The World's Best Labels and Studios

Part Three of Elstree then and we’ve already covered Clarendon Road Studios and the studio which eventually bore the name Elstree.  This post is about some of the smaller studios in the areas but which nevertheless we still think of as part of the Elstree group.

Station Road Studios

We’ll start with Station Road Studios, a site which was built in 1928 by Whitehall Films Ltd but which consisted of only one stage.  After Whitehall was wound up in 1930, the site sat empty for five years until Julius Hagen, of Twickenham Studios, took it over and renamed the premises JH Studios.  JH Studios lasted barely seven years before financial problems forced a sell on to MP productions.

Post-war, J. Arthur Rank acquired the site and began to make religious films under the Gate Studios name.  In 1957, production ceased completely when the cinema screen manufacturer, Harkness Screens, took over the site and retained ownership until 2004.  The site is now a housing development renamed Gate Studios.

Station Road/Gate Studios

British and Dominion Studios

British and Dominion were a reasonably substantial player in the early days of British film production and they were involved in Elstree also, albeit in a small way.  The company acquired three sound stages from British International Pictures Ltd in 1930 at their Elstree site but these were estroyed in a fire in 1936.

Following the fire, British and Dominion moved production to Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire and invested in Pinewood Studios there.

Elstree Way Studios, Borehamwood

Another of the studios carrying the Elstree name, this was a large studio built by Amalgamated Studios Ltd between 1935 and 1937.  Increasing costs ensured a sell out to J. Arthur Rank who sold it on again in 1944 to Metro Goldwyn Mayor (MGM).  MGM expanded the facility to include seven studios but eventually left the site in 1970 to join EMI at their nearby Shenley Rd facility.  The site was subsequently redeveloped for commercial and housing uses.

Danziger Studios, Elstree

Constructed by the Danziger Brothers in 1956, it never made any money when in use as a television production venue and closed in 1962.

Millenium Studios, Elstree

The most recent development, this studio was constructed in 1993 for film and television production purposes.  It relocated to Bedfordshire in 2010 and continues production at that location.

We mentioned in the previous article how the name Elstree refers to the entire area occupied by seven film and television studios.  However, since 2000 there has been one studio actually known as Elstree.

The story of this particular studio however starts way back in 1925 when British National Pictures Ltd bought fifty acres of land near Borehamwood.  Two film stage were constructed to facilitate the production and release of Madame Pompadour in 1927.  The first British movie featuring sound – Blackmail – was produced there in 1929 and by the early 1930s ownership of the studio, which now featured six ‘sound’ stages had transferred to two separate owners, the Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd (ABPC) and the British and Dominion Films Corporation.  Both organisation controlled three stages each.

The studio largely avoided being requisitioned by the government during the Second World War and post-war, Warner Brothers effectively took over ABPC Ltd, upgrading the studios before producing Man on the Run and The Hasty Heart in 1948.  In 1968, Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI) took over the site and it became the EMI Studios.  After the parent company merged with Thorn Electrical Industries, the company (and the studios) became known as Thorn EMI in 1979.

The studio never really fitted in with Thorn’s ambitions and the studio was sold on again in 1986 to the Herron-Cannon group.  Despite the problems facing the group at this time, all three of the original Star Wars films were produced here, as well as the first three Indiana Jones films.  In 1988 ownership transferred to the property group, Brent Walker Ltd, who began to sell off bits of the studio.  Local alarm bells were raised and a campaign got underway which ended with the purchase of the studio by Hertsmere Borough Council in 1996.  The studio finally gained its current name in 2000 when a management company called Elstree Film & Television Studios Ltd.

Filming resumed shortly afterwards with much of the production of blockbusters such as the new Star Wars trio taking place there.  It’s also the home of British television programmes such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Big Brother.