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
. The Denham Fllm
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 .