Denham Film Studios
Coordinates: 51°35′04″N 0°29′56″W / 51.584569°N 0.498902°W
Denham Film Studios were a British film production studio operating from 1936 to 1952.
The studios were founded by Alexander Korda, on a 165 acre (668,000 m²) site near the village of Denham, Buckinghamshire. At the time it was the largest facility of its kind in the UK, but it was merged with Rank's Pinewood Studios, and closed in 1952.[citation needed] Pinewood is just 4 miles south of Denham. The buildings were demolished in 1981 and the site re-landscaped. [1]
The studios were known by various names during their lifetime including London Film Studios, the home of Korda's London Films, and D&P Studios after the merger with Pinewood.[2]
Some of the notable films made at Denham include, The Thief of Baghdad, 49th Parallel, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, Hamlet. Bernard Miles said that "when the technicians, the electricians and carpenters and so on, on the floor, who had been watching a scene filmed, applauded, you knew it was good, because they'd seen the best." [3] Colin Sorensen, who as a schoolboy often used to watch the work going on at Denham recalled the sight " of the main studio buildings, a great mass of, probably asbestos, grey-green roofs" and the smell of " cellulose paint merged with newly cut soft wood." The proximity of Denham Airfield was sometimes problematic. Mary Morris remembered that an intimate scene with Leslie Howard, for Pimpernel Smith was " interrupted 22 times by aircraft noise." [4]
The J. Arthur Rank Company rented the facility to the United States Air Force from about 1955 until December 1961. In the 1960s and 70s Rank Xerox occupied the Art Deco office buildings and used most of the sound stages as warehouses.
The site was subsequently cleared and sited between the junction of the Rickmansworth Road (now the A412 North Orbital road) and Moor Hall Road towards Harefield, provided some employment. The site is now used as a business park (Broadwater Park), containing (amongst other companies) the UK Headquarters of the Robert Bosch Ltd, the UK subsidiary of the Robert Bosch GmbH Group, and the global headquarters of InterContinental Hotels Group.
Selected films
Made on the site during construction:
- The Ghost Goes West (1935)
- Things to Come (1936)
- The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)
The first film to be made at the studio proper was Southern Roses (1936). Others included:
- Knight Without Armour (1937)
- Rembrandt (1936)
- A Yank at Oxford (1937)
- South Riding (1938)
- The Citadel (1938)
- Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
- The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939)
- The Stars Look Down (1939)
- Thief of Bagdad (1940) - mainly made at Denham.
- Noel Coward's In Which We Serve (1942)
- Hatter's Castle (1942)
- The Gentle Sex (1943) - credits show D&P Studios.
- Powell & Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
- Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944) and Hamlet (1948)
- Part of David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945).
- So Evil My Love (1948)
The last film to be made at Denham was Disney's The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952).
References
- ^ Colin Sorensen, A Schoolboy at King Arthur's Court, radio programme
- ^ Skinner, James (2008). Growing Up In Wartime Uxbridge. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-07524-4543-4.
- ^ Colin Sorensen , recalling what Bernard Miles had told him, on the radio programme, A Schoolboy at King Arthur's Court.
- ^ Colin Sorensen, A Schoolboy at King Arhur's Court.
