Limehouse Studios | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Demolished |
Location | Canary Wharf |
Town or city | London |
Country | England, United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 51°30′13″N0°01′06″W / 51.50361°N 0.01833°W |
Opened | Summer 1983 |
Closed | Early 1989 |
Limehouse Studios was an independently owned television studio complex built in No. 10 Warehouse (30 Shed) of the South Quay Import Dock. This was located at the eastern end of Canary Wharf in Limehouse near the Isle of Dogs in London, which opened in 1983. The building was demolished just six years later, in 1989, to make way for the Olympia & York development of Canary Wharf which now occupies the site. The opening of the studios was commemorated with a programme called Celebration which featured host Gary Wilmot and artists including Bonnie Langford.
Number 10 warehouse was built in 1952 for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of Fred. Olsen Lines for the Mediterranean and Canary Island fruit trade. At their request, the building was given the name Canary Wharf after the Canary Islands. Fred Olsen moved operations to a new site at Millwall Docks in 1970. [1]
The conversion of the warehouse into TV studios was one of the first successes of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The studios were created as concrete boxes suspended within the immensely strong shell of the warehouse. In addition to the purpose-built studios, many productions made use of the unconverted old warehouse space.
At a cost of about £3.6m, and under the design of Sir Terry Farrell, the warehouse was transformed into The Limehouse Studios; a complex containing two studios of 3,000 square feet (279 m2) and 6,000 square feet (557 m2) with associated production offices and post-production facilities. The two studios were contained in suspended concrete boxes mounted on independent giant springs to reduce external vibration, and fitted out. [1]
As one of the then few independent facilities in London, Limehouse was founded by a group of executives from the former ITV franchise holder Southern Television after the company had lost its ITV franchise in 1980 to Television South (TVS). The new studios quickly became the venue of choice for many of the independent production companies making programmes for the new Channel 4. This was also helped by the popular hospitality boat moored alongside in the dock. Among the many programmes made at the studios at that time were Who Dares Wins (1983–88); Treasure Hunt (1982–89), including a celebrity episode in 1985 where the studio itself was the final "treasure" location; Janet Street-Porter's youth television series Network 7 (1987–88), broadcast live from the unconverted parts of the warehouse building; and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988). The studios were also the home for the first nine series of Spitting Image from 1984 to 1989, which was made by the then Birmingham based Central Independent Television company (now part of ITV Central) for ITV. [2] In 1985, American rock and roll legend Carl Perkins recorded a TV special at the studios, with special guests including George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton.
In 1988, the building was sold to Olympia and York for £25m. [1] The site became part of the wider development of West India Docks and the developers decided to name the entire project Canary Wharf using the more exotic and American-sounding name. One Canada Square now stands on part of the site cleared by the demolition of the former studios.
Following the purchase, the owners relocated the equipment to the former Lee International Studios at Wembley, which itself had previously been used as television studios for Associated-Rediffusion and London Weekend Television. The studios were purchased for a reported £5.25 million from Lee International and now called the Fountain Studios (closed 2019), with a second smaller studio and post-production facility in the Trocadero in W1. The Limehouse name disappeared when the parent company Trilion collapsed three years later.
London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham, and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port of London, at one time the world's largest port. After the docks closed, the area had become derelict and poverty-ridden by the 1980s. The Docklands' regeneration began later that decade; it has been redeveloped principally for commercial and residential use. The name "London Docklands" was used for the first time in a government report on redevelopment plans in 1971 and has since been almost universally adopted. The redevelopment created wealth, but also led to some conflict between the new and old communities in the area.
The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Hamlet, Parish and, for a time, the wider borough of Poplar. The name had no official status until the 1987 creation of the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood by Tower Hamlets London Borough Council. It has been known locally as simply "the Island" since the 19th century.
Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is 3.9 miles (6.3 km) east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, such as The Grapes and Limehouse Stairs. It is part of the traditional county of Middlesex. It became part of the ceremonial County of London following the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, and then part of Greater London in 1965.
Poplar is a district in East London, England, now part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Five miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End.
Canary Wharf is an area of East London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Alongside the City of London, it constitutes one of the main financial centres in the United Kingdom and the world, containing many high-rise buildings including the third-tallest in the UK, One Canada Square, which opened on 26 August 1991.
One Canada Square is a skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London. It is the third tallest building in the United Kingdom at 770 feet (235 m) above ground level, and contains 50 storeys. It achieved the title of the tallest building in the UK upon completion in 1991 and held the title for 21 years until the completion of The Shard (310m) in 2012.
