A movie romance in Britain

A movie romance in Britain

With 2008 being a Leap Year, women may make marriage proposals to men on February 29th in accordance with ‘Ladies Privilege’. Whether you’re planning on popping the question or just looking for a Valentines vacation, a visit to a place from one of the many romantic movies filmed in Britain may provide the perfect setting.

Britain is as famous for its romantic comedies as it is for tea and scones. Screenwriter Richard Curtis has become a one man Rom Com industry, with films like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually doing a wonderful job for London tourism, while other films like Atonement, The Holiday, Pride and Prejudice and Miss Potter have brought Britain’s uniquely romantic countryside to the attention of the world.

As the central location for many a Rom Com, London is as good a place as any to begin a romantic vacation in Britain. Here you can take a birds eye view of the city skyline with a trip on the London Eye before dropping in on some of the venues from the movies.

Stop by the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and the Café Rouge in Covent Garden, location for the ‘how many lovers?’ scene in Four Weddings… Love Actually fans will be able to snap various London scenes from the film like Trafalgar Square, the Millennium Bridge, the Tate Modern, Hyde Park and the Selfridges store on Oxford Street where Rowen Atkinson makes his cameo as sales assistant. While fans of Notting Hill will want to stop by the Travel Bookshop on Portobello Road where Hugh Grant first met Julia Roberts.

Outside of London, the Home Counties were heavily featured in Four Weddings... locations here include Betchworth Church in Surrey for one of the four weddings and the Crown Hotel in Amersham, Buckinghamshire for the love scene between Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell. While the Home Counties also featured in scenes from The Holiday including the historic town of Godalming near the South Coast and the sleepy village of Shire in Surrey, where Cameron Diaz was wooed by Jude Law in the White Horse Inn.

Among the 7 Oscar nominations for Atonement are nominations for cinematography and art direction, in which British set locations played no small part. Much of the film was set in the Heart of England county of Shropshire, the stately home belonging to the Tallis family was Stokesay Court, near Craven Arms, while other set locations include the seafront at Redcar in the North East, Whitehall and Bethnal Green Town Hall in London and the Seven Sisters in Sussex.

Elsewhere the Peak District National Park and some of England’s most beautiful estates and gardens provided the majestic scenery for the recent adaptation of Jane Austen’s most celebrated romance, Pride and Prejudice, also starring Keira Knightley. The film was set in and around the Peak District, with Chatsworth House portraying the stately home of Mr Darcy and Haddon Hall and the sweeping vistas around the Peak village of Hathersage providing the evocative scenery. While in the South West of England, the gardens of Stourhead provided some of the romantic and dramatic scenes for the film.

Further north the stunning Lake District was the setting of the film Miss Potter, starring Renee Zellweger as the children’s writer Beatrix Potter. The film weaves a romantic tale into the life of the Lakeland writer and is set in and around the dramatic scenery, which inspired her stories about Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck and friends. Lakeland locations include the village of Hawkshead, Potter’s home at Tarn How and Holbeck Gyhll overlooking Lake Windermere.

There are countless romantic locations throughout England, Scotland and Wales. You can find some of your own with a movie style romance in Britain.