Camden could soon be the capital’s new filmmaking powerhouse

London already feels like a film set most days, one minute you're dodging a Deliveroo cyclist like it's Mad Max, the next you’re wandering through Soho pretending to be in a moody indie drama. But soon the capital could get an actual, purpose-built filmmaking neighbourhood as developers push forward plans for a massive new creative district in Kentish Town. Looks like Camden is getting its own mini-Hollywood.

Yoo Capital, the real-estate firm currently on a quest to rebuild half of London (Olympia, Shepherd’s Bush Market, that Shaftesbury Theatre-to-Soho-hotel transformation), has now submitted full plans to Camden Council for Camden Film Quarter: a £1 billion attempt to convert an industrial patch behind Kentish Town station into a world-class filmmaking hub.

11 film and TV studios, built vertically like a cinematic Jenga set so stages can stack upwards rather than sprawling outwards. New creative workspaces. Public parks. Education hubs for the National Film and Television School and the London Screen Academy. Plus, around 500 new homes, half of them classed as affordable, although we'll have to wait and see on that part.

Developers say it’ll be the UK’s first proper film studios district right in the city centre, designed to rival New York and LA. Which is convenient, because Camden already has the energy of both: a little gritty, a little glamorous, and full of people who look like they’re on their way to an audition, even when they're just nipping to the shops.

Some locals say the towers look “extreme”, others argue the blocks of flats have been “squeezed into” the site’s west corner, and one resident called placing social housing near a recycling centre “truly disgusting”. A local campaign group is also urging the council to extend the feedback window, with the current deadline set for the 14th of December.

If the council signs off, the project promises 1,370 jobs during construction and a new creative engine for the capital, one that could help future directors, animators and scriptwriters get their start without fleeing to Hertfordshire or pretending Dagenham is LA.

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