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Hammer house

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 1:07 am
by iveco
Can anyone tell me what it is now!!!

can you go look round it, is it open to the public?




rgds

You cant' go in it.

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:31 pm
by Victor
You can't go in it.

But there is a public foot path that runs right by it.

You can get very close.

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:38 pm
by Victor
Sorry, I forgot the original question.

I think it's offices now so you can't go in.

Most of the interior shots in the series were done in the house.

The rooms were transformed into various sets and they employed a lot of painters and carpenters to do it.

Some grave yard shots were done at the church opposite and you can go there. I watched them film and episode about a dead boy there.

It was a girls boarding school before Hammer took over. It still had a gym which was used for a set in which a lot of rabbits were killed.

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:40 pm
by VICTOR
Sorry.

The house I refered to was from the Hammer House of Horror.

I might be in the wrong section. :oops:

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:03 pm
by John
Victor wrote:Sorry, I forgot the original question.

I think it's offices now so you can't go in.

Most of the interior shots in the series were done in the house.

The rooms were transformed into various sets and they employed a lot of painters and carpenters to do it.

Some grave yard shots were done at the church opposite and you can go there. I watched them film and episode about a dead boy there.

It was a girls boarding school before Hammer took over. It still had a gym which was used for a set in which a lot of rabbits were killed.

It's now some kind of management training centre. They did it up and restored it quite well and have been there since the eraly 90's. It looks a slightly peculiar operation, and have seen a number of German and Swedish registered cars coming and going from the place on the occasions I have been there. Not sure what goes on there really...

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:36 pm
by admin
The Hampden Group now own it. They're in the insurance industry. Check out their site for some shots of the house and rooms:

click here

If you click on the 'Weddings' link you can take a virtual tour of the house ! which I haven't seen before. You can look at a lot of the rooms and you'll spot some familiar places ! The corridor of the hospital in 'Two Faces' for one.

Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 1:46 pm
by bollinger
Took a couple of pics of Hampden House in February 2009 when there was a lot of snow on the ground. Is it possible to post them here?

Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 4:03 pm
by admin
yes, you'll need to host the pics on a free site like myphotoalbum or photobucket. You then need to use 'img' link when posting your message.
Alternatively post them to me and I'll do it.

Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:33 pm
by andy_pagin
Hampden House is currently owned by a specialist Insurance Management & Services company - Hampden PLC. They extensively restored the house and the interior, though used as a business location is practically identical to the way it looked when Hammer House of Horror was filmed. The house isn't open to the public.

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:08 pm
by scott18
Does anybody watch the BBC series NEW TRICKS.
Was watching the latest series last night and imagine my surprise when one of the filming locations was Hampden House.
I think it is the 2nd episode called "Old school ties" set(appropriately,considering the houses original function years ago)in a boarding school.
At the risk of sounding like a complete geek,it was fun spotting certain parts of the house familiar from the HHOH TV series looking(in some cases)remarkably unchanged almost 30 years on.
Notably familiar was the entrance to the clinic from THE THIRTEENTH REUNION,the gymnasium from the same episode,the black arch door which doubled as the entrance to Mrs Ardoy's house in CHILDRE OF THE FULL MOON and which is also glimpsed in GUARDIAN OF THE ABYSS and THE TWO FACES OF EVIL,and more besides.
Its worth a look if you can get the chance.

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:18 pm
by andy_pagin
Hampden house is regularly used for filming, Martin Clunes "Mr Chips" was filmed there for instance. I do some contract work there and can confirm the place hasn't changed at all since the Hammer days.

Hampden Plc have invested eye watering amounts of money into maintaining the house much to their credit.

The place has a strange life of It's own, if you've ever worked there and the house likes you ... it never lets you leave!

Re: Hammer house

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 2:30 am
by iveco
Thanks for the interesting replies :)

Re:

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 9:29 pm
by andy_pagin
John wrote:It looks a slightly peculiar operation, and have seen a number of German and Swedish registered cars coming and going from the place on the occasions I have been there. Not sure what goes on there really...
Nothing peculiar about it, we're a specialist insurance consultancy and management company and it's our head office. We do a lot of business in Europe, hence the occasional foreign car.

Re: Hammer house

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2016 6:55 pm
by city309
I had the pleasure of visiting Hampden house briefly in 2004. Its very charming, but much smaller than I imagined. I was in the great hall, walked down the Gothic corridor....What surprised me was how short the distance Ruth had to really run in the 13th reunion. Its the scene near the end where she hides at the side building as Rothwell loads dinner into his car. In reality its probably only half that distance from the building to her car. I could have done it in a few strides.

Re: Hammer house

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2016 6:04 pm
by andy_pagin
Okay it's not on the scale of Blenheim Palace, but it's crammed full of fascinating rooms with many a curious nook and cranny or architectural feature. Hammer really only scratched the surface of the building's potential for Gothic horror scene setting.