed at a disused school here while The Forsytes on Channel 5 used The Theatre Royal.

Film director Ken Loach lives here and is a patron of the FilmBath Festival, while one star who was just himself was Nicolas Cage. The actor lived in Bath’s The Circus for two years, even turning on the city’s Christmas lights in 2009.

Discover

For more on the tour visit royalcrescent.co.uk and fredmawertours.co.uk