See ‘House of Guinness’ filming locations: castles to breweries
The Netflix series House of Guinness turned a handful of British landmarks into the 1868 Dublin and New York of the Guinness family, and visitors can still walk the same corridors and docks that appear on screen. Production skipped modern Dublin because the city’s surviving buildings no longer matched the period, so the crew built its empire across Northwest England and North Wales instead. The locations now double as ready-made travel stops for anyone who wants to trace the show’s recreated world.
Penrhyn Castle as Ashford Estate
Penrhyn Castle stands in for the Guinness family’s County Mayo seat, its neo-Norman towers and Victorian interiors chosen for their direct visual parallels to the real Ashford Castle. The National Trust property opened its gates to the production in 2024, letting cameras capture grand halls that still feel untouched since the industrial era. Visitors today can book timed tours that pass the exact rooms used for family council scenes.
Filming took advantage of Penrhyn’s private wings, which allowed set decorators to add period wallpaper and furniture without disturbing the permanent collection. The castle’s location near Bangor also gave the crew quick access to Snowdonia backdrops for exterior carriage shots. Those same mountain roads now appear on social feeds as weekend drives for fans mapping the show’s countryside sequences.
The property’s visitor center added a small display of production stills after the September 2025 premiere, turning the site into an informal House of Guinness checkpoint. Guides note that the Guinness family’s real Mayo estate remains privately held, so Penrhyn is the closest public stand-in most travelers will reach.
Croxteth Hall as Iveagh House
Croxteth Hall in Liverpool supplied the domestic interiors for Iveagh House, the Dublin mansion at the center of the family power struggles. Its main staircase and servants’ quarters appear in multiple episodes, giving viewers a tangible sense of how the Guinness children moved between public rooms and private corridors. The Grade II listed building still offers guided tours that highlight the same spaces.
Production chose Croxteth because its layout matched the show’s need for both upstairs formality and downstairs logistics in a single location. Crews dressed the earl’s former residence with period textiles that stayed in place for several weeks, allowing night shoots without constant resets. Liverpool’s film office has since added the hall to its official walking map, noting its prior use in other prestige projects.
Local visitors often combine Croxteth with nearby St George’s Hall, creating a compact day that covers both the private and public sides of the House of Guinness world. The hall’s café now stocks branded shortbread that references the series, a small nod to the tourism bump that arrived after the first season dropped.
Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse as St James’s Gate
The vast Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse became the stand-in for St James’s Gate Brewery, the industrial heart of the Guinness empire. Its brick arches, stables, and loading bays let the crew film cooperage work, barrel rolling, and dockside arguments without moving between multiple sets. Executive producer Karen Wilson called the single-site convenience invaluable during the complex build.
Real St James’s Gate in Dublin remains an active, modernized facility, so the Liverpool warehouse offered the only practical way to recreate 1868 operations at scale. Production designers constructed temporary mezzanines and added period signage that has since been removed, leaving the raw Victorian shell visible again. The regeneration story of Stanley Dock now draws extra foot traffic from viewers who recognize the brickwork from key episodes.
Guided dock tours in Liverpool point out the exact warehouse doors used for worker protest scenes, and some operators have added optional House of Guinness commentary at no extra charge. The site continues to host occasional pop-up events tied to the show’s renewal news, keeping the location in circulation for returning fans.
St George’s Hall for public scenes
St George’s Hall supplied the neoclassical backdrop for the series’ large-scale protests and political rallies, its marble halls and sweeping steps providing the civic scale the story required. The same building doubled for New York sequences in earlier drafts before the production settled on Manchester streets for Bowery exteriors. Its dramatic entrance appears in several wide shots that establish the social tensions surrounding the Guinness business.
Because the hall already hosts concerts and civic events, the production filmed during brief closures and worked around existing lighting rigs. The result is a seamless blend of real architecture and added period detail that feels lived-in rather than dressed. Liverpool tourism boards now list the hall as a must-see stop on any House of Guinness itinerary.
Visitors can still climb the same steps that characters used to address crowds, and the building’s café sells a simple map that marks every interior used in the series. The hall’s management reports a measurable uptick in American visitors who cite the show as their reason for the trip.
