Riverside Studios
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|
| Location |
Hammersmith London, W6 United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Public transit |
 Hammersmith (District/Piccadilly) Hammersmith (Circle/Hammersmith & City)
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| Owner | Riverside Trust |
| Type | Fringe Theatre, Cinema, Television Studio |
| Production | Celebrity Juice, The Apprentice: You're Fired!, The York Realist, TNT Show, You Have Been Watching, Zambezi Express |
| Opened | 1933 as Riverside Film Studio |
| Closed | 2014 for demolition |
| Website | |
| riversidestudios.co.uk | |
Riverside Studios was a production studio, theatre and independent cinema on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England, that played host to contemporary and international dramatic and dance performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production prior to closing for redevelopment in 2014. It is planned to reopen in 2018.
In 1933 the Triumph Film Company moved into the Riverside Film Studio, a converted former industrial warehouse in Crisp Road, London, picturesquely located on the Thames just south of the late Victorian Hammersmith Bridge. Under the ownership of Jack Buchanan, the company produced such films as The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) and Father Brown (1954), starring Alec Guinness.
In 1954, the studio was acquired by the British Broadcasting Corporation for its television service, and renamed The Riverside Studios. Series 2 to 6 of Hancock's Half Hour (1957–60) were made at what was now the BBC Riverside Studios, along with other drama and music programmes, including the science-fiction classic Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59), early episodes of the long-running Doctor Who, and the children's programme Play School. The facility was in continuous use until the early 1970s, the rooftop camera position providing one of the highlights of the annual University Boat Race each Easter Saturday.
In 1974 the BBC moved out of the premises, and a charitable trust formed by Hammersmith and Fulham Council took control of the building, and a building re-structuring programme of works was begun, with two large multi-purpose spaces designed by Michael Reardon from the two main sound stages. The redesigned Studio was to be used for a mixed programme of live theatre, music, dance and film, with a foyer area with exposed industrial-style trunking and pipework being created as an always-open meeting point at the heart of the building. During the building's conversion in 1974-75 an amateur West London pop music band named The Strand illicitly used one of the Studio's sound stages for several months to rehearse, the band subsequently going on to become The Sex Pistols.
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