Dickenson Road Wesleyan Methodist Church was built in 1862 at a cost of £4,000, designed in a Geometric DecoratedGothic Revival style by the Manchester architects William Haley & Son. The gable-fronted building had a high-pitched roof surmounted with a decorated stone cross. It was divided into a nave and transepts. At the eastern end was an apse with three stained-glass windows, and there were future plans to extend the building further. The exterior was faced in Pierrepoint and Hollington stone.[1][2]
In the 1930s, British film producer John E. Blakeley was expanding his film production business, Blakeley's Productions Ltd. Despite the low production values of filming in unsatisfactory rented spaces, the company's film releases had helped to launch the career of the variety entertainer George Formby. Blakeley's films relaunched his company as Mancunian Films.[4][5]
Focussing on the northern market, Blakeley decided to establish his own studio in Manchester. In 1947, he purchased the disused church on Dickenson Road and converted the building into a two-stage film studio at a cost of £70,000, creating the first British film studio outside south-east England.[6] The studio received funding from the National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC), which provided grants to support independent British studios.[7]
Dickenson Road Studios were officially opened in 1947 at a ceremony attended by "John E." and Mancunian screen stars George Formby, Frank Randle, Norman Evans, Dan Young and Sandy Powell.[4] The new production operation earned the nickname "the Hollywood of the North",[4] or alternatively "Jollywood", on account of its output of comedy films. Critics of Mancunian's productions dubbed the studio the "Corn Exchange", a humorous reference to the Corn Exchange in Manchester ("corn" being a slang term for unoriginal, poor-quality humour).[7]
In the 1950s the growing reach of television affected the size of cinema audiences, and as the mass media market evolved, numerous film studios were taken over by emerging television broadcasters. In London, the BBC acquired Lime Grove Studios from Gainsborough Pictures in 1949 and Ealing Studios in 1955. Dickenson Road Studios was bought from Mancunian by the BBC in 1954, and it became the first regional BBC Television studio outside London.[4][12] Programmes made by the BBC at the studios included series starring comedian Harry Worth and variety programmes, and the studio became the production headquarters for BBC television drama in the North, being used for the production of early plays by television writers such as Alan Plater.[13][14] The studio possessed no recording facilities; the pictures were fed by landline down to London for recording and were then played back for checking at the studio.
During the time the programme was broadcast from Dickenson Road Studios, many popular acts performed there; The Kinks made their Top of the Pops debut at Dickenson Road on 19 August 1964 with "You Really Got Me";[23]The Who debuted on 11 March 1965 with "I Can't Explain"; the Merseybeats, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Peter and Gordon, the Fourmost, the Small Faces, Ken Dodd, Val Doonican, Them, Cliff Richard and the Animals were also among the early acts to appear there.[24] Due to the limitations of the building, the Beatles did not appear in person on the show; their performances were pre-recorded at the Riverside Studios in London.[25][notes 2][26][27] No archive recordings remain in existence of the first broadcasts from Dickenson Road, it is not known if the earliest episodes were ever recorded.[28] However, the photographer Harry Goodwin (born in Fallowfield, Manchester) took many photographs of stars who performed at Dickenson Road Studios in the 1960s, including shots of James Brown and Stevie Wonder.[29][30] Goodwin's weekly fee of £30 was considered very low; Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones advised him to demand more, but as a compromise, Johnnie Stewart gave Goodwin a weekly mention on the programme's closing credits.[31]
Performers and production staff have remarked on the experience of hosting the leading pop celebrities of the day at such an unglamorous location as a former church in the North. The then production secretary of Top of the Pops, Frances Line, recalled the unusual sight of television cameras moving up and down the interior of an old church. Performers on the show often had to make a long journey from London by British Rail, but as the programme gained viewers, BBC budgets extended to flying the stars from Heathrow Airport. At the end of the live broadcast, performers would then take taxis to catch the evening flight back to London. Ground staff at Manchester Airport grew accustomed to dealing with pop stars checking in late.[32]
Bobby Elliott, drummer with the Hollies, remembered that he travelled north with his group in a van. His impression of Dickenson Road Studios was: "Quite cosy. Great little canteen with friendly ladies who served tea in proper cups on saucers." The crowded canteen was usually packed with stars, which sometimes resulted in conflict. After a dinner lady asked for autographs from members of the Swinging Blue Jeans, the band became embroiled in a fist-fight over a biro with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.[33]
A plaque on a house wall marks the former site of Dickenson Road Studios
The studios remained the home of Top of the Pops until 1966, when the show moved to a larger facility at Lime Grove Studios in London. These studios gave Johnnie Stewart more flexibility in the way the show was presented, with larger sets and the ability to attract a more trendy "Swinging London" studio audience. The first broadcast of Top of the Pops from Lime Grove went out on 20 January 1966.[34][35][36]
Eventually the BBC's operations at Dickenson Road were transferred to the BBC's new building at New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road. The Dickenson Road building was demolished in 1975.[37] Today the site is occupied by houses, to one of which a plaque that commemorates the history of Dickenson Road Studios is affixed.[3]
Notes
^After later intervention by the Musicians' Union, songs were either performed live accompanied by an orchestra or to a specially recorded backing track.
^Reade, Lindsay (15 August 2016). "3. The Hippies' Revenge?". Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony and Lindsay Wilson. Plexus Publishing. ISBN978-0-85965-875-1. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
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