10 I NEW HOMES
ttler once threatened to bomb it; Vivfen Lelgh and Laurence OUvier forged their love affair here . Vet on a sunny morning in May, the unimposing gates at Denham Film Studios, near Uxbridge, west London, offer no hint of the drama of lb past. This was once the biggest film production hub In the world outside Hollywood, but today the only sign of life Is a lone caretaker He lets me Into the car park, where the developer Bob Weston's Rolls- Royce sits. Behind lt. gleaming like a battered ocean liner, with curved white balconies, L~ the grade n llsted heart of an extraordinary place Ills the only surviving bullding and former HQ of what used to be a studio complex with 2,000 employees, seven sound stages and a pnvate power plant that generated enough electricity to supply a city the slzeofVork Denbam was to be a dream factory of movies with "prestige, pomp, magic and madness", in the words of Alexander Korda, the visionary producer who built lt In 1935. Goodbye, Mr Chips, A Matter of Uie and Death, OIJvier's Henry V and Great Expectations were shot here before the studios closed In 1952; and the film laboratory on site worked on The Emplre Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and at least nine James Bond films, Including ColdenEye and Skyfall Now Denham is gettmg a sequel of Its own; a 拢120m development of 224 converted and new- bulld homes. lt's
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Weston Homes' "most glamorous and head to Denham to trim that down to about lO,OOOft. Titles and special effects unique restoration project yet", says its chairman, stout in his navy pinstripe suit were added, copies made for cinemas as he leads me on an exclusive tour of the worldwide and the ounakes stored - the site before his diggers move In. Bond reels in their own room on the Our flrststop Is the executive cinema ground floor (now stripped bare). That, where the 007 producer Albert "Cubby" Weston says, "will be somebody's lounge" In true 007 style, important Broccoli watched raw footage of Octopussy and Ucence to Kill on the movies were processed in secret in big screen - his cigar smouldering In locked rooms, with film reels coded, one of the armchair ashtrays the owners rather than labelled with the installed especially for him. Uke blockbusters' real names The projection room behind the 路 Broccoli, I sink back In one of the 18 grey velvet chairs, surrounded by emerald raw two cinemas is sald to be haunted by silk curtains and worn 1970s acoustic airmen shot down in the Second World panelling. All this will be restored for War, when Denham was requisitioned residents to use to process spy footage and make A second cinema, favoured by propaganda films. This won't be Stanley Kubrlck for movies anybody's Uving room, Weston assures me, "just a storage room". Including Eyes Wide Shut, will become a bar and At the start of the war, Korda hastily foyer. Steven Spielberg shot a film for the Royal Air Force, called might raise an eyebrow. The Uon Has Wmgs, at Denha.m he used thls quiet space "Churchill praised it as an excellent to edit ET, Schlndler's 路 morale- booster," says JohnAJdred, who Ust and War Horse. was enlisted in the army film corps and After shooting up to later nominated for two Oscars while 300,000ft of film on working as bead of sound at Denham. location, directors would "Hitler threatened to bomb the studio
SWdios HQ, left, Is being turned Into housing, with flats : starting at 拢350,000 l The room where Steven Sptelberg edited ET will become a bar and foyer .
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Oru1n .,,. ~cby. ~.three times,· OIMer confessed at the tuDe. "(VMcn]'s bloody wa.rl.nc me out.• Korda h.Jd boupt tbe 16S- acre tate for £15,000 the prevklus yar - then a • vast sum - and hired the founder of the B.atihaus, Waiter Grop , to design has 67, 000 sq tt head office. 1b1J gave Hnler the pRM:ibla.l finger. u tbe an:hJtect had )ust fkd Genmny over the rllhrer's hatred of modern architecture. lt Is one of only three Groplus ortgl.n.als in Britain . Looking out from KoTda's office on tM third Door today, there Is no sign of the pond th.at was apparently todced (with royal pennbsion) w1th swans by his great friend Wlnston 0\urc:hlll t.fOfl of the 49 convened Oau iD this bWld.1nc will ~ • \\"'OOdpandJed fearure wan with biddm stonge, a-oktng the decor In Korda' s office. All will have 12ft c:dl.IDp and Large •indows, unblocked after deada of ux as darkrooms AJ ~>e roam through the mue of corridors, past CM:mOUS voids with ripped-off pbster and ~ wires, I have visions of bd.ng trapped at night In a scene akin to RJdJq Scott's Alien - also Heathrow procC$$C.'d bcre. OrKe Weston' builder are dooe, bowe\v, the art deco bu1Jd.l.o8 J ...... •ill stand transformed around a J)ass· roofed atrium. A bd1cal stairway With curved ra.i1i.ngs in crisp ~ hlte th:.lt rnad.e ft, but told to w:atc.h U render wUl rise from a bamboo to tee what his J..uftwaffe was up apin.st.