Dark Knight Rises: Where Is Wayne Manor?

Is Bruce Wayne’s mansion, “Wayne Manor”, a real place?

In “The Dark Knight Rises“, is Bruce Wayne’s mansion, “Wayne Manor“, a real place?

Yes, it is.

Actually, it is two places.

The sketch above, from 1881, is of a classic mansion built during England’s Elizabethan period (i.e., during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, that is) called Wollaton Hall. It is located in Nottingham, England – which is Robin Hood territory, actually – no stranger to larger-than-life crusaders for justice. (Just a coincidence?) Wollaton Hall’s stunning architecture inspired other similar buildings that were constructed throughout England over the next several hundred years, most notably Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire.

Wayne Manor sends the Bat Signal! (ITV.com)

Wollaton Hall took eight years to build, 1580-88, and contributed to wiping out the owner, Sir Francis Willoughby, financially. Though he died broke, Wollaton Hall stayed in the family for another 350 years. The Nottingham City Council took it over after that, and turned it into museum of natural history, which is free to the public.

Wollaton Hall is what Wayne Manor looks like from the outside. In June and July 2011, the cast, crew and even Bruce Wayne’s sleek Lamborghini Aventador sports car were there for on-location exterior shots. The shoot was a bit hard on the old place; besides a few knicks and chips and scratches, a production truck backed into a historic wall and knocked it down.

It’s not Wollaton Hall’s first star turn in the movie biz; it was featured in “Pride and Prejudice” and “The Young Victoria” and a number of other movies.

Just add Batman & Albert (NationalTrust.org)

The interiors, however, were shot at another location – Osterley Park House, outside of London. This is a popular movie location too, and coincidentally, it is not the first time Wollaton Hall and Osterley Park House have shared interior/exterior roles in movies, including “Pride and Prejudice”. (You’ll recognize the Great Entrance Hall at Osterley Park House as the foyer in Wayne Manor.)

Osterley Park House was also built during the Elizabethan Period, although it was heavily revised in the 1800s.  It’s worthy of note, I suppose, that Wayne Manor has become younger, by several centuries, as the series has progressed from one movie to the next; it has traditionally been thought of as a haunting – if not haunted – Gothic Tudor estate from the era of the 12th-16th centuries. It’s known to have been in the Wayne family for generations.

Christopher Nolan, the director of his Dark Knight trilogy, actually went back to the source for his depiction of Wayne Manor, in “The Dark Knight Rises”; in “Batman Begins” he used the lookalike mansion, Mentmore Towers, for Wayne Manor.

Pre-Nolan versions of Batman have used Knepworth House, a true Gothic manse 25 miles north of London, a palatial estate in Glen Cove, New York, and – for the original 1960s TV series – a spooky-looking house in Pasadena, California.

None of these places, however, is really large enough to be the true Wayne Manor; fan sites estimate Wayne Manor is at least 42, 500 square feet – not counting its partially finished basement!

Jerry Garrett

July 20, 2012