The Getty Family Homes: Inside the American Dynasty’s Real Estate Portfolio
Approximately 40 miles from London in Buckinghamshire, England, is the private estate of Mark Getty, who is the grandson of J. Paul (and son of Sir John Paul Getty Jr.), as well as the founder of the prominent photo house Getty Images. Sir Paul purchased the 2,700-acre property in 1985 and launched an extensive restoration of the complex’s buildings, of which there are more than 30.
The renovation work established a number of new features on the grounds, including the library, a castellated space that houses some of the family’s vast book and manuscript collection, and a cricket field which has hosted many people of influence, such as the Queen Mother.
Sutton Place residence
J. Paul purchased the sprawling Tudor mansion, a 72-room estate approximately 30 miles southwest of London, in 1959. Per The New York Times, Sutton Place was constructed in the 1500s and boasts a royal lineage: It was built by a courtier of Henry VIII and was the residence of the Duke of Sutherland when J. Paul scooped it up for $840,000.
The 2018 FX series Trust, which dramatizes the 1973 kidnapping of 16-year-old heir J. Paul Getty III, is set partly in Sutton Place. The production aimed to capture the atmosphere of the stately home’s grand hallways and airy living spaces while shooting in another mansion, known as Audley End. Production designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb considered 75 different locations before landing on Audley, which she felt was an even better pick for the series than its source material: “Even if we had access to Sutton Place, it might not have been the place to do it for the series because it almost, proportionally, looks small,” she told AD in a 2018 interview. “It’s a certain kind of Tudor architecture that looked almost gingerbready.”
