With the Queen's passing in September 2022 and the recent accession of King Charles III, season five of The Crown was released under very different socio-political circumstances than its predecessors. With a star-studded cast bringing the British royal family to life on the small screen, you'd expect the filming locations of The Crown to be equally as spectacular. The crew behind one of Netflix's biggest hits scoured the country to find lookalikes of the royals' most famous residences, but how do they measure up? We take a glimpse inside some of the hit series' filming locations, so click or scroll on to see just how close they come to the real thing... 

Once the Queen's official London home, Buckingham Palace dates from the early 1700s, when the Duke of Buckingham built a fine mansion in the capital's fashionable St James's district. The townhouse was acquired by King George III in 1761 and lavishly enlarged in the 18th century to become the building we know today. 

Surrounded by the verdant St James's Park and Green Park, the world-renowned palace has 40 acres of private grounds, all of which the crew of The Crown needed to replicate for a number of key scenes across the series.

While Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Phillip, famously called the palace home, Princes Andrew and Edward have also used the property as their London residence, while many members of the royal family’s staff live there, too. The exterior of Buckingham Palace is an iconic location, hosting traditions such as balcony appearances, royal announcements and the Trooping the Colour ceremonies within the grand gates and further into The Mall. 

The Old Royal Naval College in the London borough of Greenwich, which was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was used as a filming site for exterior shots of Buckingham Palace and its courtyard. Fittingly, the site is steeped in history in its own right and was once the location of Greenwich Palace. The birthplace of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I, it was demolished after the British Civil War and King William III later employed eminent architect Sir Christopher Wren to build the Royal Hospital for Seamen in 1694. In 1873, it was converted into the Royal Naval College.

The iconic riverside estate was perfect for filming exterior shots for the series, but the crew also used parts of the interior. The college's Painted Hall, which recently underwent a two-year conservation project, dates back to the early 18th century. Created by Sir James Thornhill, it covers 40,000 square feet of walls and ceilings, covered in striking paintings depicting around 200 figures. The Painted Hall has featured in many banquet and party scenes in the series.

Season four of The Crown opened in 1979 with the Queen exiting Buckingham Palace for the Trooping the Colour ceremony. With the Old Royal Naval College as a convincing backdrop, it's hard to tell the difference between the real thing and the royal residence's lookalike.

With the location for the exterior shots and banquet scenes sorted, the crew were in need of a doppelgänger for the main interior rooms of Buckingham Palace. Difficult to replicate, the 828,000-square-foot building comprises a total of 775 rooms, which include 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms, none of which are ensuite—a sign of the palace's old-fashioned layout. This photo shows the swish White Drawing Room.

The Queen was usually ensconced in the palace during weekdays, where she conducted official business, including investitures, state banquets (pictured) and garden parties, as well as hosting dignitaries. From the grand scale of the regal residence to the ornate rooms and architecture, it wouldn't be any easy location to fake for the screen. 

Over the centuries, the interior of Buckingham Palace has been the scene of a number of crucial events. Here, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are pictured after their nuptials in 1947 in the palatial Throne Room with their wedding party. But what stately home could possibly live up to the grandeur of one of the most iconic royal residences when it came to filming?

The interiors of Buckingham Palace feature heavily in all five seasons of The Crown, but without access to the real thing, the team found a number of filming locations that were good enough to represent the royal home. Located not too far from Buckingham Palace itself is Lancaster House, which was the perfect place to shoot some of the interior scenes. Also used as a location for Downtown Abbey, it's sadly not open to the public. 

Built in the 1820s, the lavishly decorated townhouse was commissioned by the Duke of York, but today is managed by the government and used for conferences and hospitality events. A fitting replacement for the palace, many scenes for The Crown have been filmed inside the house. The House's music room boasts a lookalike royal balcony and grand Corinthian columns. 

Series three made use of the grand hallway when the Apollo 11 astronauts came to visit the palace. The grand stately home was also seen back in season one as a backdrop for Princess Elizabeth's wedding day, where group photos with close members of the royal family were staged in the music room. 

