Scottish Television - Studios

Studios

From the station's launch in 1957 until 1974, Scottish Television used the Theatre Royal, Glasgow on Hope Street as their main studio base and headquarters. Secondary studios at the Gateway Theatre on Leith Walk in Edinburgh were built in 1969 to accommodate more productions. The new facilities at Edinburgh grew in importance in after a fire gutted Studio A and several production suites at the Glasgow studios - a fire in which two firemen were killed.

Scottish's main base moved in 1974 to custom built facilities on Renfield Street in Cowcaddens on land opposite the Theatre Royal site. Construction began on the new base in 1972 and it was officially opened on 12 December 1974 by Princess Alexandra, and was expanded to accommodate further production in 1978. Following the completion of the new studio complex, the Theatre Royal was sold to Scottish Opera to become the first national opera house in Scotland, and the home of Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet.

Cowcaddens became Scottish's main studio base where the majority of their productions were based. However, with the growing use of independent production companies as a source of programming, the need for increased studio space was alleviated. New Scottish programming, such as Art Attack and How 2 from TVS was being made at the Maidstone Studios, where these programmes were formally based. As a cost-saving measure the Gateway Theatre studios in Edinburgh, which for a time became the permanent studio home for Take the High Road were closed in 1994.

In 2006, the newly rebranded STV moved from their Cowcaddens base to a new, smaller building at Pacific Quay alongside the headquarters of BBC Scotland. As a result of the move, the entire Cowcaddens site, with the exception of an extension containing The Herald and Glasgow Evening Times newspapers, was demolished and redeveloped in 2007. STV's Edinburgh news and advertising operations are now based at small studios in Fountainbridge.