Lloyd Lee with a model of how the Film Quarter could look

RADICAL plans to create a new Hollywood in Kentish Town have been revealed to public – as the developers behind a colossal homes and films studio complex hosted an exhibition of their designs.

The Camden Film Quarter would see the Regis Road industrial estate flattened to make way for new studios aiming to bring in the movie world’s biggest stars and directors.

It will include a 24-storey tower, according to the proposals on display at the Greenwood Centre in Highgate Road.

A model of the area was also made available to look at as the company pledged to create 500 new homes as part of the project.

It is expected that final designs will be submitted to Camden Council’s planning department next month as the project – first revealed in a New Journal exclusive back in 2023 – gathers pace.

A committee of councillors could be looking at the scheme early next year with work beginning later in 2026.

This timetable would mean some parts of the scheme may be complete by 2029, according to Yoo Capital.

The company claims that 3,000 jobs will be created and half of the 500 new homes will be at the “affordable housing” rate.

The scale model showed housing in two blocks in the north west, and more by Spring Place and Holmes Road.

Yoo Capital director Lloyd Lee told the New Journal: “The 50 per cent affordable was our idea. We start with the fundamental basis of what the community and the council want and we shape our vision to fit that.

“It is not a case of this is what we want and this is what we are prepared to give you to get it.

“Instead we say: what would you have if you could have everything you wanted? What would that look like?

“What can you do in a public private partnership? The commercial elements are on the scale that creates enough to provide what the council requires.

“It provides jobs and is economically viable. It creates a place for the UK, for London and for NW5. This is attractive to the UK film industry and helps us deliver the site.”

While the scheme covers much of the Regis Road estate, including the Town Hall’s recycling centre and a council maintenance depot, the plans showed that some parts are in the hands of other landowners and could be developed separately.

They include a BMW garage, a Royal Mail sorting office and a roof repairs yard.

Architect Trevor Morriss of Spparc Architects told the New Journal they had been inspired by New York film studios that offer a one stop space for everything related to film making.

“This is not a tower in Canary Wharf,” he said.

“When you consider large scale urban development there always has to be a balance. This will be the largest film studio development in London today and if you were to spread the studios out in lower level buildings, you would not be able to provide the housing, the green spaces, or the vision for the entire masterplan.”

He said that the striking, irregular facade of a 24-storey studio complex mimicked acoustic walls inside, and added: “It is a Kentish Town building – industrial, on an industrial site.”

Justifying its size, the developers said they needed to build eight sound stages, each measuring 20,000 square metres – the equivalent to two Olympic swimming pools.

Mr Morriss added: “It is in the centre of 23 acres, effectively the central focus.’ The developers said a series of new ways to enter and exit, including a raised path linking Kentish Town with Parliament Hill Fields across railway lines, would open the land up.

Mr Morriss said: “The aim is for the site to dovetail with any future development of the adjacent Murphy’s Yard.”

With the housing blocks above the recommended heights for towers in the area’s local plan, the design team said it had to look at what fits best on brownfield land.

Mr Morriss added: “The housing numbers were the guidance received and that is why the council said if our heights were for a specific reason, they would support it.

“Anything about a 52-metre height – that is 16 storeys –  needs to be justified and we have done that by offering 50 per cent affordable homes.”

The recycling centre could be moved to land next to the Kentish Town police station in Holmes Road.

Neighbours: Who will really benefit?

NEIGHBOURS and community groups have expressed strong opposition to the film quarter designs made public last week, writes Dan Carrier.

There were warnings that the new recycling centre planned for a site behind Kentish Town police station will be in the wrong place, and that the loss of a mixed use industrial estate will not bring any real benefits to residents.

Residents’ groups contacted by the New Journal said they were “appalled” at the height of buildings planned, that the proposals would “dominate” NW5 and were completely unacceptable.

Neighbour Diane Pearson said she was “very concerned”, adding: “I feared it would be ‘airy-fairy’ ideas and not very sensible ones at that. I was not disappointed.

“Kentish Town does not need this. The development was housing-for-profit heavy. When we drilled down into how many social housing units were factored in, these were in the very low numbers.”

She said there were questions over the fate of established businesses on the site, and the concerns over the location of the new recycling centre had not been dampened by the public exhibition.

“We asked the architect how they were going to get skips in through a very low doorway, the reply was that they were in discussions with London Energy to persuade them to purchase smaller skip trucks,” Ms Pearson said.

“There is also the noise, dust, smell, rats and fire hazard such as exploding batteries to consider.”

Kentish Town-based architect Tom Young has been a long-running critic of Yoo Capital’s plans for the Regis Road site.

He said there were multiple issues, including whether there was genuinely the need for the film studios and what would happen to the current businesses.

He added: “The exhibition offers no account of where the industrial uses are to be relocated – and that’s because the audience for the exhibition is assumed to be people who don’t work in Regis Road or think ordinary, industrial uses like self-storage, garages, meat processing, construction depots, recording studios, dark kitchens are unsightly – but they are necessary.

“The fact that finding alternative locations for the recycling centre and the [council’s] Holmes Road depot functions is difficult is why an industrial estate is useful. An industrial estate, even a small urban one, provides much-needed flexibility and adaptability.

“The variety of businesses supported – mail delivery, courier, kitchen, recording, engineering, construction – gives resilience, and what putting all the area’s eggs into the film production basket doesn’t achieve.”

The new recycling centre would be accessed by Regis Road for cars and lorries, with a walk-in reception on Holmes Road.

Above would be 28 flats.

Scheme architect Trevor Morriss said: “The current one is very basic. It is open to the elements, noisy, dusty, and dirty. This will cut down vehicle journeys and enclose the facility.”