The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) has begun a £6 million renovation and modernisation project to upgrade several of the buildings at its 3 Mills Studios in east London.

3 Mills Studios is home to TV series and films such as The Great (MRC Television), the BBC’s MasterChef (Shine TV) and Expendables 4 (Millennium Media).

4. Three-Mills-Studios.Image Credit - John Fielding. jpg 3x2

Three Mills Studios

Source: John Fielding

The works will create new lettable spaces for companies working in TV and film production.

The renovations will focus on several of the site’s heritage industrial buildings, including the Grade II listed Custom House and historic Gin Still building, into over 10,000sqft of creative workspaces.

The Studios’ Screening Room will be renovated as a 60 seat multi-use cinema and presentation space, providing a venue for screenings, learning events and conferences. The digital infrastructure across site will also be upgraded.

Paul de Carvalho, general manager and head of studios at 3 Mills Studios, said: “These major works will allow us to increase the utilisation of our historic spaces while improving the services we offer across the site and will further add to our creative campus atmosphere.”

The works have been made possible by funding from the Government’s Getting Building Fund via a £3m grant allocated by the Mayor of London, and a further £1.9m funding has been provided through the LLDC’s Community Infrastructure Fund. In total, inclusive of these grants, the LLDC is investing nearly £6m into the renovation and modernisation project.

The 3 Mills Studios site is London’s oldest continuously running industrial centre and is referenced in the Doomsday Book. The mills provided flour for the bakers of Stratford during the time of Henry VIII, then also supplied grain for the gin distillery that operated on the site from the 17th Century.

From the 1980s most of the island become a dedicated centre for film and television production with the establishment of Bow Studios, 3 Mills Island Studios and Edwin Shirley Productions and in the mid-1990s the three studios merged to become 3 Mills Studios.