Former Hammer horror studios near Maidenhead seek expansion
The famous Bray studios want to build nine new sound stages
THOUSANDS of new jobs outweigh the harm to the greenbelt Bray Film Studio’s major expansion plans will cause, planning officers have concluded.
It will be decision time for the historical film and tv company’s application on Monday (8/11) at a Maidenhead development management panel.
As part of their plans to become a “major international TV and film production company,” Bray Film Studios Limited wants to build nine sound stages, four workshops, one rehearsal building, offices, and accommodation.
This also includes 750 car parking spaces – 20 per cent of which are EV charging points – 174 cycle spaces, HGV parking, and adding a roundabout to access to and from the A308.
Greenbelt
However, this will require the studio, which is located at Down Place, Water Oakley, to expand into the greenbelt and demolish three homes on Water Oakley Lane, the vacated Phoenix gym, and Water Oakley farmhouse.
The greenbelt is usually safeguarded from development and developers need to show ‘very special circumstances’ to demonstrate the harm to the greenbelt is outweighed.
But the owners argued the plans will create nearly 1,500 full-time jobs at the studio and further 1,463 ‘indirect’ employment – 80 per cent of which will be in Berkshire.
They also said it will pump nearly £139m a year into the UK economy.
Planning officers at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead agreed these two benefits outweigh the expansion into the greenbelt and recommended panel members to authorise head of planning to grant permission subject to conditions.
Horror
The film studio was bought by Hammer Film Productions in the 1950s and had many of their classic horror movies, such as The Curse of Frankenstein, until 1970.
But things took a bleak turn in 2012 when the previous owner obtained planning permission to demolish the sound stages and redevelop it into housing, citing the studios’ were not ‘economically viable’.
However, the demand for filming later “rocketed” where the current owners decided to invest heavily into improving the studios and upgrading the site as a whole.
In recent years, the Elton John biopic film Rocketman and the BBC drama Dracula were filmed at the studio.