Gaddesden Place - The Gascoigne Residence
The following collection of photos (taken during the summer-house bombing scenes) was kindly sent to us by Dan Baker at Xara.com. Click for enlargements.
The beautiful Gascoigne home, shown in several scenes in A Lesson In Murder is now home to a commercial business - Xara.com - and is located near Hemel Hempstead.
From Xara.com: "Gaddesden Place was designed by James Wyatt and built between 1768 and 1773. "It is reputed to be Wyatt's first country work and accurately represents his conformity at the start of his active career to the English Palladian tradition. The house is set in an elevated position overlooking the Gade valley and enjoys one of the finest views in the Home Counties.
"The conservatory was added in 1891 and has recently been extensively restored. The quadrant links and north and south pavilions were demolished in 1955 and 1963 because of dry rot. The house and its grounds have been frequently used as film locations.
"Work has now been completed on restoring the south wing, with two stories being added to the existing building. Not only has this given the company much-needed extra office space, but it has considerably enhanced the look of the building from the driveway. The photo to the right shows the newly-restored wing (on the right of the photo)."
Two photos from the making of the final scene in "A Lesson In Murder". Danny Dyer (Tony) on the seat in front of the memorial. (Click to enlarge)With many thanks to Ian Burley, Digital Photography Now, http://www.dp-now.com.
Some notes from Ian on the filming:
"The scenes where the car draws up next to the restaurant are right at the end of George Street (in Hemel Hempstead.) What you don't see is that the end of the street is blocked and has been for about 6 years as it was a bit of a rat run. So the car had to be backed down to the end and then driven about 20 yards out again.
"The memorial was made of wood and very unrealistic in real life! But
looked OK on screen.The scene where the restaurant was burned took place in driving rain during the night; probably a good thing in the circumstances!"
If the street looked familiar, it's because Pie In the Sky was filmed just down the way several years ago.