By Adam Bloodworth
‘If you think you’re getting inside, I will prove you wrong…’ says archivist from the famous property featured in Saltburn
Picture the scene: it’s 2 am, and you and ten mates are in the main room of the actual Saltburn house, perhaps naked, like Barry Keoghan in that scene, surrounded by tables cluttered with empty booze bottles. In the middle there is the dance floor, where a number of attention-seeking friends are murdering their impressions of the film’s iconic outro.
Until recently, this would have been a possibility. City A.M. can reveal that Drayton House, the country pile used in Saltburn, was available for private hire. It was only when we emailed Bruce Drayton, archivist at the property, to inquire about throwing our own Saltburn party, that the house promptly disappeared from online listings services.
We’re terribly sorry to say we ruined the potential of an IRL Saltburn party. Read and weep, because this is how our conversation went.
Read more: Saltburn: Promising Young Woman director returns with a promising sequel
“We are not interested in any further publicity,” said Bruce Bailey, archivist for the property, after I’d emailed to request a visit. He added: “The house is NOT open to the public nor is it available for hire.” (We had images of the actual real-life Felix emailing us from the property in his smoking jacket.)
Odd, we thought, as the internet suggested otherwise. So we sent Bailey a website link which said”the house is available for pre booked parties, study days and guided tours,” but Bailey did not reply.
Within a few hours, the website had been taken down.
It had formerly contained a personal email address for Bailey, as well as a contact number. But the entire URL has now vanished. However, a general website for the property remains live, offering “residential and commercial properties available to rent on an ad hoc basis” within the Drayton Estate. It isn’t clear whether the properties are within the piece of land that contains the house used in the Saltburn movie.
Videos of intrepid fans creeping silently around the fringes of the house used in Saltburn are drawing in millions of views, and Sophie Ellis Bextor’s 2001 hit Murder on the Dancefloor, which features in the closing credits, has gone back into the top 10 for the first time in over 20 years as the movie continues to bulldoze competition from other indies.
Tiktok user Rhian Williams created a video to show how to get close to the historic countryside house by walking on publicly accessible footpaths which has drawn in nearly three million views.
Replying to @user841084102 Public footpath from #Lowick in #Northamptonshire through the #draytonhouse Estate.
The Drayton Estate used in the Saltburn movie is a Grade 1 listed country house which dates back to around 1300, and was described by the 20th century architectural historian Gervase Jackson-stops as “one of the best-kept secrets of the English country house world.” The house is situated around a mile outside of Lowick, a quiet village near Kettering in Northamptonshire.
It had never been used for filming before; filmmaker Emerald Fennel said this was essential for the aesthetic of Saltburn. “It needed to be something that hadn’t been used before. That hadn’t been photographed even, let alone put on film. We always wanted the exact sense that it is a real place,” she told House and Garden.
Saltburn, a high society satire about wealth and corruption shot in Oxford and at the Drayton Estate, follows two young university students, the upper class Felix, played by Jacob Elordi, who lives at the Saltburn property, and the seemingly down-to-earth Oliver, played by Barry Keoghan.
As of 7 January the film had grossed £17 million at the international box office.
