The Diplomat finds Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) navigating complex diplomatic relations with power players from all over the world. In a fast-paced job handling sensitive issues that can take down entire countries, she’s often whisked away to scenic locations throughout the UK and abroad at the drop of a hat.

Whether it’s to attend a secret meeting with a Russian ambassador at the Foreign Office in London, go toe-to-toe with Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) at Chevening House in Kent, or participate in an international conference in Tuscany, the ambassador is always on the move. 

In Season 2, the political drama sends Kate to Scotland, which felt particularly rewarding for executive producer Janice Williams. “We shot at Inveraray Castle in Scotland, which, as a born and bred Scottish person, I was so proud to do,” she says. “It’s actually the first time I’ve worked in filmmaking in my home country, and it felt like a real homecoming to me.”

Then, in Season 3, The Diplomat heads stateside, including a jaunt to Amagansett on Long Island. “We had an amazing team in New York, and they did some really, really gorgeous, stunning work, turning both the new sets that we built and all our locations into just delightful places to be,” says creator and showrunner Debora Cahn.

When Season 4 came around, production jetted off to yet another gorgeous destination: Lucca, Tuscany. In the last two episodes of the season, our favorite political players gather for a G7 Summit in Italy. The conference doesn’t go entirely smoothly, but at least the backdrop is stunning. 

With all eight episodes of Season 4 now streaming on Netflix, we’re giving you a debrief on those international locations. Keep reading to learn all about where The Diplomat is filmed.

Is Winfield House a real place?

Scenes featuring Kate and Hal’s private residence at Winfield House are filmed at Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire. The estate, north of London, is filled with “real artworks by Sargent and Titian and van Dyck,” according to creator Debora Cahn. 

“It feels like a family home, which is why I think it feels so inviting,” Richards says. “You’re in someone’s home that they actually live in. It’s not a museum, so it has a certain energy about it.” 

In Season 2, Episode 3, Kate hosts an outdoor American Independence Day party, which was changed to include more indoor moments to accommodate the freezing winter weather.

“A lot of the action in the original version of the script took place outdoors,” Williams shares. Much of the action was “moved indoors so that people would actually survive and not be trying to do dialogue while their teeth were chattering.”

There was also the issue of figuring out how much of the lawn, which was covered in mud, they’d use. “We had to create an entire boardwalk and platform that would look like it was part of the design,” Williams adds.

Are scenes in Kate’s office filmed at the real embassy?

In Seasons 1 and 2, the scenes set in the ambassador’s office were actually shot on a sound stage at London North Studios. However, The Diplomat did film the exterior as well as inside the lobby of the real US Embassy in London. In Season 2, Episode 2, when Trowbridge stops by the embassy to sign a book of condolences for Ronnie’s (Jess Chanliau) memorial, you’re looking at the actual lobby.  

“We are grateful to the American embassy and [US ambassador] Jane Hartley for how they supported us,” says Season 2 supervising location manager E.J. Richards. “They really helped us build a relationship with the people on the front lines who actually made it happen, helped us with the logistics, and helped [us] be very careful” with what was allowed through security checks. 

Is the actual Foreign Office featured?

To capture the feel of a real working office for Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), The Diplomat filmed at One Great George Street (Westminster’s corporate conference and events venue) in London. The series also filmed interior and exterior shots of the real Foreign Office, which took careful planning.

“That is a genuine part of the Westminster controlled environment, so [it was] very exciting to be given access,” Richards shares, adding that they had to be careful with camera angles so they didn’t end up looking right into the real foreign minister’s office. 

Where does The Diplomat film 10 Downing St.?

The interiors for Prime Minister Trowbridge’s residence and office were shot at the historic Harefield House in the London borough of Hillingdon. 

“What’s great about Harefield is that they will let you paint the walls,” Richards says. “They let you bring in whatever you want.”

When it came to the exterior shots for 10 Downing St., the team captured those at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, England.

Did The Diplomat shoot in Paris?

While Season 1 took the cast and crew to the French capital, for the second season the team used RAF Halton, one of the UK’s largest Royal Air Force stations, as the setting for the British Embassy in Paris.

Kate’s wardrobe change in the Paris bathroom was shot at the London Marriott Hotel County Hall, which also served as the filming location for Trowbridge’s COBRA meeting with top officials. 

Where were the Season 2 hospital scenes filmed?

Some interior and exterior scenes were shot at the British Medical Association in London. The entrance to the hospital and the room where Kate calls Ronnie's family are the real interiors of the BMA, but anything in a hospital room or in a hallway with nurses was shot on a stage. 

Did The Diplomat actually film at St. Paul’s Cathedral?

Yes! In Season 2, Episode 2, Kate and Hal (Rufus Sewell), Trowbridge, and hundreds more gather at the historic church for MP Merritt Grove’s (Simon Chandler) funeral. While some scenes were filmed at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, the political drama also shot on location at St. Paul’s Cathedral for four days — an impressive feat considering that it’s one of London’s most popular tourist destinations. 

