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KEITH MEEHAN MANAGING DIRECTOR LINCOLN HOLDINGS/GAINSBOROUGH STUDIOS
studio facilities
GAINSBOROUGH
GETS GOING Fifty years on, the industry welcomes back an old favourite
T oday, only the famous iron gates and logo, along with a blue plaque from the London Borough of Hackney, remain as signs of its past glory. For casual passers-by, the com- memoration reads: “The Gainsborough Film Studios, 1924-1949. Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Balcon, Ivor Novello, Gracie
Fields, The Lady Vanishes, The Wicked Lady worked and were filmed here.”
But now, rising phoenix-like from the ashes of a once glorious past, the name of Gainsborough is once again associated with filmmaking. Indeed, the new owner of the site that saw the cre- ation of many classic films has £30 mil- lion plans for an exciting future which looks certain to throw the spotlight back on an almost forgotten corner of British cinema history.
Lincoln Holdings is the company
concerned, and Keith Meehan is its
managing director. “What we do,” he
explains, “is try to seek out projects
that we consider unusual and quite
challenging. Basically things that
require innovative solutions. We tend
to do a small number of projects,
maybe just one or two main ones one at
a time, but we look out for the more
interesting ones. That’s in effect what drew us to Gainsborough. It is a very interesting project indeed.”
Acquiring the site in January 1999, the purchase fortuitously coincided with the celebration of the Hitchcock centenary, as a result of which many of the great man’s old friends and collaborators attended a BFI launch there in the spring.
Such events characterise the slow re-birth of a once proud studio. The Almeida’s Jonathan Kent will be directing Ralph Fiennes and Linus Roache in pro- ductions of Richard II and Coriolanus from April through to July, dubbed “Shakespeare In Shoreditch”.
It is popular for commercials and pop promos, and as a prestigious venue for glitzy corporate parties.
But at the same time as this, work will be well underway for the 174 apartments and 78 live/work units that, Meehan is hoping, will attract members of the creative community. Likened by some to New York’s Tribeca complex, the plans also include a
public art into the developments. And we commis- sioned an artist called Tony Donaldson to come up with some ideas, and he’s come up with this large bronze head of Alfred Hitchcock.
“We’re building quite a lot of studio office space around the central piazza, and there’s been quite a lot of interest from post-production people about using
it, from costume, lighting, writers, all sorts of people involved in the indus- try have shown an interest in taking space on the site. We quite like the idea of it being a mixed scheme, that it’s not just a private housing project, it’s got public access and a daytime life to it. Somebody purchasing a residen- tial unit here would get something that had a certain unique quality to it.”
The thought of coming home after a hard day at the office and rubbing shoulders with the Brad Pitts of the world may be very appealing to some. And it’s not all that far fetched either, as Pitt was at Gainsborough last year film- ing Snatch, director Guy Ritchie’s first movie after the enormous success of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Meehan, though a newcomer to the film business, is canny enough to realise that - whatever its history -
Gainsborough cannot easily compete with the Pinewoods and Sheppertons. So he is setting his sights on a more realistic, achievable goal.
“If somebody wants to make a big feature film then they go to the big studios. But there is a demand from advertising or promotion, or small feature films. There are things being shot here continuously, which is great. I guess it’s because it’s a large interesting space. That’s the reason they originally used it as a studio and it’s still true today.
“What we’re offering is a smaller space, which is also close to Soho and the West End, so it’s really continued on page 32
restaurant with canalside seating, a landscaped sculp- ture garden and car parking. All this and a large single sound stage measuring some 5, 500 square feet.
“There’s definitely a demand for studio space,” Meehan adds. “I think that’s where something like Gainsborough could fulfil a need. We did some research and realised this, but the important thing was continuing the name, and the association of film with this site. It brings it back to life really. We’re pre- pared to take quite a bit of time over getting it right.
“For example we’ve commissioned work with dif- ferent artists and sculptors, because we often put
Photo left: Margaret Lockwood - one of Gainsborough’s most loved and revered stars; inset top: Keith Meehan Managing Director, Lincoln Holdings/Gainsborough Studios inset centre: A little slice of downtown Burbank? Not so, in fact it’s the newly proposed and impressive Gainsborough Studios site in Hackney