Where was Taboo Filmed? Guide to all the Filming Locations
Posted by Ra Moon
The BBC and FX channel co-production is a superb period drama starring Mad Max: Fury Road's Tom Hardy. The long-awaited second season is expected to be released by the end of this year 2022 or in 2023.
Set in 1814, this fictional story takes the viewer to the darkest parts of nineteenth-century England, in a world where the powerful East India Company controlled the most profitable private business of the British Empire.
Set in 1814, this fictional story takes the viewer to the darkest parts of nineteenth-century England, in a world where the powerful East India Company controlled the most profitable private business of the British Empire.
James Keziah Delaney is a mysterious adventurer returning from Africa, where he was presumed dead, to claim the family heritage.
The plot of Taboo is an idea of Tom Hardy, who wrote the script with his father and Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders.
Taboo was filmed around London in many historic homes and buildings, making this project remarkably interesting regarding the filming locations.
Taboo Locations
The magnificent Hatfield House in Hertfordshire served as the headquarters of the East India Company. Also, some rooms and the facade were used as the palace of the Prince Regent.
The setting is an important part of the story, and the locations are a journey into the early 19th-century Regency London.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks and Paul Hudson - Map
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks and Paul Hudson - Map
Several rooms of the Hatfield House appear in the series, including the armory, the library, or the stunning Marble Hall, pictured.
This opulent Jacobean-style country manor may be familiar as it has been featured in many other big productions.
The stately home served as a filming location in Wonder Woman, the BBC series Trust, Hulu's The Great, Netflix's Bridgerton, and 1989's Batman, just to name a few.
The Great Hall of the Ham House in the south of Richmond appears in some scenes with Sir Stuart Strange (played Jonathan Pryce) and his company's counselors.
This 17th-century National Trust property is located on the bank of the River Thames near London in Ham.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks and Allan Harris - Map
The facade of the East India Company building in the series is the Goldsmiths' Hall, located at the junction of Foster Lane and Gresham Street in the City of London.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks - Map
The Delaney family house exterior is located at Stepney Green Gardens in East London.
According to Historic England, this private manor built around 1694 is the only remaining example, in this area, of the 17th-century brick classical houses.
According to Historic England, this private manor built around 1694 is the only remaining example, in this area, of the 17th-century brick classical houses.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks - Map
The funeral from episode one was filmed at the churchyard at St Mary's the Virgin church in Wanstead, a town in East London.
Some parts of the Danson House in Bexley, a Palladian villa built in 1766, were used to film the concert in the second episode.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks - Map
Pictured, the library of the Danson House, located in south-east London, during Beethoven's sixth symphony play.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks and Jill Catley
The cellar of Danson House was also used as a room at St Bartholomew Hospital, in a scene in episode two.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks and Barbara Rogerson
The scenes with Delaney onboard a boat were filmed at the Golden Hind berthed in Southwark, London, a Sir Francis Drake’s ship replica.
By the way, did you spot the mysterious ghosts hidden like Easter Eggs in some sequences of Taboo? It is very reminiscent of the specters from The Haunting of Hill House that appear in the background of many scenes.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks - Map
Taboo was also filmed in the Historic Port of Charlestown in Cornwall, a popular shooting location where series like BBC's Poldark or movies like Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland were filmed.
Image courtesy of Andrew King - Map
The scene outside the theatre with Lorna in episode three was recorded at Henry Wood Hall located in Trinity Church Square in London's Southwark.
Image courtesy of Paul Farmer - Map
Many sequences in the streets and docks of London were filmed at Tilbury Fort, a huge fortress on the north bank of the River Thames in Essex.
The historical citadel has protected London's seaward approach from the 16th century through the Second World War.
The Coalhouse Fort in East Tilbury doubled as the Bedlam Hospital.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks - Maps: Tilbury Fort / Coalhouse Fort
The ball from episode four was amazingly filmed at the 18th-century country house West Wycombe Estate, a large 18th-century Italianate villa in Buckinghamshire.
Image courtesy of John Griffiths - Map
The watermill is located in the state of Mapledurham House in Oxfordshire, originally built in the 15th century.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks and Hugh Mothersole - Map
Pictured, the scene with the boats passing through Islington tunnel on Regent's Canal.
According to The Knowledge Online, the historic Charterhouse in Smithfield, St Martin’s building in Camden, and the House of Detention on Sans Walk in Islington (scenes of people living in poverty) were also featured in the show.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks - Map
Countess Musgrove lives in the Chenies Manor House in Buckinghamshire, considered one of the UK's finest Tudor Mansion Houses.
