Langleybury Mansion is already a prolific filming location, with its interior featuring in more than 100 productions, including Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, The Crown and Downton Abbey.
Although IF_DO’s scheme, for a green-belt site, was originally submitted to Three Rivers District Council in 2022, it only received the final rubber stamp this month following a lengthy Section 106 negotiation.
The proposed facilities in new and existing buildings aim to improve film production at the site, providing workshops, office space, sound stages and a café.
Other interventions will include a replacement children’s farm and car park as well as 1,145m of new public footpaths and 2,194m of cycle paths, 500m of which will be open to the public.
Conservation architect Donald Insall Associates has advised on the works, which include repairs and upgrades to the mansion and its outbuildings. The plans also include a training facility for students hoping to enter the industry in the place of the ‘dilapidated and imposing vacant’ secondary school.
The scheme will improve biodiversity across the site, with the planting of native trees and the creation of grazing land and water meadow, leading to a 28 per cent net gain in habitat units, 85 per cent in hedgerow units, 103 per cent in river units.
IF_DO’s consented plans for a film production centre and upgrades to Langley Mansion in Hertfordshire
Source: Secchi Smith / IF_DO
Langleybury was built from 1725 for Lord Chief Justice Robert Raymond, according to the National Heritage List for England, before being altered and remodelled in the 1860s for the high sheriff of Hertfordshire William Jones Lloyd.
It was extended again in the 1890s for his son Edward Henry Lloyd, who also served as high sheriff of Hertfordshire. The building features red brick with stone and stucco dressings and slate roofs.
Some locals had criticised the proposals, calling them ‘overdevelopment’, while in 2024, the council’s historic environment team said the scheme’s positive elements were ‘undermined by the harmful aspects’ and that it would have ‘an industrialising impact’ on the site.
In a letter from April that year, headed historic buildings and conservation advice, the team wrote: ‘This proposal would replace the existing, unsympathetic structures with a development of a vastly greater scale and extent. The proposed development would also be architecturally incongruous within the rural, pastoral and parkland setting of the heritage assets.’
Some amendments were made to the scheme that summer.
Following the council’s recent sign-off, IF_DO director Sarah Castle said the planning approval marked a ‘significant milestone’, adding: ‘We’re incredibly excited to see this vision come to life – a thriving creative hub that not only bolsters the region’s film industry and provides opportunities for local people, but also enhances the surrounding landscape.
‘What makes this project special is the collaborative spirit of our team, whose shared vision has embraced both creative innovation and responsible stewardship through biodiversity, sustainability and thoughtful design, crafting what we believe will be a fitting legacy for the Langleybury Estate.’
Donald Insall practice director and head of heritage consultancy London, Cordula Zeidler, said: ‘Heritage sites need to continue evolving. Repairing and enhancing Langleybury Mansion and its outbuildings will allow them to continue operating as a desirable film location, and this ensures that the site can continue its legacy.’
She added that the ‘thoughtful masterplan’ and the introduction of ‘vital support structures [would] add another significant layer to the cultural offering of this important site’.
The first construction works will begin on the new children’s farm.
IF_DO’s consented plans for a film production centre and upgrades to Langley Mansion in Hertfordshire
Source: IF_DO
Project Team
Client Ralph Trustees
Architect and masterplanner IF_DO
Planning consultant, EIA, socio-economics and archaeology Lichfields
Film and TV industry consultant Location Collective
Project management Mace
Landscape architect Define
Heritage consultant and conservation architect Donald Insall Associates
Ecology consultant Nicholsons
Sustainability and water management Expedition
Building services Anderson Green
Transport consultant Caneparo
Arboricultural consultant FLAC
Lighting Strenger
Noise, air quality, climate change and resilience, ground conditions, soils Wardell Armstrong
Planning reference 22/1945/FUL
Masterplan overview
Source: IF_DO