The Clapham Studios were a British

film studios A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

of the silent and early

sound era A sound film is a motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decad ...

s, located in

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history T ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The studios were built at Cranmer Court under some

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

arches, opening in 1913. Several companies used the studios during their first decade, including Holmfirth Films. In 1927, it was used for one of the first British sound films when a

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

was made using the DeForest Phonofilm sound system. By the late 1920s, usage of the studio had been abandoned, as producers moved to larger and more modern studios. A second studios also existed in Clapham founded in 1919 by

Bertram Phillips Bertram Phillips was a British film director of the silent era. In 1927–29, he directed several short films in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, including '' Arthur Roberts Sings "Topsey-Turvey"'' (April 1927), ''The New Paris Lido C ...

, but when his major star Queenie Thomas married and temporarily retired from the acting he suddenly found he had no use for it and consequently no

feature films A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

were made there, although it continued to exist for other cinematic uses until the 1950s.Warren p.21

References

Bibliography

* Warren, Patricia. ''British Film Studios: An Illustrated History''. Batsford, 2001. British film studios {{film-studio-stub