Category Archives: News

In December 2026, Elstree Studios will mark the centenary of its official opening. As that milestone approaches, a new campaign has now begun to ask BAFTA to formally recognise the contribution of Elstree and Borehamwood to British cinema and television with a Special BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema at the 2027 ceremony. The proposal, submitted to BAFTA earlier this year, Continue Reading

This modernist fountain sculpture has stood outside Neptune House at ATV Elstree Studios (later the BBC Elstree Centre, and now Fairbanks Studios) since the early 1960s. We were recently asked to find out more about the sculpture and who created it, on behalf of the studio, and we’re happy to share our research here. Commissioned by ATV from British sculptor Continue Reading

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Labyrinth, one of the most visually imaginative films ever made — and one that was forged through British studio craft and artistry at Elstree Studios. Directed by Jim Henson, and Exec Produced by George Lucas, Labyrinth brought together puppetry, performance, design and practical ingenuity on a fantastically imaginative scale. The art department crew Continue Reading

Over the past few weeks we’ve been deep inside the digital reconstruction of Fairbanks and Neptune House at the former BBC Elstree Centre — building a fully navigable 360º virtual tour of these extraordinary spaces. Back in July 2025, a small team of us spent about a week and a half on site, capturing nearly 400 individual 360º images, 600 Continue Reading

On this day 100 years ago, 15 December 1925, it was announced that a site called Oaklands in Borehamwood had been acquired for eight studios to be built near Elstree Station by British National Pictures Ltd — led by JD Williams and Herbert Wilcox. A year of building works led to the studio officially opening on 28 December 1926. Within Continue Reading

On Friday 26 September, Elstree Studios reopened Stages 7, 8 and 9 after being closed for several years due to asbestos and concrete structural issues. Rudolph Walker CBE was asked to cut the ribbon outside of Stage 7 to declare them open once more! The Elstree Project’s director, Howard Berry, was among the invited guests and was asked to speak Continue Reading

Recently, The Elstree Project were invited to go to BBC Elstree Centre to record and document the building in 360º photography, video and with LiDAR — a laser scanning system which records the exact dimensions, space and details of a room as data which can then be turned into a virtual 3D model. We spent four days on site at the Fairbanks Continue Reading