RockNerd

By RockNerd

Lights! Camera! Action!

Heading out of West London, the ground used to be thick with film studios. Ealing, Pinewood, Shepperton & Teddington survive, but sadly Isleworth Studios are no more.
Worton Hall was built in 1783, but was converted for film making in 1914. The first film made here was a version of the Sherlock Holmes story "A Study In Scarlet", the same year.
Other films made here featured stars such as Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr., & Paul Robeson, after whom the theatre in nearby Hounslow is named.
However, it's the last film made here that is best remembered. Although much of "The African Queen" was filmed on location, the scenes with Humphrey Bogart & Katherine Hepburn in the water were deemed too dangerous, so were shot in the water tanks at Worton Hall.
The studios closed in 1952. The land is now an industrial estate & the hall itself is being converted into flats.

Many thanks your kind words regarding my bad back yesterday. Although still not 100%, much improved today!)

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