Plans have been announced for a new studio site outside Marlow, Buckinghamshire that will become “one of the world’s top creative campuses for film and television production.”
The project is led by a group of entrepreneurs and arts industry professionals. The technical team have delivered projects like the London Olympics, King’s Cross, Spitalfields East London, Spinningfields Manchester, and CB1 Cambridge.
Robert Laycock, as CEO of Dido Property and leader of the studio’s founding team, says: “We want to solidify the UK as the number one location for filmmaking globally.”
“The film studio will be a destination for home-grown and internationally significant talent across all areas of production. It will become a place for the most innovative and artistic minds to come together right in the heart of Buckinghamshire, building on the area’s historic reputation for high-end film and TV production.”
Laycock is a Partner in the Ian Fleming Estate and currently developing The Magus with Neal Street and Johan Renck.
The plans include a studio campus that will provide a “national base for filmmaking and skills training” that will “nurture a new generation of British talent in crafts and technical trades” with a “world-beating apprenticeship programme.”
The site is close to Pinewood, Denham Studios, and the National Film and Television School.
The current proposal will transform a former landfill site located at the Westhorpe junction just outside of Marlow, Buckinghamshire. The location has access to the M4 and M40 corridors for good links to London and the wider region, as well as international connectivity at Heathrow.
Sustainable design will support both local ecosystems and the low-carbon future of film production. The facility’s design team includes internationally recognised firms Prior+Partners (led by key London 2012 masterplanners) and Wilkinson Eyre (two-time Sterling Prize-winning architects).
Key design factors include the dedicated enhancement of existing habitats, promotion of cleaner air during construction and beyond, and support of a richer landscape. These and other topics will inform an ongoing public engagement process involving the local community that is running until the end of the year, when a planning application is anticipated to be submitted.
Jon Creamer
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