Wooburn Grange after the fire
Fawlty Towers destroyed :-(
If you have the DVD box set of Fawlty Towers you can find a "hidden" extra short film showing Wooburn Grange after a fire damaged the building which was used for the exterior of Fawlty Towers. It was beyond repair and was eventually demolished.
To find the clip, put the third "Extras" disk in and go to the menu screen as shown above. Select the small clip above the word "Subtitles" and play it (highlighted above in red by me in the screenshot).
The clip should start just like a regular episode of Fawlty Towers then cuts to footage of Wooburn Grange Country Club after the fire. Outside and inside shots are shown and you can recognise various parts of the hotel. The clip is accompanied by some classical music.
Sob!
Polly!…what have you done to my hotel?" — Basil in The Builders
Watching this short film is an eerie experience for fans of the show.
Above: New houses being built on the site of Wooburn Grange. The house I have arrowed in red looks to be the closest to the hallowed ground.
For the benefit of those using text browsers and for those with images turned off, the above screenshot says: The Grange (Fawlty Towers) was demolished. Bought by developers after the fire in March 1991 it was soon flattened to make way for eight new houses, despite the existing planning permission for a 39 bed hotel.
Courtesy of those new satellite imagery web services, here is a picture from above of how the Wooburn Grange site looks now. The two houses which lie parallel to where the text says Wooburn Grange are I think the closest to the exact location of the former country club.
