A FAREWELL TO THE LONDON STUDIOS

Over the last 10 years or so, the way television shows are made has undergone a huge change.

We could spend hours discussing the various reasons why, but certainly viewing habits switching to the likes of on-demand and the rise of YouTube, means families no longer gather around the ‘box’ on a Saturday night to watch the typical light entertainment show.

This has seen a steady closure of some of the most iconic television studios around the UK, with one of the most notable being The London Studios (previously London Weekend Television / LWT) on the south bank.

Over the last 40 years it’s been the home of producing some of the most popular shows to have aired, such as On the Buses, Blind Date, Father Ted, SMTV Live, Play Your Cards Right, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, to name a few.

I was lucky to have secured a job as a camera assistant after leaving Ravensbourne College, with my first show being ‘An Audience with the Bee Gees’. If I was to have picked a favourite show to have worked on it would certainly have been SMTV Live / CD:UK with Ant and Dec and Cat Deeley. Live every Saturday morning, when kids shows were big, full of energy, mayhem and live music.

So it was a sad day back in 2018 when the studios were sold to developers and closed their doors for good. In the lead up I had managed to arrange a chance to go in one last time to photograph the studios, control rooms and corridors, as I knew the importance of documenting this would be in years to come.

The building is currently being reduced to rubble, and recently I was shown a photo of what was once Studio 2, where we shot SMTV Live, being torn apart, just tragic really and such a waste of a great facility.

Many folk have asked me for prints as keepsakes, so if you worked here and would like a print of any of the below images, please head over to my online store where there is a small selection of matted prints, frames or a high resolution digital download : THE LONDON STUDIOS PRINT GALLERY

Thanks for the memories, friendships and fun TLS. We were lucky to have known you.