In the Ruth Rendell novels, Reg Wexford lives and works in the Mid-Sussex market town of Kingsmarkham.
When Hampshire-based TVS (Television South) won the rights to film the Wexford series, they moved this location over the county border to the Test Valley, where Romsey - with its imposing Norman Abbey - became the setting for the fictional town. Romsey proved to be the perfect choice: the town’s layout is very similar to Rendell’s blueprint and landmarks like the Abbey, Corn Exchange and Palmerston’s statue have all became well known to a worldwide TV audience.
The town’s magistrate court was used as the Kingsmarkham police station. However, because it was a working court, filming could only take place at the weekends and TVS eventually decided to build an exact replica of the station inside a warehouse in Totton near Southampton.
- Colourful Romsey: A pictorial guide to the Hampshire market town.
- Film Hampshire: A lovely new map created to showcase television and film locations in the county.
- Sherfield Village Hall: A police control centre in The Mouse in the Corner.
- St Mary’s: Area in Southampton used for many of the external ‘London’ scenes in Murder Being Once Done.
- University of Southampton: Used as the setting for the fictional University of Hilldene where Burden’s daughter Pat studies dentistry.
- St. Catherine’s Lighthouse, Isle of Wight: Reg and Dora travel to the Isle of Wight in A New Lease of Death.
- Bournemouth: Wexford’s investigations take him to the Dorset coastal town in The Best Man to Die.
- The Kings Theatre, Southsea: The Old Vic in A Sleeping Life.
- Rouen: Wexford and Burden travel to Rouen to interview Thérèse Leramy in Put On by Cunning.
- Petersfield: Kingsmarkham in Road Rage.
- Kuti’s Restaurant: Southampton.
- Winchester Cathedral: The setting for Sir Manuel Camargue’s memorial service in Put On by Cunning.
- Botley Park Hotel, Southampton: Chinese hotel and restaurant interiors in The Speaker of Mandarin.
- Au Vieux: The restaurant in Honfleur where Wexford dines with Commissaire Laquin in A Sleeping Life.
- St John’s, Farley Chamberlayne: The scene of Davina Flory’s funeral in Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter.
- Portchester Castle: Myland Castle in An Unwanted Woman.
- Barkston Gardens: Grenville West’s hotel in Earl’s Court (A Sleeping Life).
- Breamore Estate: Tancred House in Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter.
- Knebworth House: Zeno’s concert (Some Lie and Some Die) filmed during Knebworth ’90 on 30th June, 1990.
- Alresford railway station: The setting for Kingsmarkham station in A Sleeping Life.
- Mottisfont: Used as the backdrop for the investigation of Elizabeth Nightingale’s murder in A Guilty thing Surprised.
- Rhinefield House Hotel: The hotel where Zeno and his band stay in Some Lie and Some Die.
- Avington Park: The setting for Anouk Khoori’s home in Simisola.
- Circle of Lebanon: Kenbourne Vale Cemetery in Murder Being Once Done.
- Hotel Le Maquis: The base for Wexford and Burden’s Corsican holiday in Achilles Heel.
- The Abbey Hotel aka the Olive and Dove