Smash-hit drama ‘The Crown’ visits the New Forest

With season three of The Crown dropping on Sunday (17^th November), Film:NewForest are delighted to confirm that scenes from the smash-hit Netflix drama  were filmed in and around Brockenhurst last September. 

The Crown is a historical drama television series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and arguably one of Netflix’s top shows since airing in 2016.

Helena Bonham-Carter and Olivia Colman were among the stars who stayed at Rhinefield House Hotel as up to 90 crew members filmed there for two-and-a-half days.

© IJPR – Ian Johnson Publicity

The Hotel’s general management team confirmed that 19 cast members stayed at the hotel and the team shot scenes in the hotel interior and around its outdoor pool for an episode:

“It was a very lucrative piece of business and very beneficial for the hotel. It’s an amazing venue and no surprise people are inspired to use it for their productions.”

– Rhinefield House Hotel

Rhinefield was contacted out of the blue in early 2018 by a member of The Crown’s  production team, who had spotted the hotel had an outdoor pool on its website. Four meetings later with three location managers and the filming was set up.

Furniture was changed around the hotel to make it look like the 1970s, as “The hotel was used as the site of a Scottish Balmoral venue – so it was nothing to do with the New Forest. They filmed mostly around the outdoor pool but inside as well.”

The news of the filming was welcomed by Matt Callaghan, New Forest District Council’s Economic Development Manager who said:

“This is not the first time that one of our New Forest locations has been used to double up as another location. We have previously seen Beaulieu River as Miami and Lymington Quay as the Shambles in York. This underlines the versatility of the New Forest as a filming location and the wide range of productions we can attract.”

The Film:NewForest Office worked closely with Creative England and our colleagues at Forestry England to ensure that the necessary permissions were in place.

The Crown is an example of the significant financial investment which filming can bring to the district.

“We are now into the fourth year of our Film: New Forest project which has delivered more than £3m of spend on local goods and services.”

– Forestry England

This production alone generated £54k.

The Crown, season three is available to stream on Netflix from Sunday 17 November. 

For more information on Film:NewForest, visit www.filmnewforest.com  

For more information on RhinefieldHouse Hotel, visit www.handpickedhotels.co.uk/rhinefieldhouse