Warner Bros. Pictures and VisitBritain invite fans to explore the English villages, historic estates, castles and London locations featured in the long-awaited sequel starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.
The magic of the Owens sisters is returning to the big screen, bringing with it a distinctly English backdrop.
As Practical Magic 2 reaches cinemas, Warner Bros. Pictures and VisitBritain have joined forces to showcase some of the English locations featured in the film and encourage visitors to discover the places behind the story.
The partnership forms part of VisitBritain’s international Starring Great Britain campaign, which highlights destinations featured in film and television productions and turns screen tourism into travel inspiration.
Directed by Susanne Bier, Practical Magic 2 sees Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as sisters Sally and Gillian Owens. The new chapter once again combines family, magic and ancestral mystery, with the production making extensive use of England’s landscapes and historic locations.
Although much of the story is set in a fictional world, the locations are very real. Filming took place partly at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire, alongside a range of locations across England. The eleven-week production spent more than half of its shooting days filming outdoors, making the English landscape an important part of the film’s visual identity.
Hambleden becomes Thornfield
One of the key locations is Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, a picturesque village known for its historic houses and cobbled streets.
For the film, Hambleden was transformed into Thornfield, providing the setting with the traditional English character required for the story.
The surrounding Buckinghamshire countryside also features prominently. Wormsley Estate was used as the location for Tom’s cottage, while nearby Black Park Country Park provided the woodland setting surrounding the village.
For visitors interested in exploring the locations after seeing the film, the area offers a combination of village landscapes, historic estates and countryside that reflects the visual atmosphere created by the production.
Castles, country houses and historic London buildings
England’s architectural heritage plays an important role throughout Practical Magic 2.
In Wiltshire, Old Wardour Castle was used to represent the ruins of an ancient manor. The castle, with its dramatic remains, provided one of the film’s more atmospheric settings.
In Hertfordshire, meanwhile, Langleybury Mansion, an 18th-century country house, was used for scenes representing Harvard and British accommodation.
London also features in the production. The Bishopsgate Institute, a late Victorian building, appears as a library in the film.
These locations demonstrate one of the strengths of filming in England: historic buildings and landscapes can provide a wide variety of settings without requiring productions to travel far from London and the major studio infrastructure.
From a 900-year-old pub to New England
Several other English locations were transformed to represent places on the other side of the Atlantic.
St Mary and All Saints Church in Romford became a New England cemetery, while The Royal Standard of England, a pub with more than nine centuries of history, was also selected as a filming location.
In Worcester Park, south London, The Hamptons was used to represent the New England town where the Owens family lives.
The Royal Chelsea Hospital also appears in the film, providing locations for a flower market and exterior scenes representing Harvard.
The result is a production that uses recognisable English locations to create settings that, within the story, belong to a fictionalised New England.
The return of the Owens family home
Not everything was filmed on location.
At Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the production recreated one of the most recognisable elements of the original film: the Owens family home.
The house was purpose-built for Practical Magic 2 and designed to allow filming to move continuously between interior and exterior spaces. At the same time, the production retained the distinctive appearance associated with the original house.
The combination of real locations and studio construction allowed the filmmakers to create the film’s distinctive visual world while making use of England’s established production infrastructure.
Screen tourism continues to grow
The partnership between Warner Bros. Pictures and VisitBritain reflects the growing importance of film and television as a source of travel inspiration.
VisitBritain research shows that more than nine in ten potential visitors to Britain want to visit locations used as film and television sets or places they have seen on screen.
The organisation also reports a strong economic return from the Starring Great Britain campaign, stating that for every £1 invested, international visitors spent a further £20 during their trips to Britain.
For Practical Magic 2, the strategy offers fans the opportunity to look beyond the screen and explore the real places that helped create the film’s atmosphere.
From Hambleden and the Buckinghamshire countryside to Wiltshire’s castle ruins, Hertfordshire country houses and historic London buildings, the locations provide a ready-made itinerary for film enthusiasts interested in seeing where the story was brought to life.
With its combination of historic architecture, rural landscapes, major studios and extensive production infrastructure, England continues to offer filmmakers a remarkably versatile backdrop. Practical Magic 2 adds another collection of locations to the growing list of British places attracting visitors through their appearances on screen.
Practical Magic 2 is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and is in cinemas from 10 September 2026.
Visitors can discover more film and television locations across Britain through VisitBritain’s Starring Great Britain campaign.
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