Wooburn Grange Country Club

Wooburn Grange Country Club was a listed building in Buckinghamshire, which became famous as the exterior location of the hit BBC sitcom "Fawlty Towers" in 1975. The building was damaged by fire in 1991 and demolished.

Fame

Millions of people around the world recognise the distinguishable gleaming white building. John Cleese's hit sitcom brought tourists from around the world to see the structure. In several episodes of the series (notably "The Anniversary" and "Basil the Rat") the entrance gate at the bottom of the drive clearly states the real name of the location. This is noted to be the most obvious continuing goof throughout the entire series.

After Fawlty Towers

Basil's

In the 1980s, after the BBC realised that a third series of "Fawlty Towers" was out of the question, Wooburn Grange Country Club suffered serious decline. It became a restaurant and nightclub called Basil's, named after its fictional owner, and there are also unverified claims it became a casino and gay bar. It became a recurring haunt for cricketers in a nearby village, who would dine there after dusk; aside from this the place was almost always completely deserted.

The Fire

In March 1991, a fire damaged the building beyond repair. Footage from the aftermath can be seen on the Fawlty Towers DVD. The destruction of the building was absent in the media at the time, and there was very little coverage of the fire.

The site was purchased, and despite the planning permission for a 39-room hotel (more than Basil Fawlty ever had), eight private houses were constructed, which still stand today.

The Wooburn Grange aerial photography anomaly

When The GeoInformation group provided [http://www.globalguide.org/index.html?id=200529 aerial photography] for use by Google and others, an in-flight Air Canada Airbus A340 is shown near the (former) location of Wooburn Grange.

External links

* [http://www.fawltysite.net/wooburngrange.htm Fawlty Site's tribute page to Wooburn Grange] - along with accompanying screenshots of the wreckage.