“Nobody has ever closed St. Paul’s for four full days, which we did,” says Richards. “Not even the queen.”

Richards shares that St. Paul’s was “one of the most difficult locations to shoot, even for a day” because of a constant stream of visitors. “It’s world-renowned,” she adds. “Every day they have services, they have tourists, they have local people that use the church.”

Does The Diplomat film at the real White House?

In Season 2, scenes featuring President Rayburn (Michael McKean), US Secretary of State Miguel Ganon (Miguel Sandoval), and White House Chief of Staff Billie Appiah (Nana Mensah) in Washington, DC, were filmed at the London North Studios. 

For Season 3, all the interior Washington, DC locations were shot in New York City. “A majority of the scenes were scripted as taking place at the Blair House [the official president’s guest house in DC],” says Season 3 and 4 US Location Manager Rob Coleman. “Our production designer, Curt Beech, chose the de Seversky Mansion in Old Westbury, New York (Long Island) for most of the interiors, and we also filmed hallways and the library at the Lotus Club in Manhattan. They both gave us the federalist architecture which is no different from what you would find at the Blair House.”

Where in Scotland did The Diplomat film?

Kate and Trowbridge’s tense meeting in Season 2, Episode 4 was among the scenes filmed at the scenic Inveraray Castle in Scotland. The historic residence is situated on a “loch in the middle of the mountains surrounded by highland cattle,” said Williams.

“Everybody enjoyed themselves up there,” Richards says of the two-week shoot on location. That included Rory Kinnear, who took advantage of having a loch nearby. 

“Swimming in the lake was fantastic,” says Kinnear. “I managed to encourage a few of the others to take a dip with me.” Among them was Ato Essandoh (who plays Stuart Hayford), who enthusiastically took part in the outdoor fun. “It was freezing but amazing — just amazing,” he recalls. “I’m swimming, and I’m like, ‘Ah, this is great. I get out to dry off, and then I was like, ‘Let’s do it again!’ ”

The scene in which Hal sneaks away to purchase a burner phone was filmed in the town of Inveraray itself, but Eidra (Ali Ahn) secretly transporting Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie) through the lower levels of Inveraray Castle was actually captured at Ardkinglas House in Argyll. 

Where did Trowbridge’s Season 2, Episode 6 dinner take place?

Prime Minister Trowbridge’s formal dinner was filmed on location at Wilton House in Salisbury. The exterior shots and interior scenes where the characters are mingling were filmed at Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. 

“We’re talking about the work of governments and diplomacy in a historical place where one of the most famous politicians in the UK actually grew up — you feel the very real weight of history when you’re there,” says Williams.  “It’s the heart of politics, the heart of diplomacy.”

Did The Diplomat really film at Trafalgar Square?

Indeed, it did. “That’s a situation where I was like, ‘We should find some cool exterior for this, maybe a park, maybe a park bench,’ I don’t know — something that has the grandiosity of Trafalgar Square, that would be great, but obviously we can’t shoot there,” says Cahn. “And Janice [Williams, executive producer] was like, ‘Why not? Don’t ask, don’t get.’ And sure enough, we shut down Trafalgar Square. We filmed in Trafalgar Square. It was an unbelievable day.”

Is the Penns’ beach house in Amagansett a real home?

The Penn mansion is actually the Seacroft Estate on Centre Island, New York (Long Island). “It is incredible and has been owned by the same family for over five generations,” says Coleman. “When we first received the script, it called for a house with adjoining cottages. The Seacroft Estate has over 10 cottages, all with different looks that were built for guests way back when. That helped to sell the location, but there were so many great things about it, including the 50 acres of land, the waterfront, the in-ground pool, and the family themselves, who were simply amazing to deal with. The crew loved the location, as did the creatives. It was an amazing filming experience.”

Where is Prime Minister Trowbridge’s home in the Season 3 finale?

“One of our greatest achievements of Season 3 was discovering and gaining access to film at Coe Hall Historic House,” says Coleman. Though the Tudor-style mansion had previously permitted very little filming, they allowed The Diplomat production to close the museum for over two months. “The house is a great example of early 19th century architecture and is one of the rare homes where the property surrounding it wasn’t sold — the entire parcel of land is roughly 400 acres,” continues Coleman. “It was one of the only homes we scouted because we all knew early on that it was the right fit.” 

The location manager adds that the production team had art handlers remove 98% of the furniture inside the house, and then Beech and his team dressed the entire location. “We had their team leave up the beautiful archways that they made from branches they found on the property.”

Nick Wall/Netflix

Did The Diplomat really film at Windsor Castle?

