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The Downton Abbey set is usually home to an actual desk owned by Napoleon... but not while filming

It might surprise you to learn that Highclere Castle, the real-life estate where Downton Abbey is filmed, operates business-as-usual while filming is going on. Well, almost.

Fans are soon to be welcomed back to the halls of Downton Abbey when the franchise's latest (and last) cinematic chapter, The Grand Finale, makes its way into theaters. And that means that, very recently, the cast of the British period drama were welcomed back to Highclere Castle, the real-life estate where Downton has been filmed ever since 2010. Interestingly, Highclere's day-to-day operations don't change much even when folks like Hugh Bonneville and Michelle Dockery come to visit, although there is one thing the manor changes when cameras are rolling.

They move Napoleon's desk.

Yes, the real-life Downton Abbey boasts a piece of furniture owned by the only Ridley Scott monster worse than the xenomorph, Napoleon Bonaparte. The story comes out of a report that Elle Decor did on the estate, published September 6 ahead of The Grand Finale's return to theaters. And in that report, Downton's production designer Donal Woods recounts exactly how much of Highclere's real furnishings make it onscreen.

That would be about "80 percent" of the antique furnishings owned by the real Highclere proprietors, George Herbert, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, and his wife, Lady Fiona Carnarvon, the latter of whom "has wonderful taste," according to Woods. That other 20 percent, however - including the office piece from the second-most famous Napoleon after Dynamite - are moved off-site for "safekeeping" while the cameras roll. 

One wonders if they also remove the high chair he must've used to reach it. 

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale comes to theaters September 12. 


Prepare for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale with Popverse's Downton Abbey watch order

Grant DeArmitt

Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.

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