King's Meadow Campus facts for kids

Quick facts for kids King's Meadow Campus
Former names	Lenton Lane Studios East Midlands Television Centre The Television House Carlton Studios
General information
Address	Lenton Lane, Nottingham, NG7 2NR
Country	England
Construction started	1981
Completed	September 1983
Inaugurated	March 1984
Renovated	2005
Owner	University of Nottingham

The King's Meadow Campus is a part of the University of Nottingham in Nottingham, England. Before it became a university campus, this large building complex was a famous television studio. From 1983 to 2005, it was known by different names like East Midlands Television Centre, The Television House, and Carlton Studios. Many popular TV shows were made here.

History of the Campus

In 1982, a TV company called ATV agreed to change its name to Central Independent Television. As part of this change, they needed to build new TV studios and a news center for the East Midlands area. So, in March 1981, they bought a big piece of land, about 17 acres.

The new building was called the East Midlands Television Centre. It cost about £21 million to build. The first stone was laid on 23 February 1982 by Lord Thomson, who was in charge of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA).

Central Independent Television started working from the complex in September 1983. The official opening was in March 1984, with Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, attending. The studios were designed to be very large. This allowed them to make big TV shows that used to be filmed at Elstree Centre. It also gave them space for smaller studios and a new home for Central News East.

Originally, there were three main studios. The first one was ready in November 1983. The other two were finished by January 1984. Even though the whole site was 17 acres, the studio buildings themselves covered five acres. At its busiest, about 600 people worked there.

To keep things organized with their studios in Birmingham, the Nottingham studios were numbered 5 to 10.

• Studio Five was used for local news updates and for announcers who appeared on screen.
• Studio Six was a medium-sized studio. It could hold an audience of 100 people.
• Studios Seven and Eight were the biggest studios. Each could hold 500 people and were very large, covering 10,000 square feet each.
• Studio Nine was used for the main Central News program.
• Studio Ten was added later in the 1990s.

The studio complex also had a music recording studio. There was a small studio for continuity announcements. It had four electronic news-gathering suites for filming news stories. The post-production area was special because it was one of the first in the country to use computer-based video editing. It also had a sound department for recording music and sounds.

In 1994, Central Independent Television and its studios were taken over by Carlton Television.

Around 1996, a part of the prop storage area was changed. It became a library for TV programs. This library eventually took up three floors. One part was for news material, and the other two parts were for network TV shows.

By 2000, more changes were made to the studios. This was to make way for the last big ITV show produced there: a new version of Crossroads. This show started in March 2001 and ran until May 2003. For Crossroads, the outside of the Carlton Studios was used. They built a special canopy, a pond, and added landscaping to look like a motel. Inside, the music studio was removed. Part of the props store was also turned into extra studio space for bedrooms and suites for the show.

By 2003, fewer TV shows were being made at the studios. This was because ITV was changing a lot. Sometimes, the BBC would even rent out some of the studio space. But ITV decided to close the studios and sell the building. This upset the 200 staff members who worked there. The Journalists Union, the NUJ, and 27 local politicians signed a petition to keep the studios open.

The plan was to move the Central News – East operations to a new office and studio. This new place was built in Chilwell, near Nottingham. It opened in February 2005 and was named Terry Lloyd House. It was named after a reporter who was killed while covering events in Iraq in 2003. This new place is only a regional office. The main Central News – East program is now broadcast from Birmingham.

In February 2004, ITV plc announced that they would close the Lenton Lane production center in Nottingham. Over 350 jobs were lost. After the studios closed, a new news-gathering center was set up in the city. However, the main production and broadcasting of Central News East moved to the Birmingham studio in spring 2005. One studio (Studio 7) is still kept. It is rented out to TV and film companies, which helps the University earn money.

The production and broadcasting of the East Midlands edition of Central News moved to Gas Street Studios in Birmingham.

In 2005, the complex was renamed "King's Meadow Campus." It now holds the University of Nottingham's Manuscripts and Special Collections. The university has been collecting these items since the early 1930s. The old staff canteen and most of the studio space have been changed into offices and lecture rooms for students. In 2007, a fitness center called "King's Meadow Campus Fitness Centre" opened there.

Since June 2018, Heart Church has been using Studio 7 for their Sunday services.

Productions Made Here

Many different TV shows were made at these studios over the years. Here are some of them: