The Clapham Studios were a British

film studios A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; howev ...

of the silent and early

sound era A sound film is a motion picture with 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 decades passed befo ...

s, located in

Clapham Clapham () is a district in south London, south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (including Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Ea ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The studios were built at Cranmer Court under some

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

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 a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

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 (comedian), Arthur Roberts Sings "Topsey-Turvey"'' (April 192 ...

, 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 (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film ( motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...

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 1913 establishments in England 1920s disestablishments in England {{film-studio-stub