Broughton Hall as St Anne’s House
Broughton Hall in Yorkshire served as the family’s country retreat, St Anne’s House, where quieter domestic scenes played out against Georgian elegance. Its extensive grounds allowed for carriage arrivals and garden conversations that contrasted with the tighter city interiors filmed elsewhere. The estate’s scale gave directors room to stage subtle power shifts without needing additional locations.
Production used the hall’s private apartments for bedroom and study sequences, keeping the family dynamics contained within one property. The Yorkshire setting also offered easier scheduling around Manchester studio work, cutting down on crew travel between shoots. Local tourism operators have begun pairing Broughton visits with nearby National Trust properties to create multi-day House of Guinness routes.
Guests who book overnight stays at the hall can request rooms that appeared on screen, though the production team removed all temporary furnishings after wrap. The estate’s current owners have kept a small archive of behind-the-scenes photos available for guests, adding a personal layer to the visit.
Manchester streets and studio work
Manchester’s Northern Quarter streets doubled for New York’s Bowery, while nearby Heaton Hall and Stockport churches stood in for Dublin funeral processions and side-street scenes. The choice let the crew maintain a single base in Northwest England rather than splitting resources across the Irish Sea. Space Studios Manchester handled the lavish ballroom and interior details that could not be sourced on location.
Production designer notes reveal that the studio sets were built to match the exact dimensions of Croxteth Hall’s parlors, ensuring seamless cuts between location and soundstage footage. This technical continuity helped maintain the show’s grounded visual language even when plotlines jumped between continents. Manchester’s film-tourism scene has since added the Northern Quarter to its official maps, highlighting the specific corners used for night shoots.
Viewers planning a trip can start in the Northern Quarter for modern contrast, then move to the period sites in Liverpool and Wales within a few hours by train. The city’s ongoing regeneration means new cafés and hotels keep appearing near the filming zones, making repeat visits feel current rather than nostalgic.
Why the UK locations worked
Creator Steven Knight explained that Dublin’s surviving Georgian streets no longer matched 1868 density, so the production looked north for intact period fabric. Liverpool’s docks and civic buildings offered the right mix of industrial grit and neoclassical grandeur without modern intrusions. The same logic applied to Penrhyn Castle and Broughton Hall, whose preserved estates supplied the opulence the Guinness story required.
Directors Tom Shankland and Mounia Akl used the geographic spread to mirror the family’s expanding influence, moving characters between city and country in ways that felt organic. The decision also aligned with UK tax incentives and established crew networks, keeping the shoot on schedule ahead of the September 2025 premiere. Those incentives remain in place for the planned Season 2 shoot in early 2027.
The resulting locations now function as a ready-made trail that rewards both casual viewers and dedicated fans. Each site carries its own tourism infrastructure, from National Trust guides to city walking maps, so travelers can customize their route without extra planning layers.
Visiting tips for 2026
Most locations remain open year-round, though Penrhyn Castle and Croxteth Hall recommend advance booking for guided tours that include production details. Liverpool’s dock tours run daily and can be combined with a half-day visit to St George’s Hall. Manchester’s Northern Quarter is best explored on foot, with the studio-adjacent streets offering the clearest visual links to the show’s New York sequences.
Travelers arriving from the U.S. can reach Liverpool or Manchester by direct flight, then use regional trains to connect the sites in three to four days. National Trust membership covers Penrhyn and several Yorkshire estates, cutting costs for multi-site itineraries. Seasonal events tied to the series renewal continue to pop up, so checking local listings before travel can add timely programming to any trip.
The production’s decision to film outside Ireland has created a lasting map that extends the show’s world beyond the screen. Fans who follow that map encounter the same tension between preserved history and modern use that the series itself dramatizes, turning a viewing habit into a tangible route through living heritage sites.
What the locations reveal next
The spread of House of Guinness filming locations shows how a single series can activate an entire regional tourism circuit while staying faithful to its historical premise. Viewers who visit now see the same buildings that will anchor Season 2, giving the upcoming episodes an immediate real-world anchor. The trail also demonstrates how production choices made for practical reasons can generate sustained cultural and economic interest long after cameras stop rolling.
