Pinewood Studio
| Pinewood Studios | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Address | Pinewood Road, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, SL0 0NH |
| Opening | 30 September 1936 |
| Owner | Pinewood Group |
| Website | |
| Pinewood Studios | |
Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located approximately 17 miles (27 km) west of central London, and 7 miles (11 km) from Windsor.
The studios have been the base for many productions over the years from big-budget films to television shows, commercials, and pop promos. It is well known as the home of the James Bond and Carry On film franchises.
Pinewood Studios was built on the estate of Heatherden Hall, which was a large Victorian house. It was purchased by Canadian financier and MP for Brentford and Chiswick Lt. Col. Grant Morden, who added refinements such as a ballroom, a Turkish bath and an indoor squash court. Due to its seclusion, it was used as a discreet meeting place for high-ranking politicians and diplomats and the agreement to create the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed there.
On Morden's death in 1934, building tycoon Charles Boot bought the land and turned it into a country club. The ballroom was converted into a restaurant and many of the bedrooms became furnished suites.
In 1935, millionaire Methodist and flour magnate J. Arthur Rank created a partnership with Boot and together transformed the estate into a film studio. Boot based designs for the studio complex upon the latest ideas being employed by film studios in Hollywood, California. Boot named the new studio Pinewood because "of the number of trees which grow there and because it seemed to suggest something of the American film centre in its second syllable". In December of that year construction began, with a new stage completed every three weeks. The studios were finished nine months later, having cost £1 million (approx. £37 million at 2012 prices). Five stages were initially completed and a provision for an enclosed water tank capable of holding 65,000 gallons, which is still in use. In the years that followed he also undertook further work on both the Pinewood Film Studios and the Denham Film Studios, both of which had by then become a part of their newly formed Rank Organisation.
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