Highgrove House in Gloucestershire has been one of King Charles’ private homes since 1980 and the country estate makes an appearance in series four of The Crown—or, rather, its likeness does. In 1987, Charles remodelled the palatial Georgian house, which is managed and owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. 

When the Prince of Wales first arrived at Highgrove House, the garden was sparse apart from an old cedar tree. Over a period of 38 years, Charles transformed the 15-acre grounds into a tranquil oasis, complete with an organic farm and renewable energy systems.

Prince Charles moved into the estate with Princess Diana following their marriage in 1981, and Princes Harry and William spent many of their formative years there. A rectangular building, the home is made up of three floors with nine bedrooms, four reception rooms, six bathrooms and a nursery wing. 

The 17th-century Somerley Estate in Hampshire stood in for the real Highgrove House in season four of The Crown. Set in the heart of a 7,000-acre estate, a grand home was first built on the site in 1653 by the Okden family. After a fire, the original property was burnt to the ground and the Somerley House that stands today was built towards the end of the 18th century.

The current owners, the 7th Earl and Countess of Normanton, have lovingly restored much of the house, which made it the perfect place to recreate Highgrove on the big screen. The lavish interior includes the 90-foot-long picture gallery and the drawing room (pictured), as well as plush accommodation on the third floor. 

In episode four of season four, the Queen plays a visit to her son at his new home, Highgrove House. In this still, Olivia Colman and Josh O'Connor, who play the Queen and Prince Charles, can be seen standing outside Somerley House in one of the most iconic shots of the series. It's reported that a crew of 120 took around two weeks to film three minutes of air time, mixing props with Somerley's own furniture to give the scenes an authentic feel. 

Balmoral Castle was the Queen's beloved Highlands holiday home. Unlike Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Holyroodhouse, which are owned by the Crown Estate, it was the personal property of the Queen and was said to be her favourite place to stay. Balmoral has been a royal residence since 1852, when it was acquired by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria.

As an escape from her hectic schedule, the Queen normally spent her summer vacation at Balmoral in August and September. Balmoral is pretty frugal—as far as fairytale castles go—and is rumoured to be more than a little draughty in the winter months. Most of the castle itself is out of bounds to the general public, aside from its grounds, though the entire estate would be closed in the summer when the Queen was in residence. 

Balmoral has always been a place for the family to relax and enjoy a good dose of fresh air, and the Queen usually took part in walks on the moors with her dogs and enjoyed horse-riding on the 50,000-acre estate. She was even spotted ferrying the Duchess of Cambridge up to the grouse moor to join the Duke of Cambridge on a shoot, and hosted many guests and dignitaries over the years on the estate. 

To match the stunning backdrops of the Balmoral Estate, the cast and crew of The Crown headed up to Ardverikie House in Newtonmore in the Scottish Highlands. The regal building was the perfect fit for Balmoral with its Scottish baronial architecture, towering turrets and breathtaking rural scenery.

Encompassing a vast 38,000 acres, the estate has been in the same family for almost 150 years and has undergone a number of transformations across the decades. Unlike Balmoral, the public is welcome to explore the grounds on foot, with six holiday cottages available to rent if you fancy experiencing the on-screen doppelgänger for yourself.

A key location in season four, Ardverikie Estate appears in episode 'The Balmoral Test', in which Margaret Thatcher and Lady Diana Spencer meet the extended royal family for the very first time. In previous seasons, it's also been used as the backdrop for royal family gatherings. 

Windsor Castle was thought to be the Queen's favourite official home. The 1,000-room castle, which is located just outside of London in Berkshire, dates from the 11th century. It was one of the Queen's official country residences, and although some formal engagements were usually conducted at Windsor, it was essentially her place to unwind.

The fairytale castle is famed for its magnificent state apartments, considered by many experts to represent some of the finest examples of Georgian style. The gilded rooms are decorated with priceless antiques and paintings by famed artists, including Rubens and Holbein.

The private apartments at Windsor are hardly ever photographed. This rare glimpse inside the Queen's private sitting room, which shows Her Majesty meeting the former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key in 2015, was shared via the British Monarchy's official Twitter account.

