Merton Park Studios, opened in 1929, was a British film production studio located at Long Lodge, 269 Kingston Road in

Merton Park Merton Park is a suburb in the London Borough of Merton. It is situated between Colliers Wood, Morden, South Wimbledon and Raynes Park. It is 11 miles (11.7 km) southwest of Charing Cross. The area is part of the historic parish of Merton ...

, South London. In the 1940s, it was owned by Piprodia Entertainment, Nikhanj Films and Film Producers Guild. Peter Morley
"Peter Morley - A Life Rewound" Part 1
(PDF) British Academy of Film and Television Arts (2006), p. 41. Retrieved September 29, 2011 Many second features were produced at Merton Park, and for a time it was the base of

Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...

. Unlike many other studios, it remained open during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, producing films for the Ministry of Information. In the late 1940s, the studios produced several children's films.Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, ''The British 'B' Film'', Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, pp. 96–101. In 1950,

Anglo-Amalgamated Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company, run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy, which operated from 1945 until roughly 1971 (after which it was absorbed into EMI Films). Low-budget and second features, often produced at M ...

began making films at Merton Park. From 1957 to 1959, they produced an average of one second-feature a month there. They produced the crime series '' Scotland Yard'' (1953 to 1961, 39 half-hour features), ''The

Edgar Wallace Mysteries The ''Edgar Wallace Mysteries'' is a British second-feature film series mainly produced at Merton Park Studios for Anglo-Amalgamated. There were 48 films in the series, which were released between 1960 and 1965. The series was screened as ''The E ...

'' (1960 to 1965, 47 hour-long features) and '' The Scales of Justice'' (1962 to 1967, 13 half-hour features) at Merton Park. The first film in the Carry On series, ''

Carry On Sergeant ''Carry On Sergeant'' is a 1958 British comedy film about National Service starring William Hartnell, Bob Monkhouse and Eric Barker; it is the first in the series of ''Carry On'' films, with 31 entries released from 1958 to 1992. The film was ...

'' (1958), was shot there. The last film made at Merton Park, in March 1967, was from ''The Scales of Justice'' series, called ''Payment in Kind''. The director

Ken Hughes Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

made his early films at Merton Park in the 1950s, and the blacklisted American director Joseph Losey made his first British movies there under pseudonyms. Amongst those apprenticed for a time at the studio were the composer David Fanshawe, who trained as a

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The film ed ...

, and director

Michael Winner Robert Michael Winner (30 October 1935 – 21 January 2013) was a British filmmaker, writer, and media personality. He is known for directing numerous action, thriller, and black comedy films in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including several c ...

. The actor/author Stanley Morgan has a number of pages dedicated to the Merton Park films he starred in.memoirs
Stanley Morgan website After closing, the site was re-developed for housing and the

sound stages A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...

were demolished. However, Long Lodge, an historic building fronting Kingston Road which served as the studio's administrative headquarters, still exists. In a 2008 documentary, ''Remembering Merton Park Studios'', actor Clifford Earl presents memories of Merton Park Studios between the 1930s and late 1960s, with producers, directors and film technicians who worked there telling their stories. (Source: Talking Pictures TV)

References

External links

List of Merton Park films
at

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British film studios Film production companies of the United Kingdom {{film-studio-stub