Upstairs, Downstairs
The house 1

The house used for the exterior shots of 165 Eaton Place was a real house and is still standing in London. Standing in for number 165, 65 Eaton Place had a digit "1" painted in front of the number each time before filming in a vague attempt to give the real occupants some sort of anonymity. The house survives practically unchanged from the early 1970s although the interior is now separate flats instead of a single dwelling. (There is a nice newspaper article about the history of the house on my Odds and ends page.)

Gareth Hunt (who played footman Frederick in the series) outside 65 Eaton Place on a sunny day in spring 1996 for the shooting of the Upstairs, Downstairs Remembered documentary.

Some of the cast outside (1)65 for the After Upstairs, Downstairs documentary in 2002.

The map above shows the location of Eaton Place (in pink) and the house (with a blue dot). The nearest tube station is Sloane Square which is to the bottom-left of the map. Note that Chester Square (mentioned in The Wages of Sin as containing the residence of Thomas' prospective employers) is to the centre-right. Ebury Street (mentioned in Magic Casements and Why is Her Door Locked?) is also on the map (running bottom to right)
It should be pointed out that the whole interior of 165 Eaton Place was shot in London Weekend's TV studios on the South Bank and, for early episodes, in Wembley, and not in the house mentioned above. The real interior layout is, and always was, very different to that portrayed in the show and there are doubts that the arrangement of rooms as shown on TV would have actually fitted into the house!
(Map reproduced by permission of Geographers' A-Z Map Co. Ltd. © Crown Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. Licence number 100017302.)

An aerial view of Eaton Place, showing the junction with Lyall Street (see map above). (1)65 is marked with a pink dot. The mews cottage (where Thomas and, later, Edward and Daisy would have lived) can be seen at the rear of the back garden.

(1)65 Eaton Place as it looks today. (Photos by kind permission of Morvyn Finch.)

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