There's an entertaining re-balancing of shiny floor tv studios going on. BBC Studioworks must have though Christmas had arrived early with the news that ITV want to close their Southbank London Studios.
The BBC will have three refurbished studios at TVC to fill from September; and intend to keep operations at Elstree going til 2020. The very big studio market has also been narrowed with the closure of Fountain Studios at Wembley for flats.
Now property company Allied London has announced that the old Granada Studios on Quay Street in Manchester are to be refurbished and have new galleries. There are six studios in total, from 1,625 square foot to 7,922 square foot (which compares with 10,800 square foot for Television Centre 1, 12,500 for HQ1 at The Dock, MediaCity and 15,770 for George Lucas 1 & 2 at Elstree),
Granada Studios were built on a former bomb-site bought from the council in 1954 for £82,500. Only two were built initially, with Sidney Bernstein in charge, growing to the final six in 1962. Sidney also insisted they used even numbers only - so that people would think the complex was twice the size.
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It's just a pity that the demise of TLS on the South Bank didn't come a few years back as this might just have saved more studios at TVC. As I've griped before: we're now left with the Goldilocks Option at The Centre... TC1 too big, TC2 too small, TC3 just the right size.
ReplyDeleteI had hoped that this Brexit malarkey slowing expensive flat sales might have prompted them to consider building a new TC4 there!
BTW... reports of the death of Fountain Studios may be premature - rumour has it that BBC Studioworks have been sniffing around it.