British sound mixing and post production facility that formerly was a recording and mixing studio. Successor of Kingsway Studios and predecessor of De Lane Lea Music Centre/The Music Centre, Wembley.
For recordings between Autumn 1971 and 1981, if the studio name appears as 'De Lane Lea Studios, Wembley' in whatever variation, please use De Lane Lea Music Centre.
In 1958, the advertising agency S H Benson Ltd moved to a newly built office block at 129 Kingsway, just opposite Holborn Station in London. Part of the the basement area was fitted out as a recording studio mainly for voice over work for adverts and jingles. Kingsway Studios was up and running in 1959.
In July 1965, the company De Lane Lea took over the studios acquiring the leasehold for the basement area of 129 Kingsway and thus De Lane Lea Studios was born. The De Lane Lea company was founded in 1947 by Major William De Lane Lea, a French intelligence attaché for the British Government. The company was originally set up to dub English films in to French but had expanded throughout the 1950s, setting up studios at various locations around London for voice recording, film, TV as well as music recording, including orchestral scores.
His son, Jacques De Lane Lea who was a film producer, director, and writer, helped to build up the business and after his father's death in 1964, took over the company. He left the company in 1978.
Dave Siddle, former studio manager at Kingsway Studios, remained in charge and was given the budget to expand the studios to twice its original size and re-equipe the place.
With the success of the Kingsway studio and the amount of work it was generating, in March 1968 De Lane Lea bought a large building in Dean Street London to develop into a music and film centre. It would incorporate a studio large enough for orchestral work with an accompanying film screen and a film post production studio.
Around about the same time the Kingsway studio went 8 track.
In 1969, the company De Lane Lea owned a film post-production studio and a music recording studio in Kingsway. However, it was forced to relinquish the space. Fortunately, its parent company, BET, owned Wembley Stadium and decision was made to construct a multi-room studio complex there. Dave Siddle was seen as the person to undertake the building of a new music complex that would bring their current business under one roof and expand.
In autumn 1971, it was formally opened as De Lane Lea Music Centre -or The Music Centre, Wembley as it came to be known-.
Around 1974, the studio in the basement of Dean Street was being used as a Foley dubbing studio. In 1978, brothers Norman Sheffield and Barry Sheffield, owners of Trilion Pictures Ltd., took over the studio and converted it into a TV studio. Trilion folded in December 1992, so it is likely that the studio closed then. The studio then reverted to a sound recording facility once again for De Lane Lea. On 7 November 2012, this facility was purchased by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. to be used for post production supporting their film studios in Leavesden. It became known as Warner Bros. De Lane Lea. On 30 September 2022, the studios moved to Ilona Rose House, Soho Estates. It is not known what will happen to the Dean St. site.
(In 1973, the Kingsway site was taken over by Martin Birch and Ian Gillan who re-opened the studio, renaming it to Kingsway Recorders).
Also appears as:
- De Lane Lea Music
- De Lane Lea Music, Limited, London, England
- De Lane Lea Music, London
- De Lane Lea Music Recording Studios, London
- De Lane Lea Recording Studios, London
- De Lane Lea Sound Studios, London
- De Lanelea
- Delane Lea
Timeline
1947-today: (film post-production)
1959-July 1965: Kingsway Studios
July 1965-Autumn 1971: De Lane Lea Studios (recording)
Autumn 1971-1981: De Lane Lea Music Centre/The Music Centre, Wembley
Engineers known to have worked here include:
- Terry Johnson (2)
- Alan Florence
- Martin Birch
- Louis Austin
