Limehouse Studios was an independently owned

television studio A television studio, also called a television production studio, is an installation room in which video productions take place, either for the production of live television and its recording onto video tape or other media such as SSDs, or for ...

complex built in No. 10 Warehouse (30 Shed) of the South Quay Import Dock. This was located at the eastern end of

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of 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 Lon ...

Limehouse Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is 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 ...

near the

Isle of Dogs 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, Ha ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, 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 Harold Owen "Gary" Wilmot, MBE (born 8 May 1954) is a British singer, actor, comedian, presenter, writer and director who rose to fame as a contestant on ''New Faces''. As a television presenter, he is best known as the host of '' You and Me'' ...

and artists including

Bonnie Langford Bonita Melody Lysette "Bonnie" Langford (born 22 July 1964) is an English actress, dancer and singer. She came to prominence as a child star in the 1970s, when she had a notable role in the TV series ''Just William''. In the 1980s, she played c ...

History

Number 10 warehouse was built in 1952 for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of

Fred. Olsen Lines Fred. Olsen & Co. is a holding company based in Oslo, Norway. The company was founded as a shipping firm by Petter Olsen in 1848. Today the company manages the Olsen family's interests in a variety of sectors including logistics, energy and consu ...

for the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

and

Canary Island The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocco ...

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 Millwall Dock is a dock at Millwall, London, England, located south of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. History The scheme was developed speculatively by a partnership of John Kelk and John Aird & Co.'The Millwall Docks: The docks', in Sur ...

in 1970. The conversion of the warehouse into TV studios was one of the first successes of the

London Docklands Development Corporation 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 a ...

. 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.

Inception

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 and 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.''The West India Docks: The buildings: warehouses'', Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs (1994), pp. 284-300
accessed: 22 July 2008 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 Television South (TVS) was the ITV franchise holder in the South and South East of England between 1 January 1982 at 9.25 am and 31 December 1992 at 11.59 pm. The company operated under various names, initially as 'Television South plc' and ...

(TVS). The new studios quickly became the venue of choice for many of the independent production companies making programmes for the new

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

. 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 ''Who Dares Wins'' (Latin: ''Qui audet adipiscitur''; el, Ο Τολμών Νικά, ''O tolmón niká''; french: Qui ose gagne; it, Chi osa vince; Portuguese: ''Quem ousa vence''; German: ''Wer wagt, gewinnt'') is a motto made popular in the ...

'' (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? ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' is a short-form improvisational comedy show originating as a British radio programme, before moving to British television in 1988. Following the conclusion of the British run in 1999, ABC began airing an American ...

'' (1988). The studios were also the home for the first nine series of ''

Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ...

'' from 1984 to 1989, which was made by the then Birmingham based Central Independent Television company (now part of

ITV Central ITV Central, previously known as Central Independent Television, Carlton Central, ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the Independent Television franchisee for the Midlands. It was created following the rest ...

) for ITV.

Relocation and closure

In 1988, the building was sold to

Olympia and York Olympia & York (also spelled as Olympia and York, abbreviated as O&Y) was a major international property development firm based in Toronto, Canada. The firm built major financial office complexes including Canary Wharf in London, the World Fina ...

for £25m. The site became part of the wider development of

West India Docks 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. Follow ...

and the developers decided to name the entire project

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 Lee Electric (Lighting) Ltd was incorporated as a business in 1961 by John and Benny Lee, two film lighting electricians. Lee Electric was primarily involved in the rental of lighting equipment for commercial and documentary productions, as a ...

Studios at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, which itself had previously been used as television studios for

Associated-Rediffusion Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...

and

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

. The studios were purchased for a reported £5.25 million from Lee International and now called the

Fountain Studios Fountain Studios was an independently owned television studio in Wembley Park, northwest London. The company was last part of the Avesco Group plc. Several companies owned the site before it was bought by Fountain in 1993. Originally a film st ...

(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.

References

External links

Limehouse Studios
unofficial history
Limehouse Productions
profile by the

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

{{Media in the United Kingdom, television Television studios in England Media and communications in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Limehouse Demolished buildings and structures in England Buildings and structures demolished in 1989