Penshurst Place

About the venue

Medieval manor house at Penshurst in the Weald of Kent, built in 1341 and home to the Sidney family since 1552. The Baron's Hall seats 140 and takes 200 standing, and the Sunderland Room seats 100. The parkland takes marquees for 500. Weddings are exclusive hire, and the house also hosts corporate days, Christmas parties and birthdays.

Every creaking floorboard in the Harry Potter films was recorded in the Long Gallery at Penshurst Place. Location scouts had hoped to use the Baron's Hall as Hogwarts' Great Hall, but it was too small. The Other Boleyn Girl did film its royal wedding feast there, and Wolf Hall and The Princess Bride were also shot on the estate.

Sir John de Pulteney, a Lord Mayor of London, finished the house in 1341 as a country retreat within half a day's ride of the city. Its Baron's Hall still has the original 60ft chestnut roof. Henry VIII later used Penshurst as a hunting lodge, and in 1552 Edward VI granted it to Sir William Sidney. The Sidney family have lived here ever since. The Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney was heir to the house, and the family's London home gave its name to Leicester Square.

The formal gardens cover 11 acres and are Grade I listed. Records of them go back to 1346, which makes them among the oldest gardens in private ownership. A 100-metre peony border flowers from late May. Around them lies a 2,500-acre estate, with seven miles of the Medway and Eden rivers running through it.

For events, the Baron's Hall seats 140 for dinner and takes 200 standing. The Sunderland Room, off the Minstrels' Gallery, seats 100, and the Buttery suits dinners for 30. The parkland can hold marquees for up to 500. An in-house dining team and event coordinators run each booking. Weddings take the house on exclusive hire, mostly at weekends. The village sits 20 minutes from the M25.

Medieval manor house completed in 1341

Sidney family home since 1552

Baron's Hall: 140 seated, 200 standing

Sunderland Room: 100 dining, 125 theatre-style

Parkland marquees for up to 500

11 acres of Grade I listed gardens

Exclusive-hire weddings, mostly at weekends

20 minutes from the M25