On Location peels back the curtain on some of your favourite films, television shows, and more. For this edition, we focus on Hamnet.
How do you make a movie in one of the most famous cultural landmarks on the planet? This is one problem that faced the crew filming Hamnet – a fictional account of William Shakespeare’s family life in Stratford-Upon-Avon and his professional one at The Globe theatre in London, based on Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning novel. Unlike recent biopics of arts titans such as Bruce Springsteen, Maria Callas, or Bob Dylan, whose homes are not museums, the production team had to retell Shakespeare’s story in such historically significant locations as The Globe and the cottage of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife. Take it from a Briton: you cannot shut down the still-very-lucrative present-day Globe for a movie shoot. Never. Gonna. Happen. Not even with Paul Mescal on board as the bard.
And yet, as Hamnet’s production designer Fiona Crombie tells Condé Nast Traveller, finding substitute locations wasn’t as tricky as you might think. A costume and production designer for many British historical pieces – Crombie was Oscar-nominated for her work in The Favourite – she has lived in the UK for more than a decade and was unfazed by the challenge. Here, she shares her most memorable locations in Hamnet.
Brilley, Herefordshire, Welsh Borders
We join the story from Anne Hathaway’s perspective. Also known as “Agnes” she was to become Shakespeare’s wife and mother to his three children: eldest Susanna, and twins Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet died at the age of 11 of the bubonic plague, and O’Farrell’s book explores the theory that Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet, was shaped by his son’s death. O’Farrell also casts Agnes as a herbal healer who grew up on a farm with deep emotional ties to nature and the forest.
Agnes’ genuine home, “Hewlands” farm on the fringes of Stratford-upon-Avon, is now a tourist attraction (Anne Hathaway’s Cottage), so the team instead shot at Cwmmau in Herefordshire, a medieval farmhouse that is available for holiday rentals via the National Trust. “Our location manager was driving to a historic house that she’d heard had good potential, but those people didn’t answer the door,” says Crombie. “So, she carried on going and came across this listed farmhouse, which had never been on camera before. It was an amazing find. It’s got the perfect frontage, but because it’s a rental, it’s been renovated inside. We actually had to [temporarily] reverse all those modernisations before filming began.”
Weobley, Hereford
As Agnes and William’s relationship intensifies, we’re shown his parallel existence in 16th-century Stratford-upon-Avon, working for his glove-maker father. Crombie’s team used Weobley as a stand-in, nicknamed the “black-and-white village” for its immaculately preserved Tudor buildings. “It’s such a beautiful area,” says Crombie. “I couldn’t love that town more. There are things I bought in its greengrocer’s that I’d make the eight-hour round-trip back from London for!” (Apple cider vinegar with turmeric, in particular.)
Weobley dedicated its main thoroughfare to Hamnet's production for weeks, closing businesses and restricting locals’ access throughout the summer of 2024. “They were so welcoming,” adds Crombie. “Shout out to The Green Bean café, who kept us happily fed. Their full English breakfast was in high demand by cast and crew.”
When Agnes falls pregnant, the couple quickly marries, and little Weobley church was used for this scene. However, crew travelled further afield for Agnes’s labor scene, when she gives birth to Susanna in the embrace of a spectacular ancient tree. “That forest is part of the Lydney Park Estate in Gloucestershire,” shares Crombie, which is located around 90 minutes’ drive south of Weobley. Happily for Hamnet fans, the gardens are open to the public and a clutch of estate buildings – including an old pump house and barn – have been converted into holiday lets. “I remember being so sad on our last day at Lydney, thinking I might never be back. These places became so dear to us.”
River Thames, London
Determined to make a career from playwriting, William moves from Stratford-upon-Avon to London, leaving his young family behind. “All of the London sequences were filmed at Charterhouse,” says Crombie. An extraordinary heritage site right in the heart of London’s City – and with more than 600 years of history – Charterhouse has been a monastery, a hospital, and boys’ school over the centuries. It’s now an almshouse, or charitable residence for elderly people in need. Visitors can book tours of Charterhouse and attend events such as Christmas carols and candlelit walks.
The one exception is a London scene where William ponders his future at dusk, sitting on the banks of the Thames. “The moon dictated our whole schedule in London,” remembers Crombie. “There was only going to be one night with a full moon and a spring tide, that would expose the beach, giving us enough time to shoot. It was such a complex scene.” If you want to see this fleeting London beach for yourself, make for Durham Wharf, between Greenwich and the Thames Barrier.
The Globe
Historical accuracy played in Crombie’s favour when it came to recreating the theatre built for Shakespeare and his Players in 1599. “The Globe we built at Elstree Studios [replicates] the real, first Globe,” explains Crombie. That Globe burned down in 1614 and was reconstructed in 1615 (before being demolished in 1644). The London theatre that fans flock to today is a reconstruction of the second, more ornate rendition.
“I think a lot of people will watch the movie and say, ‘That’s not The Globe I know’, and yet it is The Globe that a young Shakespeare would have known,” Crombie points out. “We did our research and learned it was originally built using reclaimed timbers and even stolen materials. For our story in Hamnet, that theatre has a special relationship to the forest, so this rustic, rough-hewn version served us perfectly.”
Hamnet's UK release date is January 9 2026