Having substituted Windsor Castle for Belvoir Castle in seasons one to three, the fourth series saw the filming location for the iconic royal residence moved to Burghley House in Stamford, Lincolnshire. A magnificent Tudor mansion built by the Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, it's one of the UK's largest and grandest surviving houses of the 16th century.

Adorned with sumptuous décor, the state rooms at Burghley are ideally suited to play the opulent interiors of Windsor Castle. The most famous of the heavily decorated rooms is the Heaven Room, which sits in the South Wing and boasts ceilings and walls covered in scenes from ancient mythology.

Burghley House’s Heaven Room makes its appearance in season four in a scene where Lady Diana Spencer, played by Emma Corrin, chooses her engagement ring. In 1981, the soon-to-be Princess was ushered into a private room after a dinner with the Queen to make her selection, which was seen as a modern move at the time. 

Much like Balmoral, Sandringham House in Norfolk was one of the Queen's private homes. This Grade II-listed country house sits on a massive 20,000-acre estate that lies within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Described as "the most comfortable house in England", Sandringham features the latest domestic technology following its rebuild in 1870. 

The house dates from Elizabethan times and was snapped up by Queen Victoria in 1862 as a gift for her son, the future King Edward VII. He rebuilt it in 1870 in suitably sophisticated style, with a ballroom added in 1881 and a guest wing constructed in the 1890s. As well as the main house, the spacious estate includes several well-appointed houses. The Georgian Anmer Hall, for instance, is the country home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Catherine. 

Her Majesty spent Christmases at Sandringham and typically stayed until February. It was from here that she recorded many of her famous annual Christmas Day messages to the nation. The royal clan usually headed up on Christmas Eve to begin the festivities, which lasted until the New Year, although their celebrations are likely to be much smaller this year in light of recent events. Here, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip can be seen with their children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, at Sandringham in 1970. 

In season four of The Crown, Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk doubled up as the royal family's rural Norfolk hideaway. A good doppelgänger for the Queen's private country retreat, the two buildings have similar roots—both are originally Jacobean stately homes that were extensively remodelled in the Victorian era. 

The hall needed to be completely revamped and repainted before the cameras started rolling. It took a reported 12 days to prepare the hall and dress it for three days of filming. Scenes were shot in the ground floor reception rooms, as well as outside in the estate's gardens.

Somerleyton Hall crops up throughout series four of The Crown, with the royal family's famous Christmas celebrations captured here, too. The ornate wooden staircase and elegant reception areas were decked out for the festive period later in the season, as the on-screen royals gathered in the library of Somerleyton Hall. 

One of the last remaining aristocratic townhouses in London, Clarence House was designed by architect John Nash and built between 1825 and 1827. The home is named for its first royal resident, William Henry, Duke of Clarence and later William IV. The home was heavily damaged during the Blitz in the Second World War and had to be largely reconstructed, after which it was used by the Red Cross and the St John Ambulance Brigade as their headquarters for the rest of the war.

In recent royal history, Clarence House has served as the residence of numerous notable figures. Following Elizabeth's marriage to Phillip in 1947, Clarence House became the couple's first residence, where they lived until Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne in 1953. At this point, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret replaced the new monarchs in Clarence House, and the Queen Mother remained in residence until her death in 2002.

Today, Clarence House serves as the primary residence of King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles, who will remain in residence there until at least 2027, while the renovations on Buckingham Palace are ongoing. The home is open to the public for one month a year, usually in August, and boasts a substantial portion of the Royal Collection.

In season four of The Crown, Clarence House serves as the backdrop for the unravelling marriage of Charles and Diana. With Charles frequently retreating to Highgate to be with Camilla, Diana was able to use Clarence House as the setting for her affair with cavalry officer James Hewitt. High Canons Borehamwood, a country manor house about 30 minutes drive from London, stood in for Clarence House in season four.

The home, which boasts no royal connections beyond The Crown, dates to 1800 and has been used as a filming location for numerous other films and television shows, including Murder on the Orient Express in 1974, Inspector Morse in 1990 and the 2013 TV series, Agatha Christie: Poirot.

As it is very much a country estate rather than an urban townhouse, High Canons House only served as a location for interior shots during season four. However, its stately furnishings, large portraits and collection of antiques made for a perfect substitute for the royal residence.