• . water prden in wlut was the film · in 194S, the actor Stewart Granaer processing depot. nearly d.Jed on the set of Caesar and Weston ls retaining the walk- in Oeopatra while hoisted 1SOft in the a1r as i ale under the st.alrl where the a V- 1 Oy&Jll bomb exploded . " Everyone : film · lnakus stored silver buliJon rushed to take cowr. l was IA:rt cbnallnl . used in the celluloid proc iD the atr,• Gr~n~er recaUed In bis • What will ft be? "Probably a me:mo1r, Sparks Fly Upward. "The bomb dcancr's cupboard.· The &rand went off about 200 yards away and the • na.lrwdJ wtth gl.us · bloc.k whole coostntctJon started to sway. 1 windows Is staying, too, ydkd out in tenor." When the crew c:onnecting alllhree floors, k79.ved him down, they tact to pry his but DOl the two dumb· fiDgas off the cbai.n waJter-St}le Wts USied to Tbe prepant vtvkn Ldgh, wbo starred n:~CM mm reels. A 10-seattt Oeopam, tw1 a more tra&k acddent boerdroom table from the oo the same set. In a scene "'berc she ran set of y Fair Lady has long • over a Uppay marble floor Oogl.Dg a ~GM hom the top floor. wve", l..d&h " feD heavily", Gnm.ger In Its 1930s heyday, writes. 1-..o d.l)-s Later, she mJscarrlecl the Denb.am's ca{etera.a cooked chlJd she and her then husband, OIMer, SO,OOO sausages a v.•k and h.Jd lanced for. Tbci.r I'Ol1U.DOe was first was nfcknamed "Snobs• stirred up oo the set ol fire Over England because of the &IJttend who - fUmed at Dcnh.am In 1936 - In wb.Jch • ate tbcre. "It was a tenibly Korda cast them as lovers at the court of . panel and origiml sort of Elizabeth 1. ; ptxe. We an thouaht it was Tbou.gb both were married to other • beatlllg Hollytt.'OOd," the people, they dkl.n't hide their cWli.a.nce, . producer Norman • Spencer told Druln. writes Korda's biovapbcr, Ow1es
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22 .05 .2016 I li arlene Dlttrlc.b took up residence In two d.ressin3 roorm that woere kDocked t ether so sbl could haw a tting room. Geo V1 and Queen Wary visited. "One alv. knew when lmpQrtant vtsltors were apected boause an army suddenly arrived to dean all the windows, .. AJdrc,d recalls. \\ on now tw a £Sm dean· up opentlon of his own, to oust c.bemk:als that h.ad leached Into the water tabl m the years (The surface levells sate.) For the put three or so years, water has been pwnpt'd out, bio · fthered , t~atcd and snm•pcd bac.k down. ll wW take slx mot months of demolition to lcnodc down the djo!nlng hodgepodge of 2S buildings, maldna way for 17S homes. Is lt d.i.ffkult? " No. it's "bat w do," he s.hru;s W on Homes, Wb.lc:h turned over £138 Sm wt ar, ts known for sensitive conversions suCh Preston Hall, the Kent family home of Thomas Culpcper, \\M " eucuted tor his affair With Henry Vlll's fihb wife. "It's all about l.aycina.• W ton says. "You cannot mimic thi: past. W '\oc got to put a 21st tury Laytt on the 20th-century building You must be able to read the history in Layers •• 1be three new four-ltony bloCks of n.au and ~ •1th 70 family houses wW be unash.amrdly present- day iD buff «k brick, clad in zinc and cedar with stone window butts Junlna out . Prices will ran e hom about .CJSO,OOO for a one · bedder to (l.Sm for a Ow· bedroom •trophy vUia" wtth a half-acre garden. Most will cost less than £750,000 • Real people's boustna. not just for movie sun, • Waton says. Some homes wW be built 0\'CT the
remains of a •'llter tank, once nearly as bla tv.-o Olympic pools, but now a n)(en car park. \\'bi.Je f1.lm.lna the naval drama The Cruel Sea In the early 19SOs, the actor Doa.akt Slndcn narty drowned in thfs tank, but was S2ved by his co- tar Jack Ha-A1dns. A piazza with scenes from Denbam's films acid -etched onto glasl panels will remlDd residents ot its Wustrlous past. They'D have patbJ to •'aDder through the surrOUD4la& •'OOds, where Kubridt !hot the jungle scenes for his cult Vietnam mm Full Metal J~ . and real dcpbants traversed a bamboo forest aated for the prewar c:bssk Ekpbant Boy. Work o:n the 12-acro sfte ta due to be completed in 2'h years, ~1th a show home and the restored <:lnCDLI open to view from next spr tn~. Its new roads will be named after dJ.rectors and tan from the tudlos' hJ:story. Why, though, ts lt curtains for the Denbam of old? Within two ya.n of Its bb1h, lt was dear Korda had been mad to build such a vast complex. lt was simply • not making enough movies. By 1939, lt bought by the Rank Orp.nlsatlon, OWDf7S of nearby Plnewood Studios and Odeon cinemas. Over the next 20 years, Denlwn's 5tUd1os were WOUDd down, rumed Into 1WI'Chousles md, by the early 1980s, a t.mness pa.rit. Thr film Labs, thouch. SU)'ed open until 201•, rcbnnded as Dduxe l.oodoo &tin 2009, Jamcs C&meron's Avatar - also proces.ed beft - heralded the IDO\e from
ccUuJoJd to d.i&ital. lD the end, pixds dJd to Denbam what Hlt1er De\'U could. • FlatJ. Dcnham ft!m Studio~ =rt at £350, 000; OJ719B1JJOO, waG:Ift -homes. com