Lime Grove Studios

Lime Grove Studios was a "lot" of studios built largely in a single building located on Lime Grove Street in the Shepherd's Bush district of the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Site history

Lime Grove dates to 1915, when it was built by Gaumont Films. It was originally constructed with glass ceilings above the sets, because the studios used no artificial lighting. This was soon seen as impracticable, however, and the site switched to internal lighting in 1917. It underwent a couple of construction projects in 1927 and 1932-33, but these were the last innovations brought to the site's physical plant. By the time, the BBC bought it in 1949, it was therefore already an aging property.

Relevance to Doctor Who

Lime Grove Studios were the predominant studios used to film Doctor Who during the early William Hartnell and most of the Patrick Troughton eras. They were used for principal photography, and as such would have been the primary workplace of Hartnell, Carol Ann Ford, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill. Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Deborah Watling and Patrick Troughton. They were also the first workplace of John Nathan-Turner on the program, who was a floor assistant on the single episode of The Space Pirates which was shot at Lime Grove.

The studios were notably hated by Verity Lambert, both for their size and lack of facilities. One of her principal technical ambitions was to get Doctor Who shifted out of the cramped quarters of Lime Grove. She eventually succeeded in the second season, but, long after she had departed the series, the program firmly returned to Lime Grove in the latter half of the fourth season. There Doctor Who firmly remained until the first episode of The Space Pirates.

Various studios within Lime Grove

Studio D

Studio D is perhaps the most famous of the Lime Grove studios to Doctor Who enthusiasts. It was the original studio location for the programme, and thus has become famous in descriptions of the filming of the pilot, An Unearthly Child. It is also the subject of many unpleasant memories on the part of the production staff, and its many inefficiencies have been touched on in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, and on DVD extras, for years.

Stories recorded at Studio D

First Doctor

• The Pilot Episode
• An Unearthly Child
• The Daleks
• The Edge of Destruction
• Marco Polo
• The Keys of Marinus
• The Aztecs
• The Sensorites

Second Doctor

• The Macra Terror
• The Faceless Ones
• The Evil of the Daleks
• The Tomb of the Cybermen
• The Abominable Snowmen
• The Ice Warriors
• The Enemy of the World
• The Web of Fear
• Fury from the Deep
• The Wheel in Space
• The Mind Robber
• The Invasion
• The Krotons
• The Seeds of Death
• The Space Pirates

Studio E

Studio E may have been used by Doctor Who. If so, it was apparently only used for one day in this history of the program: 13th March 1972. It is unclear what, if any, material was shot. Two sources are in significant conflict over the use of Lime Grove for this serial. One suggests that TC8 was used on 13-14th March, while another suggests that TC8 was abandoned for Lime Grove Studio E on the 13th and TC4 on the 14th.

Stories recorded at Studio E

• The Mutants (disputed)

Studio G

Studio G was a long, narrow, rectangular space which Verity Lambert was offered by the BBC Planning Department. In the deal, she got Planning to agree that Studio D was unsuitable as the main recording space for the programme. She even got them to rotate Doctor Who to the top of the list of shows to be scheduled at Television Centre. However, if TC was unavailable, she would have to use Lime Grove's Studio G. Lambert continued to argue against this "compromise" because the shape of Studio G was totally wrong for the depiction of science fictional vistas, and allowed for no sense of depth.. In practice Studio G was used only once by Doctor Who.

Stories recorded at Studio G

• The Reign of Terror

Use of Lime Grove within Doctor Who fiction

Lime Grove is implied by the story "The Idiot's Lantern", in which the very earliest days of the BBC are featured. Particularly relevant is the clip of Muffin the Mule, which would have been produced at Lime Grove.

References