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Sunday November 3rd 2024

The Satanic Rites Of Dracula | 1973

The Satanic Rites Of Dracula film location: Elvaston Place, London SW7
The Satanic Rites Of Dracula location: ‘The Keeley Foundation for Science’: Elvaston Place, London SW7

Dracula (Christopher Lee) is still trying to make the best of 1970s London in another update, following the supremely kitschy Dracula AD 1972. With the bloodsucking Count as a property developer, I suspect a little satire.

‘Pelham House’ in’ Croxted Heath’ – headquarters of the ‘Psychical Examination and Research Group’, the front for a vampiric cult – is really High Canons, a private home on Buckettsland Lane, in the village of Well End, just to the north of Borehamwood in Hertfordshire. Only its gatehouse is visible from the road.

No stranger to nefarious goings on, the house can be seen in plenty of other movies including Hammer classic The Devil Rides Out, and Murder On The Orient Express.

In London’s South Kensington district, Queens Gate Lodge, 23a Elvaston Place at Elvaston Mews, SW7, becomes ‘The Keeley Foundation for Science’, where Lorrimer Van Helsing (the indefatigable Peter Cushing) confronts scientist Professor Keeley (Freddie Jones), who, for some reason I’m struggling to remember, is incubating plague viruses.