The front of the building had already been shown during the opening scene. This part, however, was filmed at the rear of the builidng, around the grounds and in the columns at the entrance.
The land, estimated at over 600 acres, was purchased by Sir Tom Gresham in 1562 and he began to transform it into Osterley Park so that it was "fit for a man of his stature."
Queen Elizabeth I is known to have visited the house on at least two occasions.
In 1966, while "Lucy In London" was being filmed, the property was leased by the Department of the Environment and administered by the Victoria and Albert Museum. Since 1991, it has been the responsibility of The National Trust.
On our visit, we found that this building is directly under a busy flight path. Although the volume of air traffic is much heavier today, this may explain why the Osterley location is used predominantly for photo stills, as seen during the "Lucy In London" title song. Through the entire production, there is no sound recording from Osterley. The pictures do not show just how close (or loud) the planes really are!
On our first visit we couldn't help wondering why they did not use the front of the building, it wasn't until we watched the special again that we saw they had used it in the very first scene!
On the show, Tony pulls up to a road opposite the building, Lucy runs across and goes inside. As you can see from the picture, there is now a railing down the middle of the road making it impossible to do this.
Parts of this 'Grade 1' listed building date back to the 16th Century and is originally reputed to have been a royal hunting lodge.
In 1931, the building was purchased by the Sutcliffe family who still own the property today.
Great Fosters is now a hotel and is still set in beautiful gardens, very similar to when "Lucy In London" was filmed there.
It is difficult to work out exactly where these scenes were filmed as there has never been a structural theatre in the grounds. However, there is an amphitheatre which may have been used for parts of the Shakespearean scenes. During the 1970s, the M25 (a motorway) was constructed directly behind the amphitheatre, to the rear of the gardens at Great Fosters. It is possible that this is where these scenes were shot.
I have tried to make contact with the owners of the hotel to find find out further information but, so far, have been unsuccessful.
As with Osterley House, Great Fosters is now under a flight path, they noise levels however, are considerably lower.
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