The house interior and other parts of the garden were also used as the Zilpha (played by Oona Chaplin) and Thorne Geary (Jefferson Hall) mansion.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks - Map
James's half-sister house exteriors were shot at the 17th-century Hall Barn Estate in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.
This is the same location where some scenes for After Life's Tambury town were filmed.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks - Map
The church and graveyard from episode 6 are Saint Mary and All Saints Church located in Beaconsfield old town.
Image courtesy of BBC/FX Networks - Map
Can you help to find the missing filming locations for Taboo?
Have you recognized other shooting locations when watching the series? To complete this report, any feedback, info, or images that you may have are more than welcome, thank you!
NOTICE: If you’re using this information on your website, please credit and link to this page as a source.
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Ra Moon
Atlas of Wonders is looking for wonderful Filming Locations all around the world. We are constantly updating and improving our posts with new details and images. Follow us here:
In Taboo part two I saw what looked like wind turbines turning in the background of the scene where Delaney drops the stones from the ship into the water. What are they?. Is this Gravesend Docks.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, some modern wind turbines can be seen in a corner of the screen... It must be from Gravesend, as it is on the other bank of the Thames (from Tilbury Fort).
Deleteno - they are CGI renderings of (some of) the real windmills that stood along the bank of the Thames at Millwall in the early C19.
DeleteHam House long room used in episode two. The picture above with the organ and book shelves looks like Hatchlands Park.
ReplyDeleteThanks, updated! Not sure about Hatchlands Park, though.
DeleteThe Temple was used in ep2, appropriately enough for the legal scenes. There were shots on Kings Bench Walk and also the colonnade by the church
ReplyDeleteThe Delaney House looks very much like the beautiful Georgian houses in Stepney Green, East London.
ReplyDeleteThe Delaney house is the same house where Tom Hollander as Adam Smallbone (Rev) went to the bishop (Ralph Fiennes). Very funny!
DeleteExterior shots of EIDC are in fact Goldsmiths'Hall,Foster Lane, City of London.
ReplyDeleteGreat, updated!
DeleteI easily recognised Tilbury Fort, but think I also recognised exterior shots of Coalhouse Fort in East Tilbury being used to represent bedlam
ReplyDeleteThanks, the Coalhouse Fort Park Facebook page has confirmed this.
DeleteThe water mill is Mapledurham house and mill in Berkshire.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know which church was used for the scene where the man in the confessional had had his tongue removed?
ReplyDeleteHey Ra Moon,
ReplyDeleteI was wondering you knew when Taboo was filmed. Over Summer I was near Elder st (London) and saw some filming going on there? Could it have been Taboo?
According to BBC, Taboo started filming on November 2015 in London. The crew was in Cornwall in May 2016, where some parts of the last episode take place.
DeleteThe external shots of Geary's house and the church/graveyard scene in episode 6 were all filmed in Beaconsfield Old Town, Buckinghamshire as I work across the road and saw it going on. I have pictures but not sure how to post them?
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for your pictures and for your help Emma!
DeleteShe is his half sister, not his stepsister 😊
ReplyDeleteYou're right, thanks Diane!
DeleteDelaney riding across heathland in various episodes looks like the old airstrip on Ashdown Forest, Sussex
ReplyDeleteYes, that's what brought me to this page. It looks very like Ashdown Forest, perhaps the forest on the edge of Dane Hill, looking towards the South Downs.
DeleteI think those scenes may be in the Ashdown Forest, in Sussex.
Can anyone say where the room of Delaney’s mother is? Does it exist or was this scene filmed on a set? Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHi. I noticed that some of Taboo was filmed in Kings Lynn,Norfolk notably the back of the Arts Centre/Red Barn, outside of the Guildhall and I think also St Margarets Church and one of the buildings opposite ( Hanseatic?) viwed through railings in St Margarets Churchyard.
ReplyDeleteThe scenes on the heath, with Delaney riding his horse, look very much like parts of the New Forest national park, with the high ground in the background looking like the Isle of Wight
ReplyDeleteWas Rainham Hall used as the Delaney family home? It looks very familiar! Sorry if this question has been already asked.
ReplyDeleteWhat was used for the scenes entering St Bartholomew's Hospital?
ReplyDeleteI recognised various scenes in and around Temple Gardens, London EC4
ReplyDeletePlease, where were those statues of Neptune and some sea goddess by the river and a tunnel in the last chapter when they are leaving?
ReplyDeleteWhere was the muddy banks of the river where Winter was killed? Anyone know?
ReplyDeleteThe heathland also looks like either Yateley Common near Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire or near Frensham Ponds.
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