Riverside Studios


Riverside Studios is an arts centre on the north bank of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. The venue plays host to contemporary performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production.
Having opened in, the original building closed for redevelopment in. A new Riverside Studios reopened on its original site in August 2019. In March 2023, the Riverside Trust announced it was placing the theatre into administration because of debt incurred. In January 2025, it was announced that Riverside Studios had been purchased and will be operated by the Anil Agarwal Riverside Studios Trust.

Film studios 1933–1954

In 1933, a former Victorian iron foundry on Crisp Road, London, was bought by Triumph Films and converted into a relatively compact film studio with two sound stages and a dubbing theatre. In 1935, the studios were taken over by Julius Hagen with the idea of using Riverside for making quota quickies. However, by 1937 his company had gone into liquidation. Between 1937 and 1946, the studios were owned by Jack Buchanan and produced such films as We'll Meet Again with Vera Lynn and The Seventh Veil with James Mason. In 1946 the studios were acquired by Alliance Film Studios and produced films including They Made Me a Fugitive with Trevor Howard, The Happiest Days of Your Life with Alistair Sim and Margaret Rutherford and Father Brown with Alec Guinness.

BBC Television studios 1954–1974

In 1954, the studios were acquired by the British Broadcasting Corporation for its television service. Renamed The BBC Riverside Television Studios, the building was officially opened on 29 March 1957 by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Series 2 to 6 of Hancock's Half Hour were made there, along with other comedy, drama and music programmes, including the science-fiction serial Quatermass and the Pit, Dixon of Dock Green, Six-Five Special, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Z-Cars, Top of the Pops, and the children's programmes Blue Peter and Play School. Episodes of Doctor Who were made at Riverside between 1964 and 1968, and Studio 1 was where First Doctor William Hartnell's regeneration scene was filmed. The facility remained in regular use until the BBC left in 1974.

Riverside Studios 1974–2014

In 1974, a charitable trust formed by Hammersmith and Fulham Council took control of the building, and two large multi-purpose spaces designed by Michael Reardon were created from the studio's two main sound stages. While preparing Riverside's opening festival in 1976, the venue's first Artistic Director Peter Gill permitted an amateur West London music group called The Strand to use one of the performance spaces to rehearse. They went on to become The Sex Pistols. Riverside's original policy was to have a combination of in-house and visiting company productions of classical and contemporary plays and dance. Running concurrently with the main programme were regular events and activities including a film, music, education, workshop and play reading programme. David Gothard, the founding programming director, brought "The Dead Class" by Tadeusz Kantor and the Cricot 2 company from Kraków in Poland in 1977.
Riverside Studios became fully operational in 1978 with Gill's landmark production of The Cherry Orchard. The venue quickly acquired an international reputation for excellence and innovation with productions including The Changeling with Brian Cox and Robert Lindsay, Measure for Measure with Helen Mirren and Julius Caesar with Phil Daniels, as well as a variety of international work – including, notably, that of Polish theatre maestro Tadeusz Kantor. In 1978, Riverside hosted the first of many Dance Umbrella seasons, featuring the work of Rosemary Butcher and Richard Alston. Gill also offered residencies to artists including Bruce McLean and Ian Coughlin and companies such as the Black Theatre Co-operative. The venue was also used by the BBC for some television recording, including a 1979 episode of Parkinson for which host Michael Parkinson interviewed former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Art exhibitions had initially been curated by Milena Kalinovska in Riverside's foyer, but following Gill's departure in 1980, a purpose-built gallery space was established by the resident architect Will Alsop and John Lyall along with technical director Steven Scott. The directorship of Jenny Stein established the first exhibition and showed works by the painter and graphic artist Edvard Munch. Subsequent exhibitions included David Hockney, Antony Gormley, Louise Bourgeois and Yoko Ono. In 1985, Kalinovska was nominated for The Turner Prize.
From 1980, David Gothard directed the performing arts program and invited Michael Clark to become Riverside's first resident choreographer. He made 16 original pieces at the studios before establishing his own dance company in 1984. Also in 1980, Samuel Beckett directed the San Quentin Theatre Workshop's rehearsals of his play Endgame in Studio 2, returning to Riverside four years later to direct the same company in Waiting for Godot. Under Gothard's direction, there were performances by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, Le Cirque Imaginaire, Eckehard Scall and the Berliner Ensemble, the Market Theatre (Johannesburg), Cricot 2 of Kraków, Collectivo De Parma, and independent dance collaborations with Merce Cunningham and John Cage and members of the Judson Church.
In November 1987, a 200-seat cinema was opened by the actress Vanessa Redgrave.
In 1990, jazz veteran Adelaide Hall starred in the movie Sophisticated Lady, a documentary about her life, which included a performance of her in concert recorded live at Riverside Studios.
William Burdett-Coutts was appointed Artistic Director of Riverside Studios in 1993. While Riverside continued its multi-arts programming, its 200-seat cinema was celebrated for its double bill programmes and the variety of international film festivals which took place annually. In 1996, television production returned to Riverside when TFI Friday with Chris Evans took up residence in Studio 1. CD:UK was broadcast from Riverside between 2003 and 2006, while later TV projects included Channel 4's T4, Popworld and The Last Leg, BBC's Never Mind the Buzzcocks and ITV's Celebrity Juice.
In September 2014, Riverside Studios closed for redevelopment.

