Limehouse Studios
Limehouse Studios | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Demolished |
Location | Canary Wharf |
Town or city | London |
Country | England, United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 51°30′13″N 0°01′06″W / 51.50361°N 0.01833°W |
Opened | Summer 1983 |
Closed | Early 1989 |
Limehouse Studios was an independently owned
History
Number 10 warehouse was built in 1952 for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of
The conversion of the warehouse into TV studios was one of the first successes of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The studios were created as concrete boxes suspended within the immensely strong shell of the warehouse. In addition to the purpose-built studios, many productions made use of the unconverted old warehouse space.
Inception
At a cost of about £3.6m, and under the design of Sir Terry Farrell, the warehouse was transformed into The Limehouse Studios; a complex containing two studios of 3,000 square feet (279 m2) and 6,000 square feet (557 m2) with associated production offices and post-production facilities. The two studios were contained in suspended concrete boxes mounted on independent giant springs to reduce external vibration, and fitted out.[1]
As one of the then few independent facilities in London, Limehouse was founded by a group of executives from the former ITV franchise holder
Relocation and closure
In 1988, the building was sold to Olympia and York for £25m.[1] The site became part of the wider development of West India Docks and the developers decided to name the entire project Canary Wharf using the more exotic and American-sounding name. One Canada Square now stands on part of the site cleared by the demolition of the former studios.
Following the purchase, the owners relocated the equipment to the former Lee International Studios at Wembley, which itself had previously been used as television studios for Associated-Rediffusion and London Weekend Television. The studios were purchased for a reported £5.25 million from Lee International and now called the Fountain Studios (closed 2019), with a second smaller studio and post-production facility in the Trocadero in W1. The Limehouse name disappeared when the parent company Trilion collapsed three years later.
References
- ^ a b c The West India Docks: The buildings: warehouses, Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs (1994), pp. 284-300 accessed: 22 July 2008
- ^ "Spitting Images – The Story of Limehouse Television Studios". Isle of Dogs Life. 25 March 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
External links
- Limehouse Studios unofficial history
- Limehouse Productions profile by the BFI