London's Hollywood - Chapman Gary

A complete overview of the Gainsborough of Islington film studio starts with its creation in 1919 when the American company of Famous Players Lasky (later to become Paramount) bought and transformed an old railway power station in Poole Street and announced that they would bring proper film production methods to London. Within two years they had failed and production ceased. But, with the best facilities and a diverse range of staff, it was rented out to independent production units. This included the enterprising duo of Graham Cutts and Herbert Wilcox and then, Balcon-Saville-Freedman who made the ground breaking picture Woman to Woman. After Gainsborough Pictures was formed, Michael Balcon bought the studio in 1926 and through the rest of the 1920s made some of the best British pictures of the period such as The Rat, The Lodger and The Constant Nymph. Many famous British and American movie stars were directed at Islington including Mae Marsh, Ivor Novello, Betty Balfour, Mabel Poulton, Dorothy Gish, Betty Compson and Clive Brook. It is also significant that Islington was where a young Alfred Hitchcock started his journey to become one of the most famous of British directors.