Redevelopment 2014–2019

London developer Mount Anvil, working in conjunction with A2 Dominion, redeveloped Riverside Studios and the adjacent Queen's Wharf building. Assael Architecture, were employed to design a new building on the site centred around 165 residential flats, with new studio facilities for theatre and television, two cinemas, a riverside restaurant and café/bar as well as flexible event spaces. As part of the redevelopment, a new riverside walkway connects to the Thames Path alongside the late Victorian Hammersmith Bridge.
During the redevelopment, Riverside continued to produce shows including Nirbhaya by Yael Farber at international venues including the Southbank Centre and the Lynn Redgrave Theatre, Raz, a new play by Jim Cartwright at Trafalgar Studios and A Christmas Carol with Simon Callow at the Arts Theatre.

Riverside Studios 2019-Present

Riverside Studios reopened to the public in late 2019.
Since then, its stages have hosted such figures as Woody Harrelson, Benjamin Zephaniah, Eddie Izzard, Roger McGough, Andy Serkis, Jenna Russell, Jimmy Carr, Sir Trevor Nunn, Jack Dee, Louisa Harland, Tom Allen, KT Tunstall, Sharon Gless and Dane Baptiste. Meanwhile, performance and rehearsal spaces within the building have been used by a range of community groups and theatre companies including Flute Theatre, who run creative projects for young people with autism, and our founding artistic director Peter Gill (playwright), who returned in 2022 to rehearse his latest play Something in the Air.
Since 2020, the long-running television panel show Have I Got News for You has been recorded in Studio 1 with a variety of guests including Sue Perkins, Angela Rippon, Phil Wang and Diane Morgan. In the same studio in 2020 and 2021, the BBC also recorded the Christmas and New Year Specials of Top of the Pops. In 2021, Olly Alexander recorded their New Year's Eve concert in Studio 1, with special guests Kylie Minogue and the Pet Shop Boys.
In April 2022, a BBC Heritage Trail plaque, commemorating Riverside's history as BBC studios, was unveiled by Bob Harris (radio presenter), the longest-serving host of The Old Grey Whistle Test. The event was attended by numerous guests who had worked at BBC Riverside Television Studios including Carole Ann Ford , Frazer Hines and Anne Reid.
In March 2023 the theatre trust announced that the venue was being placed in administration because of the debt incurred by the redevelopment, coupled with increased operating expenses and a reduced revenue stream. The studios operated as normal during the administration process.
On 8 January 2025, it was announced that Indian businessman Anil Agarwal had purchased Riverside Studios for an undisclosed sum. The studios are now operated by the Anil Agarwal Riverside Studios Trust.
In 2026, Riverside Studios will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its opening as an arts centre.

Facilities

  • Studio 1 - HD and UHD studio with audience seating for 368, Operated by Riverside TV with links to BT Tower
  • Studio 2 - multi-use black-box studio with audience capacity of 400
  • Studio 3 - primarily theatre studio with audience capacity of 180
  • River Room - flexible events space offering river views with capacity of 100
  • Rehearsal Room - rehearsal/community space with capacity of 60
  • Screen 1 - Cinema auditorium with capacity of 210
  • Screen 2 - Screening Room with capacity of 45
  • Riverside Bar & Kitchen - bar and restaurant with interior and exterior tables offerings river views

Selected television productions

Selected theatre productions

Selected dance productions

Selected live comedy shows

Selected music performances