The country residence of the Princess Royal, Gatcombe Park was built between 1771 and 1774 for a local clothier. The Queen purchased the property for Princess Anne in 1976, following her marriage to Captain Mark Phillips, and paid for the renovation and redecoration of the house. Built of Bath stone, the home consists of five main bedrooms, four secondary bedrooms, four reception rooms, a library, a billiard room and a conservatory.

Despite her divorce and subsequent remarriage, Princess Anne has remained in residence at Gatcombe Park for more than four decades and frequently hosts horse trials on the home’s expansive grounds, which comprise two different farms and cover approximately 730 acres. The most famous equestrian event to be held at Gatcombe is the Festival of British Eventing, which Mark and Anne founded together, and which draws top equestrian Olympians along with thousands of spectators each year.

When Anne and Mark divorced in 1992, the estate was divided and Anne remained at Gatcombe while Mark continued to live on one of the farms with his new wife until the couple moved to the US. Anne’s children, Zara and Peter, also had cottages on the property until they were married. Gatcombe, which is situated near the village of Minchinhampton, to which it belongs, remains the Princess Royal’s primary residence.

In season four of The Crown, Gatcombe Park is replaced by Wrotham Park, a neo-Palladian country estate located just 17 miles from Hyde Park in Hertfordshire. The 18-bedroom country estate, built in 1754 by architect Isaac Ware, is one of the largest private houses near London and sits on a 2,500-acre parcel.

The house has been used as a filming location in more than 60 films, including Bridget Jones's Diary and Kingsman: The Secret Service. It is also available to rent as a private events venue and has been a favourite location for wedding festivities for pop stars and crowned princes alike.

Wrotham Park’s house and grounds feature prominently in the episode ‘Favourites’, in which the Queen pays a visit to each of her four children. During her visit with Anne, the pair enjoy a horse ride and a picnic on the grounds.

Perhaps the building with the darkest history to be featured in the series thus far, Ipatiev House was a Russian merchant’s residence in Yekaterinburg, where Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and his entire family were murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries in July 1918. The building had been a private residence until April of 1918, at which point its owner, Nikolai Nikolayevich Ipatiev, was forced to vacate the premises of what was soon to become known as “The House of Special Purposes.”

On the 30th of April 1918, the Imperial Romanov family, consisting of the Tsar and Tsarina, their son and four daughters, and several members of their household staff, were moved into Ipatiev House where they remained for 78 days under Bolshevik guard. In the early hours of the 17th of July, the Imperial family and their staff were woken and told that they were being moved to a safer location. They were subsequently led into the cellar of the house and brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks.

The murder of the Imperial family was a particular blow to the British royals. Tsar Nicholas was the first cousin of King George V, who had supposedly tried and failed to rescue the Romanovs by evacuating them to England, though historians differ on this point. Though Ipatiev House itself was demolished in 1977, the 60th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the slaughter of the Romanovs at Ipatiev House remained a serious bone of contention in Anglo-Russian relations for many decades to come.

In season five of The Crown, the Romanovs’ execution features prominently at the beginning of episode six, with Wentworth Woodhouse serving as the replacement for Ipatiev House. With its stately façade and expansive interior, Wentworth Woodhouse has long been a popular filming location for British period dramas and, according to The Star, has featured in numerous films and TV shows, including Netflix drama The Irregulars, Victoria, the first Downton Abbey film, Gentleman Jack and Darkest Hour.

Set on 87 acres of land and surrounded by an estate of 15,000 acres, the Grade I-listed property is the largest private residence in England. Of course, an estate of this size and grandeur bears little external resemblance to the far more modest Ipatiev House, but a few of the home’s elegant staterooms served as Ipatiev House’s bedrooms and banqueting hall at the beginning of the episode.

Despite its illustrious history, Wentworth Woodhouse sat abandoned for 25 years, and it was not until it was purchased by the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust in 2017 for £7 million ($9.5m) that the process of returning the property to its former glory began. However, the home’s recently restored interiors made a fitting backdrop for the opening of one of The Crown’s darkest episodes to date. We'd be hard-pressed to spot the difference between these real-life royal residences and their lookalikes.

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