Bristol City Council opened The Bottle Yard Studios in 2010, providing a modern purpose for the cavernous Tank Houses standing on the seven acre Whitchurch Lane site, which had for more than 50 years housed a winery and bottle plant – including at one time the production line for three million litres of Harvey’s Bristol Cream per year.

At a time when demand for UK studio space was beginning to build, The Bottle Yard Studios brought this industrial site back to life, offering flexible space for productions of all sizes and budgets whilst strengthening Bristol’s reputation as a leading filmmaking hub, stimulating local industry and creating employment and economic benefit.

Initially opening with eight stages (Studios 1-8), The Bottle Yard hosted a stream of major high-end TV dramas, films, gameshows and children’s programmes throughout its first decade of operations, made by UK and international clients.

Run by a small team with professional backgrounds in the industry, the Studios quickly became popular with producers thanks to its strong links to the region’s experienced crew base, its partnership with Bristol Film Office which assists location filming in the city, and the easy access it offers to the wide range of locations on offer across the West and South West region.

TBY2 Studios – The Bottle Yard’s premium second facility – opened in 2022, increasing the number of stages offered across The Bottle Yard complex to 11, or 154,000 sq ft of shooting space across two sites.

Less than half a mile from the main site, TBY2 is a £12m redevelopment of industrial buildings on Hawkfield Way, backed by West of England Combined Authority Investment.

The state-of-the-art facility houses Studio 9, Studio 10 and Studio 11, three sound-proofed stages ranging from 7,000 sq ft to 20,0000 sq ft of clear span build space, accompanied by more than 40,000 sq ft of ancillary space.

TBY2 Studios is a powered by a gigantic 1MWp solar rooftop array consisting of more than 2,300 photovoltaic (PV) panels. Funded by the Bristol Energy Cooperative, it is the largest community-owned solar rooftop array in the UK, and one of the largest PV installations on a UK studio. Read more about TBY2’s award-winning sustainability features here.

135 jobs were created during TBY2’s redevelopment works and more than 860 jobs are forecast to be created over the next 10 years through the Workforce Development Programme that accompanies The Bottle Yard’s WECA-backed expansion plan.

Bristol City Council has appointed an Industry and Community Outreach Coordinator to liaise between the regional film and TV industry and local skills and education bodies including schools, colleges and universities, to strengthen the city’s film and TV production workforce and target the development of new talent.

In 2024, the West of England Film & HETV Workforce Development Programme was launched to equip industry entrants from the region with necessary skills to become ‘set-ready’ for careers in scripted film and TV production. Delivered by The Bottle Yard Studios, Bristol Film Office and Bristol UNESCO City of Film, the Programme is funded by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority’s Mayoral Priority Skills Fund and part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Since 2018, education provider Boomsatsuma has also delivered a Film & Television Diploma based in a classroom at the Studios, giving local young people the opportunity to study on site.