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LMGI COMPASS
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Fall 2022
ones that haven't been shot by other productions is certainly
much more of a challenge," Liegis says. It's an uphill battle felt by
filmmakers in oft-filmed cities around the world, and competition
for London locations seems to be at a high.
"Certainly, for most of 2021, everywhere was booked. There
was so much production in Britain that we were tripping over
each other," says Lawrence. Liegis credits Lawrence/LMGI and
Normington for finding ways to create new and exciting setups at
tried-and-true locations.
Luton Hoo, a stately English country manor, now a luxury
hotel and spa, located north of London, was not a location that
Normington was excited to return to on The Essex Serpent. She and
Lawrence previously shot it on Suffragette, and it has appeared
in scores of films and television shows. "The first thing I said to
Harriet is, 'Over my dead body am I going back to Luton Hoo,' and
there I am standing in Luton Hoo because you kind of know that
it's the best there is," says Normington.
"It's got a network of Victorian brick buildings and they can
become all sorts of things," says Lawrence. For The Essex Serpent,
the art department transformed the stables of Luton Hoo into
a London slum. Interiors of the Banks cottage, the Aldwinter
schoolhouse and Aldwinter pub were shot there as well.
Apart from Cora's London house, Normington says that the
Aldwinter church on the edge of water was the most difficult
location to pin down. "We really wanted to do the church in Essex,
but, weirdly, it was really hard to find it there," she says. Adds
Lawrence, "I think we looked at 60 or 70 churches, easily before
finding the perfect one."
St. Mary Magdalene's, located west of London in Boveney,
Buckinghamshire, is remarkably set along the Thames. Made of
wood, stone, brick and plaster, the weathered medieval church
was founded in the 12th century. No longer an operating parish, it
belongs to an organization called Friends of Friendless Churches,
an independent, non-denominational charity that, according to
its website, rescues and repairs "redundant places of worship in
England and Wales."
The Maldon quayside plays for a bustling Essex harbor. Photo: Harriet Lawrence/LMGI
"Cracknell's Cottage" at low tide.
Photo: Harriet Lawrence/LMGI
