The UK’s TV and film industry has received another boost with the launch of a 1.3M sqft site in central Bedfordshire.
Home Of Production (HOP) Studios is aiming to start building later this year following a public consultation, and will begin taking bookings from 2024. The Bedfordshire studio will provide accommodation across sound stages, workshops, storage and offices with additional planned space for supporting craftspeople and services in a creative hub.
The owners said they would like to “create a network across the UK and internationally, working according to modern production needs and providing the certainty and flexibility necessary for producers to create exceptional content.”
Quartermaster’s Katya Baker, who is leading the site, emphasised the wellbeing of film and TV employees using HOP: “The wellbeing of production crews needs to be addressed within their working environment,” she added. “HOP Studios is here to shake up the facilities sector and provide modern working environments for modern TV and film producers.”
HOP will also have creche facilities and work with local communities, educational bodies and training schemes. The studio is one of at least four major sites unveiled in the past few months alone to serve the UK’s TV and film industries, alongside RD Studios, Troubadour Brent Cross Studios and Versa, all of which are in London, although Versa has already opened a second site in Manchester.
According to the BFI’s recent Screen Business report, around £1BN ($1.3BN) was spent or pledged on UK studio space between 2017 and 2020.
