Council unanimously approves plans to redevelop half of BBC Elstree Studios

The developer behind 22 Bishopsgate has been given planning approval to redevelop around half of the BBC’s Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.

Plans by French investment manager Axa IM Alts will see the site’s studio stage space more than quadrupled to around 100,000sq ft across five new sound stages.

The scheme, designed by UMC Architects, was unanimously approved by Hertsmere council yesterday evening.

The sign-off comes nine months after the BBC finalised a deal to sell the entirety of the historic film studio to Axa as part of an effort to raise funds.

The deal represented the first investment into the UK’s TV and film studio market for Axa, which has previously focused on large commercial projects including PLP’s 22 Bishopsgate and Fletcher Priest’s 63 St Mary Axe, both in the City of London.

Under the terms of the deal, the BBC will continue to occupy around 50% of the 16-acre site for the next 25 years. The broadcaster recently completed an upgrade of its reduced site in order to film its flagship soap opera, Eastenders.

Axa will now rebrand its half of the complex as Fairbanks Studios in honour of Hollywood actor and producer Douglas Fairbanks Jr, who owned and operated the site for a five-year period in the 1950s.

The firm is working with development manager Oxygen Studios on the expansion, which will also add new workshops, offices, a cafe, base camp, backlot and improved cycle and parking facilities.

A new five-storey media hub, designed in an Art Deco style and containing around 60,000sq ft of office space, will also be added to the site.

Rob Samuel, head of UK development at Axa IM Alts, said: “With demand for content continuing to increase and with consumers able to choose from a growing number of entertainment platforms, the supply of high-quality space for television and film production has not been able to keep pace.”

Samuel said the new complex aims to “send a clear signal to the production companies that there’s a state-of-the-art new facility available for use”.

The project team includes Gardiner & Theobald as project manager, Macfarlane Associates as landscape architect, Sweco on structures and civils, Montagu Evans on heritage, Ardent Consulting Engineers on transport and Nexus on planning.

Elstree Studios was first opened by the Neptune Film Company in 1914 before passing through several different owners, including ITV, before it was purchased by the BBC in 1984 as the production site for Eastenders.