The Holiday's English scenes were filmed in Surrey: in the village of Shere, in the market town of Godalming, and at The White Horse, the pub in Shere where Jude Law and Cameron Diaz spend an evening. The cottage isn't real. Its outside was built as a set in a field near Shere's church and no longer exists, and its inside was a separate set at Sony Pictures Studios in California. The Los Angeles scenes used real houses in San Marino, Brentwood and Silver Lake.
Here's every location we could confirm, and whether you can go.
| Real place | Where | What it is in the film | Can you visit? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shere village centre and St James's Church | Surrey, between Guildford and Dorking | The English village | Yes, it's a public village |
| A field near St James's Church | Shere | Where the cottage set stood | No: private land, and nothing is left |
| The White Horse | Shere | The pub scene with Jude Law and Cameron Diaz | Yes, it's a working pub |
| Church Street and the station | Godalming, Surrey | The driving and shopping scenes | Yes |
| A private house | Wonersh, Surrey | The home of Jude Law's character | No, it's someone's home |
| Cornwell Manor | Near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire | Outside of the lunch scene | Private venue, hire only |
| Greystone Mansion | Beverly Hills, California | Inside of the same lunch scene | Yes, the grounds are a public park |
| The Thames riverside | Lambeth, London | Kate Winslet's gloomy walk by the river | Yes |
| A Wallace Neff house | San Marino, California | Outside of the American lead's LA house | No, private home |
| Private houses | Brentwood and Silver Lake, Los Angeles | The neighbours' homes | No, private homes |
| Sony Pictures Studios | Culver City, California | Cottage and mansion interiors | Guided studio tour only |
Shere is a small village where people live, so if you're planning a December trip, read the practical notes near the end before you set off.
Is the cottage from The Holiday real?
No, and it never was. Surrey County Council's film office says the cottage was custom built for the production and no longer exists. The studio's production notes put the site just up the hill from St James's Church, and the production designer, Jon Hutman, said the team came upon Shere "almost by chance".
Only the outside was built in Surrey. The warm, cluttered interior the English lead comes home to was a set on a stage at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, so every scene inside the cottage was shot in California.
The snow was helped along too. The film's UK locations manager, Benjamin Greenacre, described the crew covering the place in snow and Christmas decorations, stretching garlands across the roads and putting lights in the trees.
The field itself is private, and there's nothing in it now but field. We'd skip it.
You'll also read online that the set was modelled on a real cottage in a nearby village. We couldn't confirm that from anyone who made the film, and a real cottage is somebody's home, so we're leaving it there.
Shere: the village that plays the village
Shere sits in the Surrey Hills between Guildford and Dorking, with the Tillingbourne running through it. It looks too tidy to be true, and on screen it partly isn't: the film's village is two real places stitched together. Hutman said that combining the square in Shere with Godalming's Church Street made the perfect village.
The Shere half is easy to find. The taxi drops the American lead at the corner of Church Hill and Church Lane, and the camera pans towards St James's Church. That church has done this before, too: Surrey Live notes that Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason filmed there.
The White Horse and the pub scene
Surrey County Council's film office confirms that the scene between Cameron Diaz and Jude Law was shot at The White Horse. It's a Grade II listed pub, and its own website dates the building to 1475. Greenacre recalls the production having to close "the local pub" for a couple of days, presumably this one, and says the village was generous about it. Shutting a village's pub for a Hollywood shoot and staying on good terms is quite a feat.
It's still trading, run by Chef & Brewer and taking table bookings when we checked in September 2026. Surrey Live reported in 2020 that a photo of the two stars hangs on the wall, and that it's the only sign a Hollywood crew was ever there. In December, book ahead.
Godalming: the shopping scenes
Godalming supplies the rest of the village. The film office says it appears in several scenes, including the village shop, and Surrey Live puts the town's station and high street in the film too. Church Street is where the American lead's driving goes badly wrong. The crew hung Christmas lights along it for the shoot.
The production notes add a flourish of their own, calling Godalming the first town in the world to give its citizens electric streetlights. Godalming Museum is more careful. Other places had electric street lighting first; what Godalming had, from 26 September 1881, was the world's first public electricity supply, sold to anyone in the town who wanted it. Less catchy, but true. There's a plaque.
The London, Oxfordshire and Wonersh bits people miss
London
Kate Winslet's miserable walk by the Thames is usually listed as the South Bank. The film-location archive Reelstreets pins it more precisely to Lambeth Palace Road, on the south side of the river. Either way, it's public and you can do the walk yourself, ideally in a better mood.
Oxfordshire
The long lunch between the American lead and Jude Law's character starts outside Cornwell Manor, a Georgian country house near Chipping Norton. The dining room they eat in is Greystone Mansion, in Beverly Hills, so the meal crosses the Atlantic somewhere between the front door and the table. Cornwell Manor is now a private wedding and events venue on a 2,000-acre estate, hired out rather than open for visits, so admire it on screen.
Wonersh
Surrey Live notes that the village of Wonersh makes a brief appearance as the home of Jude Law's character. It's a private house, and the table above is as specific as we'll get.
Los Angeles: the houses
Filming started in Los Angeles in January, on a quiet street in Brentwood, then moved to England for a month and finished back in LA. The production notes mention neighbours' front lawns still covered in Santas and reindeer, which saved someone a job.
The American lead's house is supposed to be in Brentwood, but the outside you see is in San Marino, next to Pasadena. It's a Mission Revival house built in 1928 by Wallace Neff, the architect of Pickfair, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks's old mansion. Its interiors, like the cottage's, were built on a stage at Sony. The elderly screenwriter's house is in Brentwood, and the composer's is a Richard Neutra design in Silver Lake. All of them are private homes.
What you can visit is Sony Pictures Studios itself. The studio runs a two-hour guided walking tour on weekdays, booking required, for ages 12 and up. The sets from 2006 are long gone, so it's a studio tour rather than a pilgrimage. Greystone Mansion's grounds in Beverly Hills are a public park, free to walk around.
Visiting Shere at Christmas
By train. The nearest station is Gomshall, served by Great Western Railway. It's unstaffed but step-free, and the Surrey Hills National Landscape puts it about 20 minutes' walk from Shere.
By car. The parish council runs the village car park on London Lane, at the eastern end of Upper Street, with about 90 spaces. It charges, with the first half hour free and no charge on Christmas Day when we checked in September 2026. Public toilets are in the Old Fire Station on Middle Street.
Ninety spaces isn't many for a village this well known, and the lanes are narrow and lived on. If the car park is full, don't improvise on a verge or in front of someone's gate. Go on a weekday if you can, or come by train. Lunch at The White Horse and a walk along the Tillingbourne make a good afternoon of it.
The film itself
52/100 Festive Factor on our scorecard. It's a December staple because it's a Christmas film that's mostly about two people needing a fortnight off, which, by the second week of December, is most of us. The full breakdown is on The Holiday's page, and the Sleighometer explains how we score.
More filming locations
This is the first in a series. Next up are Nativity! and Love Actually. Until those pieces are out, the film pages are the place to start.
