About 40 miles from London, in Buckinghamshire, England, is the private estate of Mark Getty, who is the grandson of J. Paul (and son of Sir John Paul Getty Jr.), as well as the founder of the prominent photography company Getty Images. Sir Paul bought the 2,700-acre property in 1985 and launched an extensive restoration of the complex’s buildings, of which there are more than 30.
The renovation work established a number of new features on the grounds, including the library, a crenellated space that houses part of the family’s vast collection of books and manuscripts, and a cricket ground that has hosted many influential people, including the Queen Mother.
Sutton Place residence
J. Paul bought the sprawling Tudor mansion, a 72-room estate about 30 miles southwest of London, in 1959. By The New York Times, Sutton Place was built in the 1500s and has a royal lineage: it was built by a courtier of Henry VIII and was the residence of the Duke of Sutherland when J. Paul snapped it up for $840,000.
The 2018 FX series trust, which dramatizes the 1973 kidnapping of 16-year-old heir J. Paul Getty III, is partly set in Sutton Place. The production aimed to capture the atmosphere of the grand halls and living spaces of the stately home while filming at another mansion, known as Audley End. Production designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb considered 75 different locations before landing on Audley, which she felt was an even better choice for the series than its source material: “Even if we had access to Sutton Place, it might not have been the place to do it. for the series because it almost, proportionally, seems small,” he said ADVERTISEMENT in a 2018 interview. “It’s a certain kind of Tudor architecture that looked almost like gingerbread.”
