Bottle Yard Studios to receive £692k investment from Bristol Council
The Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol will benefit from a £692,000 investment boost from Bristol City Council.
The capital investment, which was approved at the Council’s latest Cabinet meeting on 4 October, will pay for improvements to the site, including new roofs, production offices and IT infrastructure.
The site, which operated for more than 50 years as a former winery and bottling plant, is now an established base for film and television production in the West of England, attracting major UK and overseas productions of all sizes.
Recent productions to film at The Bottle Yard Studios include: BBC One dramas The Living and the Dead (2015), Poldark (series 1-3, 2014-16) and Emmy award-winning Sherlock special The Abominable Bride (2015); Disney/ABC Studios’ US musical comedy Galavant (series 1-2, 2014-2016); CBeebies series Andy's Prehistoric Adventures (2015); Golden Years (2015); Emmy-nominated and BAFTA-winning BBC Two drama Wolf Hall (2015); BAFTA-winning ITV drama The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies (2014) and Sky 1 HD comedy Trollied (series 1-5, 2011-2015).
The Bottle Yard Studios has eight stages available at competitive rates, just 15 minutes from Bristol city centre. It also offers a giant green screen studio, extensive back lot, workshop areas, production offices, costume and make-up rooms, dressing-rooms, storage, private roadways and parking.
Deputy Mayor of Bristol, Councillor Estella Tincknell said: “Bristol’s Film and TV industry is a thriving and diverse economy that generates jobs and last year saw inward investment of £16.7 million. The Bottle Yard Studios has become a key cornerstone for this vital sector, working with Bristol Film office to attract high calibre companies from London and the US to make their productions right here in Bristol. We’ve seen an increase in location filming across Bristol, which rose by 65% in 2015/16, and every new production that chooses to film here has brought with it valuable business and employment.
Site Director of The Bottle Yard Studios Fiona Francombe said: “The funds will pay for new roofs on three of the Studios’ Tank House buildings, which house our main studio stages. Once these are in place we will work with the Council’s Energy team to install new solar PV panels that will reduce our future electricity costs. We will transform redundant areas of the site into new office facilities to be hired out to the production community, generating further income for the site. We will also install new IT infrastructure to enable Voice Over Internet Protocol, which will be rechargeable to our business tenants.
The Bottle Yard Studios has eight stages available at competitive rates, just 15 minutes from Bristol city centre. It also offers a giant green screen studio, extensive back lot, workshop areas, production offices, costume and make-up rooms, dressing-rooms, storage, private roadways and parking.
The Bottle Yard on thecallsheet's Studio Map