Multi-million-pound transformation for Twickenham Film Studios

Twickenham Film Studios, operated by TIME+SPACE Studios, has announced a £15 million development investment to rejuvenate, transform and expand London’s oldest film studio to create a contemporary, innovative, and enhanced film and TV campus for the next generation of film makers and creatives.

TFS will ensure the complex continues to serve the industry as a truly world-leading film and TV studio facility alongside serving as a creative heart for the local community.

The new developments include a state-of-the-art TV studio including audience participation, upgraded state of the art sound production studios with cutting edge technology, a second sound mixing suite to host tent-pole productions and significantly, central to the transformation, will be the construction of a brand new entrance building creating new public spaces with flexible workspaces, a boutique cinema, a café and rooftop social bar area.

Cara Sheppard, the newly appointed, managing director of Twickenham Film Studios who recently joined from Warner Brothers De Lane Lea, said: “Twickenham Film Studios has a rich heritage, having made some of history’s most iconic Hollywood and British films and TV shows. The redevelopment is such an important turning point for our iconic studio, the significant investment in the regeneration and expansion of the site and its facilities will enhance our whole studio campus. We are investing heavily into securing the best industry talent as well as the latest technologies that combined will ensure the next chapter for Twickenham Studios is even more successful than the last.”

The existing building fabric across the site will be extensively renovated, rather than replaced, sustainably enhancing the Studios capabilities within the existing boundaries. Whilst new built structures and thoughtful architecture will accommodate the much-needed additional space. A new entrance building will feature a facade designed to replicate the surrounding architecture in what is a conservation area.

This refurbishment and development investment will allow the studios to build on their immense success, whilst reimagining them for the 21^st century and moreover encompass the studios into the community, restoring and developing existing buildings on the site to showcase a studio campus worthy of the productions produced there and creating a new landmark building.

Managing Partners Piers Read and Jeremy Rainbird’s firm The Creative District Improvement Co. are the development managers, working in conjunction with General Projects and British Airways Pension Fund who are backing the investment.

The pair who acquired Twickenham Studios in February 2020 added: “This is the evolution of Twickenham Film Studios into a truly world-class tech and innovation campus in London building on over a century of film history. From script to screen, the expansion means we can welcome even more productions, film makers of all levels, who will call the new campus “home”. The physical enhancement of the campus not only talks to the heritage of the buildings but will see a continuation of our investment into cutting-edge facilities and best in class production workflows centred around sound, picture, and film studios. We can’t wait to welcome even more producers to Twickenham as the content revolution goes from strength to strength.”

A planning application has been submitted to Richmond Council and building is expected to begin later this year with completion before October 2022.