I you’re planning on being one of the thousands of cinema-goers to catch Mike Leigh’s much-vaunted film Mr Turner, out in cinemas now, pay special attention to the scenes that take place in ‘Chelsea’.
The house where JMW Turner ended his days – Numbers 118-119 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea – is in fact Hampermill House in Watford, on Hampermill Lake.
Production designer Suzie Davies describes in an interview with the Evening Standard how the front garden of the house was taken up and replaced with the Thames beach, complete with a pontoon and boats, to create the illusion of being on the edge of the river. See if you can tell if it’s actually Watford.
Mr Turner tells the story of the last 25 years of the great, eccentric Romantic painter: the effect on him of the death of his beloved father, his relationship with his housekeeper, and the landlady who becomes his mistress, and in whose house he died in 1851.
The film won Timothy Spall Best Actor and director Mike Leigh a nomination for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2014.
- Mr Turner is in cinemas now.
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