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ACE Garage Doors have had a fair few work enquiries from the Borehamwood area of Hertfordshire over the last few months, and that suits us just fine as Borehamwood is a lovely area to live and work. Borehamwood is probably most well known for its film and TV studios, commonly known as Elstree Film Studios, so you never know who you are likely to bump into from one minute to the next. So if you live in the Borehamwood area, why not give ACE Garage Doors a call today to discuss your garage door requirements.

Some Borehamwood history

One of the earliest mentions of Bosci de Boreham, meaning Wood of Boreham, is in 1188:

"In 1188 Pope Clement granted to the kitchen of the monastery the whole land of Elstree. He also gave to the Abbey the wood of Boreham for the feeding of the swine." Who knew that Borehamwood originally was intended to fatten up the Sunday roast?

In 1776, the House of Lords granted:

"An Act for dividing and closing the Common or Waste Ground, called Boreham Wood Common, in the Parish of Elstree otherwise Idletree, in the County of Hertford."

Borehamwood was historically part of the parish of Elstree. A separate ecclesiastical parish of "All Saints, Boreham Wood" was created on 26 February 1909, covering the part of Elstree parish east of the Midland Railway. Despite this change to the ecclesiastical boundaries, Borehamwood remained part of the civil parish of Elstree. The name of the civil parish was changed to Elstree and Borehamwood on 24 February 1982. The ecclesiastical parishes of Borehamwood and Elstree were reunited on 1 April 2005, also under the name "Elstree and Borehamwood". So, Borehamwood itself is a relatively new settlement, even though the area has been inhabited for many centuries.

From the 1920s onwards, Borehamwood became known as one of the main centres of the United Kingdom film, and later television, industries due to the presence of production studios.

Many supporting businesses have been set up in the area to cater for the film and television industry. Film cameras, SteadyCam and various other film production paraphernalia have been developed and sold in the Borehamwood area, providing plentiful extra employment opportunities for local people.

Borehamwood after the Second World War

Following the Second World War, the population of Borehamwood greatly increased, with large areas of council housing set up for displaced Londoners, many of which are now in private ownership. Fast train connections to central London have resulted in Borehamwood becoming a primarily residential suburb. In 1946, the Admiralty started to build highly secret high-performance electronic digital computers at Borehamwood in a redundant wartime factory, firstly for the purpose of real-time gunnery control, and later for surface-to-air guided weapons and missiles, and for specialist cryptography and code-breaking computers for GCHQ listening centre in Cheltenham.

Modern day development for Borehamwood

Borehamwood is now undergoing a substantial housing transformation which has seen hundreds of new homes built over the last few years. Two further developments are being built and more are expected in the future to accommodate the growing population.

In addition to the Borehamwood film and television studios, the town is home to many well used retail shops, hotels, restaurants, offices and light industry. The hotels cater mainly to tourists visiting the Elstree Studios, attendees of the television shows being recorded in the Elstree Studios, and London visitors due to the proximity to London and the considerable lower accommodation rates.

The film industry in Borehamwood

Since 1914, Borehamwood has been home to several film studios and many shots of its streets are included in final cuts of 20th century British films. This earned it the nickname of the "British Hollywood". Whilst most of these studios, collectively known as "Elstree Studios", have now closed, two still remain.

A huge number of films were shot at the studios on Shenley Road including The Dam Busters (1955), Star Wars (1977, and subsequent films in the popular science fiction franchise, Moby Dick (1956), Summer Holiday (1963), and The Shining (1980) starring Jack Nicholson, some of the Indiana Jones films. The facility was partly demolished in the 1980s to make way for a Tesco Extra supermarket on one side and an office block complex on the other.

A virtual army of painters and decorators are permanently employed at the Borehamwood studios to paint the ever changing sets. Many self employed painters are currently earning a very good living out of the film studios.

The area between the supermarket and the office blocks is all that remains of the original studio, which has been much reduced in size and usefulness to production companies as a result. The Shenley Road Studios were later used for the TV series Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Big Brother, as well as several major feature films. The Inspector Morse TV series' production offices were based in the studios and, although the series was set in Oxford, several exterior locations, such as banks, shops and other well known Borehamwood buildings were filmed adding much interest for local residents watching their favourite television shows and films.

The former British National Studios off Clarendon Road, referred to locally as "The Douglas Fairbanks studios" are now the BBC Elstree Centre. The studios have, over the years, been home to Alfred Hitchcock's film Blackmail, Jim Henson's TV series The Muppet Show was also produced there, and now BBC's popular soap, EastEnders and their medical drama Holby City. An episode of Judge John Deed included scenes of the Tesco Extra, but with Borehamwood crossed out and Lewes written in its place.

Several other studios including the Gate Studios and the Danziger Studios at nearby Elstree have been demolished. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios complex, which was demolished in the early 1970s, saw the production of many films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), as well as ITV television series such as The Prisoner, which ran from 1967 to 1968.

The newer Millennium Studios were situated on Elstree Way, Borehamwood.

Take the plunge with a new garage door in Borehamwood

You don't need to have the income of a famous actor to be able to afford a new garage door from ACE Garage Doors. We pride ourselves in offering the very best quality garage doors at very competitive prices. Couple that with our unique and efficient repair and servicing, you can be certain your garage doors will turn heads for many years to come. Give us a call today and allow us to fit a stylish and secure garage door to your Borehamwood property.