Broome Hall: The Home of Oliver Reed
Archive note: This feature presents a stately home virtual tour at Broome Hall, showing the house as it appeared when we photographed it. The property has a long and colourful history, and these images preserve a moment in its story.
About the house
Broome Hall is a grand country house on the wooded slopes above Coldharbour, just south of Dorking in Surrey. Built around 1830, it sits in classic Surrey Hills landscape with long views and deep woodland. Inside, the architecture is stunning. Generous rooms, long sightlines and layered period details give the place a calm, stately feel that a virtual tour can convey far better than a single still.
A short history
The estate has evolved over two centuries, shaped by owners with very different lives and priorities. Early in its story it was associated with the printer politician Andrew Spottiswoode, and later with the merchant banker Sir Alexander Brown. The nineteenth century also brought the Pennington family to Broome Hall. Frederick Pennington sat in Parliament and his wife, Margaret, was active in the women’s suffrage movement. During the Second World War, the house took on an entirely different role, providing space for allied military activity. In the years that followed it was used by a religious order before returning to private hands. Each phase left its mark on this historic estate.
Oliver Reed
Actor Oliver Reed owned Broome Hall in the 1960s and 70s. The house became part of his public legend, a place for rehearsals, parties and guests passing through. Broome Hall is often linked with the film ‘Women in Love’. Some sources make the connection; other records place most filming elsewhere. Either way, the association has stuck in the public imagination.
How we shot it
Houses like this benefit from high-resolution 360. We photographed key rooms as seamless panoramas. In post-production we hand-finished every frame for straight lines, clean joins and accurate colour. The resulting 360s document the interiors from floor to ceiling.
What to look for
- Grand rooms with layered textures and period detail
- The grand, cantilevered staircase
- Fireplaces, wood panelling and crafted joinery
- Leaded glass windows and ornate plasterwork ceilings
How a stately home virtual tour can help
Stills capture moments. A stately home virtual tour preserves how a room actually feels, from light and scale to texture and tone. For heritage and country houses this matters. Visitors, researchers and design teams can understand the house properly, not guess from a single angle.
If you are planning a virtual tour for a historic property or a private estate, we would be happy to help. You can view more Stately Home tours here, and see a wider selection of heritage projects here.