Brideshead Revisited: Oxford to Venice

Charles Ryder arrives as an undergraduate reading history, at a college the novel makes "very similar to Hertford College". Waugh studied at Hertford and put his hero there. Hertford is also tied to the night Sebastian, returning from a Bullingdon Club bender, vomits through a ground-floor window. The 1981 television serial filmed its Oxford scenes largely here. The college stands on Catte Street, opposite the Bodleian Library.

Location precision: The novel names no real college; Hertford is where Waugh studied and where the serial filmed.

Visitor guidance: Opposite the Bodleian Library on Catte Street; check the college's opening times before visiting.

Sebastian, the younger son of the Marquess of Marchmain, is an undergraduate at Christ Church. The serial used parts of the college for its Oxford scenes. Christ Church is known for Tom Quad, the largest quadrangle in Oxford.

Visitor guidance: Check the college opening times before visiting.

Sebastian takes Charles to his family's palatial country house, Brideshead Castle. The novel places it in Wiltshire, but it is fictional. On screen it is Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, 15 miles north of York, designed by Vanbrugh. It played Brideshead in the 1981 serial and again in the 2008 film, which shot here in summer 2007.

Location precision: Brideshead is invented and set in Wiltshire; the pin marks Castle Howard, the filming stand-in.

Sebastian's father, Lord Marchmain, has settled in Venice with his Italian mistress. In the 2008 film, Lady Marchmain encourages Charles to go to Venice with Sebastian and Julia, hoping he will be a good influence on her son, and Charles kisses Julia in a dark alley. The 1981 serial used Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal as the home of Lord Marchmain and his mistress.

Location precision: The novel gives no address for Marchmain's Venice home; the pin marks the palace used in the serial.

Julia marries Rex without fanfare in the Savoy Chapel. The novel has Julia remember it bitterly: "Oh, Charles, what a squalid wedding!" The chapel in the Savoy precinct, completed in 1512, is a Royal Peculiar.

Visitor guidance: Check opening times before visiting.