Fountain Studios
| Fountain Studios | |
|---|---|
|
Fountain Studios | |
  Location within Greater London | |
| Former names |
Associated-Rediffusion Studios London Weekend Television Lee International Film and Television Studios Limehouse Television Studios |
| General information | |
| Type | Television studios |
| Address |
128 Wembley Park Drive, Wembley, HA9 8HP |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°33′40″N 0°16′54″W / 51.5612°N 0.2818°WCoordinates: 51°33′40″N 0°16′54″W / 51.5612°N 0.2818°W |
| Website | |
| Website | |
Fountain Studios is an independently owned television studio located in Wembley Park, Wembley, north-west London, close to Wembley Park underground station. The company is part of the Avesco Group plc.
A number of companies owned the site before it was purchased by Fountain in 1993. Originally a film studio complex, it was formerly the base for the ITV contractors Rediffusion from 1955 to 1968, and London Weekend Television from 1968 to 1972.
More recently, the studios are best known for being the venue for the live stages of ITV shows The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. Other programmes made at Fountain include The Cube and The British Comedy Awards. Fountain Studios has also hosted Pop Idol, Test the Nation and The Kumars at No. 42.
In January 2016, it was confirmed that the studios have been sold for £16 million to a property developer and will be demolished.[1][2]
The last shows to be broadcasted live (and recorded) at the studios were The X Factor and The Xtra Factor on 4 December 2016.
History
In 1927, Ralph J. Pugh and Rupert Mason founded British Incorporated Pictures with the intention of creating an American-style studio complex in the former British Empire Exhibition's Palace of Engineering. They bought a lease at Wembley in June 1927, though it was for the Lucullus Garden Club Restaurant site, not the Palace of Engineering.[3][4][5] Their financial backing fell through and in May 1928 the lease was sold to Victor Sheridan. Sheridan announced that £500,000 was to be spent on developing the biggest and best-equipped studio centre in Europe. Sheridan sold his lease to British Talking Pictures a few months later. In September 1928, British Talking Pictures formed a subsidiary, British Sound Film Productions, to make films at Wembley. Wembley Studios was Britain's first purpose-built sound studios. Its three sound stages were officially opened in September 1929. Perhaps because of a major fire, the studio was never as successful as had been hoped. They were taken over by the American Fox Film Company,[6] who leased the site and then bought it outright in 1936.[3][7]
Fox used the studio for the production of their 'quota quickies'. A change in the law in 1938 led 20th Century Fox to use other studios, but it retained ownership. During the war the studios were leased to the military (the Army Kinematograph Service and RAF Film Unit), with intermittent rental to independents.[3][8] Ealing Studios filmed Ships with Wings at Wembley in 1941.[9] There was a fire at the studios in 1943.[3]
In the 1950s the studios were used by Mercia Film Productions, who made feature films, and Rayant Pictures, who made shorts and adverts.[10] The last film made at Wembley was Ealing Studios' The Ship That Died of Shame.[3]
Wembley Film Studio was taken over by Associated-Rediffusion, ITV’s weekday broadcasters for London, in 1955. New television studios were built by Associated-Rediffusion and opened in 1960. Their size and unique design attracted worldwide attention. Associated-Rediffusion was the ITV weekday broadcaster for London. The first production was An Arabian Night with Orson Welles. Shows such as Ready Steady Go!, No Hiding Place and Take Your Pick were to follow. During the 1960s the studios were home to some of the most popular programmes on the ITV network, including The Rat Catchers, Blackmail, At Last, The 1948 Show and The Frost Report. The Beatles appeared on more than one occasion at the studios.
When Associated-Rediffusion lost its weekday ITV franchise in 1968, the television studios entered a difficult period. For a time they became LWT’s broadcast base and were used to record shows such as On the Buses, Please Sir and Upstairs Downstairs. The 1970s through to the 1990s saw the demise and demolition of the film studio complex and the decline of the television studios under many different owners.
Fountain Television started its existence as a studio and post-production facility in New Malden, Surrey in 1985. After hosting shows such as Ready Steady Cook and Wizadora, the company took the opportunity to purchase the badly run-down Wembley site in 1993 for redevelopment.
Studio 5 (now known as Studio A & Studio B), is 14,000 sq ft including the firelanes. This makes it the largest fully equipped television studio in the UK – 500 sq ft larger than HQ1 at MediaCityUK in Salford and 2,000 sq ft larger than Studio 1 at BBC Television Centre. Internationally, larger studios exist in Germany and in the United States, although many of these fall into the category of soundstages and are not fully equipped television studios.
Fountain undertook the daunting task of the refurbishment and by 1994 the first shows began to trickle in. Hearts of Gold with Esther Rantzen, Talking Telephone Numbers and The Day Today were amongst the first shows to use Fountain's facilities.
An unusual feature of the studios is a soundproof double door which can be lowered in 30 minutes to reconfigure the space into two separate studios, each with its own independent control facilities.
Many high-profile productions are still produced at Fountain Studios; these include The X Factor, Play to the Whistle, 1000 Heartbeats and Britain's Got Talent.
Notable programmes
Fountain Studios is home to many popular entertainment programmes. List of shows, studio used and network broadcast on below:
