There are some movies that, when watched for the very first time, alter your DNA. I call them Before and After movies. Before viewing, you’re one person. After the final credits roll, you’re another one entirely. They bewitch you, body and soul. This happened to me following my first viewing of Pride and Prejudice, the 2005 film based on Jane Austen’s masterwork first published in 1813. The film stars Kiera Knightly as the bold, independent Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as the arrogant, forbidding Mr. Darcy. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the celebrated movie that captivated audiences and grossed over $122 million at the global box office upon its initial release. In the two decades since, the film has not even remotely tapered off in popularity. Instead, it’s continuously captured the hearts of new generations of hopeless romantics.
Beyond telling the greatest love story of all time, Pride and Prejudice is a source of deep inspiration for lovers of lush interiors, myself included. Set amongst a plethora of estates in the verdant English countryside, the film is a feast for the eyes. But the location that has captivated me most is Longbourn, the Bennet family home where Elizabeth lives with her parents, sisters, and a whole slew of farm animals that are more than welcome inside. The first time I watched the movie as an adult, I found myself pausing every few frames to take in each detail of the cluttered, hectic, and whimsical 17th-century manor house.
Longbourn, which acts as a stark contrast to the stately and rigid estates of Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, has a sit down and stay a while quality to it that I love most ardently in a home. “They were down on a heel, you know, they had five daughters,” Sarah Greenwood, Pride and Prejudice’s production designer, tells AD. “Mr. Bennet wasn’t particularly organized in his estate keeping. The farm had taken over the gardens and the gardens were taking over the house and the animals were coming in. There were society divisions everywhere else, but inside their family, it was all a bit of a mess, you know, in the nicest possible way.” And that feeling is what instantly drew me in. It was the chipped paint. The worn fabric on the sofas. Mr. Bennet’s desk covered in papers and ink. The dining table covered in sewing bits. It was a home that was loved. “It was about having the living things and breaking the formality of the house,” Greenwood tells AD. “It’s chaotic, it’s lived in, it’s alive.”
Pride and Prejudice as inspiration
From my many rewatches of Pride and Prejudice, there are a few takeaways I’ve adapted from the Bennet family home and brought across the pond to my Brooklyn apartment. They are as follows.
Collecting pieces from across centuries and design aesthetics gave the Bennet home a collected feel you can’t obtain any other way. “We look at the furniture in that house and we go, my goodness, that’s amazing furniture,” Greenwood tells AD. “But to Mrs. Bennet’s eyes, it was just old furniture.”
The Bennets were maximalists before maximalism was a thing. Being a family of seven, including five daughters who love to read, write, and squeal about, it’s understandable that the home be perfectly cluttered with stacks of books, bottles of ink, plates of bread, and beyond. From dining tables to desks to pianos, no surface in Longbourn is left bare. The beauty in this curated chaos is that everything in sight serves a purpose, be it something beautiful or something practical. I’ve adapted to this same ethos in my own home.
While mine may be from a bodega, a bouquet of colorful blooms in a ceramic pitcher is about as English countryside as it gets. I recommend opting for yellows and whites, like the Bennets.
Within the very first few moments of the movie, we are welcomed inside Longbourn, where we see Mary Bennet playing the pianoforte beneath a collection of four ornately framed portraits. And throughout the rest of the home, we can spot even more hanging on the Bennet’s perfectly patinated blue walls. In the years since falling in love with Pride and Prejudice, I’ve acquired a vast collection of oil paintings, all of which I think Mrs. Bennet would very much approve.
Experiencing Pride and Prejudice
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice, Focus Features is rereleasing the Academy Award–nominated film in select theaters nationwide. “We had such fun making it and I think that effervescence comes over in the film,” Greenwood tells AD. “It was this blissful summer.” Oh to be a fly on a wall. Desperate for your own taste of what life was like for Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy? You could even go one step further than collecting antiques that evoke the film: A trip to England will grant you access to many of the iconic film locations, which are open to the public.
Filming locations
All scenes set at the Bennet family home were filmed at Groombridge Place, a tranquil moated 17th-century manor house set on acres of luscious gardens in Kent, England. When production started decades ago, the property was changing hands for only the second time in 400 years, meaning the film crew was able to move the Bennet family in before the new owners took over. Greenwood and the film’s art department transformed the home into the weathered, magical abode we know and love today. Fans of the movie can rejoice in knowing that come 2026, they will be able to spend the night in the Bennet household. Groombridge Place is currently being converted into a boutique hotel and spa courtesy of luxury hotel brand The Pig.
Mr. Darcy’s sprawling property is that of Chatsworth Estate, a majestic home located in Bakewell, a town located in Derbyshire, England. Chatsworth is one of the largest private country estates in England, and is believed to have been a source of inspiration for Jane Austen, so it is only fitting that the movie was filmed there. Fans can visit the estate and multiple filming locations, such as the Sculpture Gallery, the Painted Hall, and the 105-acre garden.
At the start of both Jane Austen’s novel and the film, we learn that an eligible bachelor by the name of Mr. Bingley has let Netherfield Park. All scenes set at the stately Netherfield were actually filmed at Basildon Park, an 18th-century Palladian mansion set on 400 acres of land overlooking the River Thames. Basildon Park has been a part of the National Trust since 1978, meaning it is open to the public for us all to enjoy. In recent years, the home has also acted as a set for both Downton Abbey and Bridgerton.
