The Future of Riverside Studios

A major three year redevelopment of Riverside Studios is now underway. Our existing facilities and the neighbouring Queen's Wharf are being replaced by a new building across both sites. Riverside Studios will have much improved facilities including three studios, a cinema and screening room, a community & rehearsal area and a much enhanced public entertainment space. The river walkway will be opened up across the front of Riverside Studios and Queen's Wharf. The new Riverside Studios will inhabit the ground floor and parts of the basement, first and second floors, with the remainder of the building being apartments, built by our development partners, Mount Anvil and A2 Dominion. The new foyer will look out on to the river with a variety of restaurants and bars.

The start of our redevelopment coincides with Riverside Studios winning the much coverted Love London Award as the local community's favourite venue in Hammersmith, voted for by people living in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. We like to thank you for your fantastic support.

Riverside Studios began its life in a Victorian industrial age as a factory for water pumps and sheet metal. Since then it has had a fascinating history and been a seminal cultural venue in London. It was home to film studios from the 30s to the 50s, was one of the original BBC Studios that saw the inception of colour television, and from the late 1970s has been a renowned centre of inspiring art.

Over its time it has seen Daleks and Dr. Who, Hancock's Half Hour, Sean Connery playing Chekhov, Helen Mirren, Samuel Beckett, Peter Gill's wonderful plays, Robert Lepage, Michael Clark, Twyla Tharp, Dario Fo, Kantor, The Exonerated, TFI Friday, Top of the Pops and countless films and film festivals from all over the world, including retrospectives of directors Jules Dassin, Theo Angelopoulos and Roman Polanski. We have staged an incredible array of international theatre and dance, the most recent of which was the sell-out hit Mies Julie from South Africa.

In our new environment we will continue to provide a mixed programme of performing art in all its forms as well as the best in cinema and television. Our intention is to combine Riverside's historic success into a new offering, in which we collaborate with arts organisations from around the country. Our ambition will be to help bring performing arts to new audiences by using digital technology, whether they are at home, on the move, in cinemas, or with us watching live in our new building.

In the meantime The Riverside Trust, Riverside TV Studios who are the operators of Studio 1's television facilities and our office tenant companies can be found in our temporary home in Aspenlea Road, close to the hospital on Fulham Palace Road.

We look forward to you all being part of the future of Riverside Studios, back on its original site in a brand new building from 2017.

William Burdett-Coutts
Artistic Director



Our development partners Mount Anvil have produced a website for local residents in Hammersmith and Fulham. It is regularly updated with information about the progress of this project.