The south west London studios where the TV drama The Bill was shot and was also used for film productions such as Bohemian Rhapsody and The Iron Lady, has come on the market.
The 130,000 sq ft Wimbledon Studios complex more recently served as the headquarters of Persian language entertainment channel, Marjan Television which occupied it since 2014 and has invested heavily in the facility. The channel ceased satellite broadcasting earlier this year.
The studios on Deer Park Road were originally a wine warehouse but were bought by Thames Television as a replacement for their Barlby Road base in North Kensington in the early 1990s.
It housed a permanent set for The Bill and an exterior street set was also built for the Channel 5 soap opera Family Affairs including a pub called The Common Inn.
Thames – which later became Talkback Thames – stayed at the studios until 2010 when The Bill, by then the only show produced there, ended after 2,400 episodes.
After the cancellation of The Bill by ITV, Talkback Thames’s owners, FremantleMedia, sold the studio to Panther Securities for £4.75 million in September 2010 to provide a new production facility for the industry.
It marketed itself as the closest professional film and TV studios to central London.
The site is made up of a collection of two drama studios, four broadcast studios and full support facilities including edit suites, galleries, makeup, dressing rooms, office accommodation workshops, storage and extensive car parking.
Other productions made there include Showtime’s Patrick Melrose, Sky’s In The Long Run and Paramount’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and Episodes starring Matt LeBlanc.
A set recreating the green benches of the House of Commons chamber was made there in 2011 for the Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady. The set was later used for the BBC drama State of Play.
Chris Berry, senior director at agents LSH, which are handling the leasing, said; “The blend of production facilities and high ratio of ancillary support space is unique, giving it a flexibility to suite a variety of different types of occupiers. It would make a fantastic facility for any corporate with a requirement or aspiration to produce their own content”.