Westferry is a station on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), at the junction of Limehouse Causeway and Westferry Road in Limehouse in London Docklands, England. The station is located in Travelcard Zone 2. To the west is Limehouse station, whilst to the east the DLR splits, with one branch going to Poplar station and the other to West India Quay station.
The West India Docks are a series of three docks, quaysides and warehouses built to import goods from and export goods and occasionally passengers to the British West Indies on the Isle of Dogs in London the first of which opened in 1802. Following their commercial closure in 1980, the Canary Wharf development was built around the wet docks by narrowing some of their broadest tracts.
Blackwall is an area of Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. The neighbourhood includes Leamouth and the Coldharbour conservation area.
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of Rotherhithe, west of Cubitt Town, and has a long shoreline along London's Tideway, part of the River Thames. It was part of the County of Middlesex and from 1889 the County of London following the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, it later became part of Greater London in 1965.
The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was a quango agency set up by the UK Government in 1981 to regenerate the depressed Docklands area of east London. During its seventeen-year existence, it was responsible for regenerating an area of 8.5 square miles (22 km2) in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Southwark. LDDC helped to create Canary Wharf, Surrey Quays shopping centre, London City Airport, ExCeL Exhibition Centre, London Arena and the Docklands Light Railway, bringing more than 120,000 new jobs to the Docklands and making the area highly sought after for housing. Although initially fiercely resisted by local councils and residents, today it is generally regarded as having been a success and is now used as an example of large-scale regeneration, although tensions between older and more recent residents remain.
Canada Square is a square at Canary Wharf, on the Isle of Dogs in London's Docklands. It is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of Central London along the River Thames. Canada Square is surrounded by three of the tallest buildings in the United Kingdom, including One Canada Square, which was the tallest building in the United Kingdom from 1990 until late 2010, when it was surpassed by The Shard.
The London Studios in Lambeth, Central London was a television studio complex owned by ITV plc and originally built for London Weekend Television. The studios were located in Central London, on the South Bank next to the IBM Building and the Royal National Theatre. The building was set on 2.5 acres of land and was 24 floors high. The London Studios closed on 30 April 2018. Many ITV programmes now come from Television Centre in White City, London.
The Maidstone Studios, formerly called TVS Television Centre, is the largest independent television studio complex in the United Kingdom, and is based at Vinters Park in Maidstone, Kent, England. It has been home to a varied selection of independent British television programming including Later... with Jools Holland, Jools' Annual Hootenanny, Take Me Out, Catchphrase, as well as popular children's shows such as Mister Maker and Let's Play for CBeebies, or Art Attack for TVS and later for ITV and Disney Channel.
Fountain Studios was an independently owned television studio in Wembley Park, northwest London, England. The company was last part of the Avesco Group plc.
Riverside South is a proposed skyscraper development in Canary Wharf, London. Some below ground-level work was completed by 2014 on behalf of investment bank J.P. Morgan & Co., which bought a 999-year lease on the site with the intention of making the building its London office, but the firm has now moved into an existing Canary Wharf building. Future plans for Riverside South have not been publicised.
Dundee Wharf is a residential development in Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in London. The modern buildings occupy the site of a former shipyard known as Limekiln Dockyard. John Graves established this shipyard in 1633 and then expanded his holdings with Dundee Wharf itself. By 1650 George Margetts developed a ropemaking yard including a ropehouse, storehouse and a ropewalk on the site. A modern wharf with electric cranes was constructed in the 1930s. This was used by the Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Company to operate a twice-weekly service between Perth, Dundee, Leith and London.
Granada Studios is a television studio complex and events venue on Quay Street in Manchester, England, with the facility to broadcast live and recorded television programmes. The studios were the headquarters of Granada Television from 1956 to 2013. After a period of closure, five of the six studio spaces reopened in 2018. The studios are the oldest operating purpose-built television studios in the United Kingdom pre-dating BBC Television Centre by five years.
Spratt's Complex is a housing development in Poplar, London. The former pet food factory was converted into approximately 150 live-work units beginning in 1985. This was one of the first such warehouse conversions in London. The complex is on Morris Road, lining Limehouse Cut canal, and is situated between the DLR stations of Langdon Park and Devons Road.
Coldharbour is a street and wider conservation area in Blackwall, lying on the north bank of the River Thames, east of Canary Wharf. The area is said to be "[t]he sole remaining fragment of the old hamlet of Blackwall" and "one of the last examples of the narrow streets which once characterised the river's perimeter".