Oakley Court is a Victorian Gothic country house set in 35 acres (140,000 m2) overlooking the River Thames at Water Oakley in the civil parish of Bray in the English county of Berkshire. It was built in 1859 and is currently a luxury hotel. It is a Grade II* listed building that has been often used as a film location.
Film set
Recent view
In August 1949 Oakley Court became home to the famous British film production company Hammer Films. Hammer shot five films there, including "The Man in Black" and "The Lady Craved Excitement", before moving to the adjacent Down Place - what subsequently became Bray Studios - the following year.
While the bulk of Hammer's most famous horror movies were filmed at Bray in the late 50's and early 60's, the studio continued to make occasional use of Oakley Court as an exterior location, for example in The Brides of Dracula (1962), The Reptile (1966), and The Plague of the Zombies (1966).
Other films shot there over the years include "Witchcraft" (1964); And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973); the William Castle horror-comedy The Old Dark House (1963) (a remake of the original The Old Dark House, directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff); the cult independent horror film Vampyres (1974); the classic 1976 mystery farce Murder by Death; and the 1978 Peter Cook and Dudley Moore comedy, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Freddie Frances was inspired by Oakley Court's exteriors and long wished to set a film there; his 1970 Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, and Girly was written specially to take advantage of the unique landscaping and architecture.
It is perhaps best known as Dr. Frank N Furter's castle (called The Frankenstein Place) in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).
In 1995, it featured as the 'Laxton Grange Hotel' in the British television series Pie in the Sky starring Richard Griffiths.
On many web resources, it is erroneously credited as being St Trinian's School in the original St Trinian's film series, but a comparison between the films and the actual building show a quite different architecture and overall design.[citation needed] Historical notes available from the hotel, however, indicate that some parts of the St Trinian films were filmed in the grounds.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakley_Court