A PALACE BUILT OF WOOD

To film the first series of Victoria, the rooms of Buckingham Palace were re-created on a set built in an aircraft hangar in the Yorkshire countryside. ‘We built the whole set in nine weeks,’ says production designer Michael Howells. ‘We had all the carpets printed, based on the real carpets at the palace. We had all the chandeliers made in the Czech Republic, all the furniture made in Malaysia. We used 3,500 square feet of gold leaf while filming and burned 12,000 candles.’

For series two, more rooms were added to the original set. Just as Victoria and Albert did in real life, the production team extended the family space on set, adding a nursery, the Amber Drawing Room, music room and some servants’ rooms. An extension to the throne room was also built.

The hangar that houses the set is massive, covering thousands of square feet, and it’s quite disconcerting to walk from the open countryside into such detailed and unexpected splendour. Much of the set is built from wood and then painted or gilded – the flagstone floors are made in this way, as are the lavish marble fireplaces. The huge windows look out onto sections of garden that are actually indoors but have big lights hoisted on rigging to imitate daylight.

The attention to detail is astonishing – Filming a scene inside the re-created palace close examination is required to discover that the beautiful flower arrangements are not real but made of silk.

As well as the set, other, real locations have been used to stand in for Buckingham Palace,

including Bramham Park and Harewood House in West Yorkshire and Wentworth Woodhouse, South Yorkshire. At the latter, the exterior of the palace, including a 12ft-high wall and railings, has been constructed out of MDF, covered in sand and painted to look like stone. It took about a week to build.

Set designer Nick Wilkinson explains that ‘controlling the period is the most difficult thing. You have to be eagle- eyed.’ The team has to hide all switches and sockets indoors and either remove or mask wires on the outside of the buildings, as well as replace modern windows and doors. And they carefully take pictures of all the work they have done to ensure continuity.