Miss Austen location guide: Where was the BBC drama filmed?

With Keeley Hawes starring as Cassandra, we get an insight into Austen's legacy through her work, but also her sisterly bond and love that continues to permeate through her family.

The four-parter unfolds across two different timelines, focusing on Cassandra as an adult who must retrieve her sister's letters in order to protect her legacy and also, as a young woman who is dealing with the highs and lows of adulthood alongside her younger sister Jane.

Throughout the series, we get beautiful shots of the countryside, some manor houses and the villages which both Jane and Cassandra frequented together. But where was Miss Austen filmed? Read on for everything you need to know.

Where was Miss Austen filmed?

Filming for Miss Austen kicked off in November 2023 and took place in London and southeast England.

The series is home to multiple grand homes and those were shot in the English capital, according to series star Synnøve Karlsen.

In an interview with Country & Town House, she revealed: "We shot in West London near Kew Gardens, and all around London in different old stately homes. Beautiful, big homes that are almost untouched and served as real places like Kintbury and Godmersham Park."

Aside from the stately homes, some of the series also unfolds as the Austens take a trip to Sidmouth. While it wasn't filmed there, Rye doubled up as Devon for the drama.

In a press pack for the series, Karlsen said of those sunny beach shots: "We had a week in Rye in East Sussex which was absolutely stunning. Rye doubled as our Sidmouth; we filmed on the Sand Dunes around Camber Sands and it was absolutely freezing!

"I think on one of the days we were filming it was around –5 degrees Celsius, and we were trying to look as comfortable as we could sitting on the beach having a ‘summer’ picnic."

Similarly, Phyllis Logan who plays Mrs Austen, also shared: "We filmed some of the series in Rye, which was a lovely trip; we used some of the cobbled streets, which were very hard to walk on in the shoes my character wore!

"We also filmed on Camber Sands beach; it’s meant to be the height of summer in the series, and there we were in January – we were perished! Well, not quite perished, but it was awfully nippy."

It wouldn't exactly be a tale about Jane Austen without mention of her final resting place, Chawton in Hampshire, which was used for filming of the series also. Today, Chawton House can be visited by the public, also housing a unique collection of women's writing accessible to everyone.

Going from a grand home to the relatively modest Chawton Cottage was definitely a change of pace for Jane, her sister Cassandra and their mother in the wake of her father's death.

Speaking about that time and finding the locations for it, executive producer Christine Langan said: "Yes, there was a time in their lives where the Austen sisters didn’t really have a home – the dwellings we’ve pictured for them and brought to life are quite humble, impersonal and a little dog-eared. There’s a feeling that this period was very insecure and unhappy for Jane.

"Houses feature largely in Jane’s novels with their roots and meaning and air and atmosphere. It seems that this period of being unmoored was detrimental to her health and work. Cassandra’s efforts in securing their home were a vital part of getting Jane writing again."

Producer Stella Merz also said: "It's true that Jane Austen didn’t, that we know of, work hugely on any of her novels whilst they were moving around in lodgings. It was only when she moved to Chawton - where the Jane Austen Museum is - with Cassandra and her mother that she had a room of her own to write in and was incredibly productive."

Of course, Cassandra's main scenes are within Kintbury, where she goes to visit the Fowle family home that she spent plenty of time in as a young woman. Speaking about the importance of Kintbury in the tale, Langan said: "The series is very carefully researched and it’s worth noting that Gill Hornby, the novelist of Miss Austen, lives in Kintbury on the site of the Old Rectory, which of course is our principal setting for the series.

"Gill moved there 30 years ago, and that’s what initiated her interest and research in Jane’s life - she’s written a non-fiction book about Jane too."

Merz added: "In terms of location and design as well, a lot of Jane Austen adaptations are in these big, grand houses, but that’s too big a scale for the reality of the story that we are telling. Jane and her family had much more of a middle-class life, so a lot of effort has been put into finding locations that are on the right scale."

Miss Austen will air on BBC One and iPlayer from Sunday 2nd February 2025.

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