In the first couple of episodes of Season 4, Kate, Hal, Grace and Todd find themselves diverted to Windsor Castle when a protest prevents their flight from departing. In reality, production shot at nine total locations in both New York State and the United Kingdom to recreate the royal residence. 

“The UK location manager was tasked with finding the exterior and some of the rooms and hallways, while my job was finding interior rooms and hallways across the pond that had the same DNA, and that we could film in a way that the audience would believe that it was all taking place at this one residence,” says Coleman. “It was a complicated puzzle, but made much easier when you have an amazing writer like Debora Cahn, and Alex Graves directing.”

In New York, the crew filmed the scenes in President Grace Penn’s office — as well as the ladies’ restroom — at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarborough-on-Hudson. They used Woolworth Estate in Glen Cove, New York for the Equerries Room that the staff uses in Episode 2, and they filmed at St. Josaphat’s Monastery to capture scenes in the Royal Library. The panic room where Kate and Hal are sequestered after the shooting was actually filmed in the Church of the Intercession in New York City.  

In the UK, they filmed in the actual Cathedral of the Incarnation at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, as well as capturing Hal’s office scenes at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, England. Additional interiors were filmed at Lancaster House and the British Foreign Office, while the exteriors of Windsor Castle were filmed at Burghley House.

“When the audience sees the final product, they will see the work of two different crews, thousands of miles apart from each other, but will never be the wiser,” says Coleman.

Clifton Prescod/Netflix

Did they film on a real warship in Season 4, Episode 2?

“We were on an actual ship for the inner corridors, surgery, refectory and the exterior where Todd Penn is seen contemplating,” says Williams.  Those scenes were filmed aboard the Empire State VII, a US Maritime Administration training ship which was docked at SUNY Maritime College in New York. “The larger exteriors of the aircraft carrier were created through VFX, using footage we filmed on the parking lot at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn with a live helicopter, as well as live helicopter footage we filmed over water.”

When Coleman first read the script and saw what these scenes required, he and the locations team immediately started researching naval vessels in the Northeast that had been decommissioned and turned into museums. “We looked at a couple but most were from the World War II era, and ships today are technologically sophisticated and modern and really don’t feel like the ships from decades past,” he says. “We were about to settle on building the interiors but at the eleventh hour, Henry, my scout, and I were able to clear a maritime college in the Bronx that just received their new teaching vessel. All the areas you see on the show, including the medical bay, were on that ship. We no longer had to build the sets, and we brought an authenticity to the scene that you only get by filming on location.”

Idris Solomon/Netflix

Where were the scenes in Eidra’s apartment filmed?

Chief of the London CIA Station Eidra Park’s official residence is an apartment in Tribeca, New York City. “We had filmed Eidra’s official residence in the UK in previous seasons, so we wanted to stay with the general feel of that while not trying to match it exactly,” says Williams. “We like that her apartment is different to the types of residences that both the ambassador (Russell) and the DCM (Essandoh) live in. Eidra’s is modern, more slick, with a large inner courtyard surrounded by glass with a central, industrial-type staircase. Like Eidra, it has an efficiency and straightforwardness about it.”

Erika Kuenka/Netflix

Where did they film the scenes at the G7 Summit in Italy?

In the final two episodes of Season 4, Kate, Hal, Grace, Todd, Eidra, Stuart, and Billie all find themselves in Italy attending a G7 Summit. Production filmed across various locations in Tuscany.

For accommodations, including the scene in the greenhouse (where Grace takes Kate to pick some basil), and some of the walk-and-talks between the president and vice president, production filmed at Viesca Toscana estate (the former family summer home of Salvatore and Wanda Ferragamo) in the Florentine countryside, including, specifically, Villa Viesca and Villa Gelso. Other exterior scenes, including Stuart and Billie’s tense poolside conversation, were shot at the Dimora Ghirlandaio estate close to Florence.

The G7 Summit was shot across multiple locations. Exterior shots with Stuart, Eidra and Billie were filmed in Lucca, while Villa Reale di Marlia was used for various delegation rooms. Poggio a Caiano, a Medici villa, was used for some exterior shots, and for the whole orchestra night sequence. Villa de Medicea La Petraia provided the main G7 Octagon Room.

“We needed to find multiple locations that could be filmed over a several-week period that fulfilled all the specific scripted functions of the G7, including accommodations, meeting rooms, arrivals, pull-asides, and the two larger G7 events — the concert night and the main conference itself,” says Williams. “We needed each location to feel like it belonged with all the others.” For the final scene of Season 4, they wanted the setting to emphasize the enormity of Kate’s actions. “She’s one small figure crossing through massive, dark, grand spaces, [depicting] self-doubt,” says Williams. “Then she’s coming out into the light and the world and moving forward with whatever will come from her actions.”

The Diplomat Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4 are currently streaming on Netflix. 

With reporting by Keely Flaherty and Ruth Kinane.

Watch The Diplomat Season 2 Trailer