Hillside Studios

Once a country house, and converted to television and audio studios as part of the vision of J. Arthur Rank. Aside from turning in his grave about his name being used as rhyming slang, he'd be none too pleased to know that the inevitable 'luxury flat' developers have got their claws in...

Anyway, much as my own little website is far from ready to go, I've got the galleries of our explore from a couple of weeks ago posted so that people might get a chance to see it while it's still standing. (This place is obviously private property and is rapidly becoming a building site, so if you do more than look at it, it's at your own risk... you know, all the usual stuff).

I've been researching the place, and have tracked down a few former employees, as well as one lady who remembers it from her childhood as the house before Lord Rank got involved, so I'm hoping to eventually write up some of it's history to go with the pics when I get the chance to.

The order of my pics (of which there are many ) pretty much follows the order of the way we went round the place. More by luck than judgement, we started off in the most stripped-out areas and got to the most intact (with artefacts, etc.) at the end, so don't be disheartened by the fact that the pics start off with a lot of mooching around out in the gardens and outbuildings

Enough of my waffle, here's the link you want:
Gathering Dust

I'm still shuffling pics around, and I'm sure the odd typo has crept into the captions, but any feedback is welcome. Cheers!

Very interesting explore. Enjoyed seeing the tours on your site, especially the studios. Liked the mooch around the gardens too.
Look forward to seeing more as your site grows.

Cheers

Awesome pics there mate, I did almost get bored but then got to the interesting parts

This was a TV Studio right? Any idea what TV programmes were filmed there?

Cheers, wishmaster...

This was indeed a TV studio. It was originally created by the Rank Foundation to serve the Churches Television and Radio Centre, concentrating on religious programming. It later expanded to provide training in television and radio production.

In more recent years, it had to operate as a commercial facility studio to survive financially. Programmes made there included the Joan Bakewell debate programme "Heart Of The Matter"; "The Switch" - Jools Holland and Paula Yates's short-lived successor to 'The Tube'; Robert Winston's "Child Of Our Time"; various kids puppet shows, including Tots TV, Rosie and Jim, and Mopatop's Shop.

Numerous pop videos were also shot there, including Robson & Jerome's 'Unchained Melody' and Linchpin's 'Girl Next Door'.

Hardly the hub of cutting-edge entertainment, I'll admit, but they managed to find enough to do to keep going for 40 years, so it can't have been all bad...

And much as I hate to see demolition, some evil part of me can't help but smirk at the thought of an excavator ripping Mopatop's Shop apart...

tangled said:

And much as I hate to see demolition, some evil part of me can't help but smirk at the thought of an excavator ripping Mopatop's Shop apart...

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No idea what Mopatop was, but it sounds horrendous.

nice one mate

twyford abbey looks good too

Foxylady - Mopatop was as big green dragon-type thing, a product of Jim Henson's Muppet Workshop... Far too recent for my childhood, but my young neices became obsessed with it, hence why I've spent too many hours reading the books of the series to them...

Anyway, I thought I'd have another look round Hillside today, see how the demolition was progressing, and begin to work out what buttons to press on my new camera...

It was a pretty pleasant sunny February afternoon, until...

A van with three officers for one long-haired bloke with a limp and a camera seemed a little unnecessary but, to be fair - they were very polite once they realised I was no trouble; were cool about my explanation; and ended up listening to me giving a condensed version of the 100-year history of the site, sharing my disappointment at the 'luxury flat' developers that now seem to be running amok. I even got to take a photo of their nice new camera-equipped van.

Sadly, I'm going to have to add a 'Demolition' gallery onto my pics of this place - I think we got in there just in time...

A real shame it's gone.

I would have so rescued some stuff. The floppy disks and some tapes for a start.

Potter said:

A real shame it's gone.

I would have so rescued some stuff. The floppy disks and some tapes for a start.

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Yep, it is a shame - after dredging through 40 years of planning applications, I've just started to write up some of the history of the place...

It was hard to resist the temptation to take one of the set of 1960's coloured lights from above a studio door... but that would be theft, and, as we all know, that is illegal. It would have made my little chat with the Hertfordshire Constabulary a little more tricky, for a start...

All the same, it is disappointing to know that harmless souvenirs with no commercial value have now been thrown on the builders bonfire or fed into the crusher instead...

I worked at Hillside for several years including 'Switch'. Jools and Paula didn't present the show, it was a Graham something, and a girl called Yvonne. A links vehicle was positioned in the back car park to beam the live programme to Old Redding, where it was routed to the BT Tower.

I remember working on the video for Chas & Daves 'Rabbit rabbit rabbit'. The props guys had to put white tape on the black keys of the white piano that had been hired for the shoot. Other videos included Darts, Roxy Music, Shaking Stevens, Bad Manners.

After it had closed, I purchased various bits of equipment on behalf of my current employer. I must admit that I couldn't resist picking up the architects drawings and specification for the new (1970's) extension.

It was sad walking around the place seeing it taken apart. Studio 3 had only just been refurbished and was now stripped of it's equipment, and only cables hanging out of the bays.

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Cheers Soundman for the history of the place from someone who worked there. And cheers for the pictures too.

Do you know if they're demolishing the whole building? Its such a shame historical places such as this can be systematically stripped and demolished with no thought to the history of the places. Then have nothing there after places have been converted to let the people know who are now living there what the building was used for etc.

Cheers again.

Sal

soundman said:

I worked at Hillside for several years including 'Switch'. Jools and Paula didn't present the show, it was a Graham something, and a girl called Yvonne.

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Cheers, soundman - I only worked at Hillside a couple of times; I was relying on info about previous programmes from another source, so glad you could clear up the details.

soundman said:

A links vehicle was positioned in the back car park to beam the live programme to Old Redding, where it was routed to the BT Tower.

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I guess there would be a good line of sight from the viewpoint at Old Redding to the Tower. Did they have to have a truck parked there too?

It was good to see some pics from the studios operational days - the jimmy jib over the back lawn looked like the same set-up as we had for the 'Child Of Our Time' title sequence.

Your demolition pics look like they were taken within the last two weeks - I've been going past there every Saturday, so need to update the demolition gallery on my site with the pics I've been taking too. As you said, it was sad to walk around and see it stripped bare inside...

Really good to see your pics, soundman, and read more about this fascinating place.

Cheers

Wow, impressive piece of thread necromancy, 16 years dead.

I'm glad you did bump the thread, though, because on reading through I've discovered where Chas & Dave's "Rabbit" was filmed… and if it wasn't for Chas & Dave, we wouldn't have Eminem. True fact.