Bray Studios is a film and television facility at Bray, near Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. It is best known for its association with Hammer Film Productions and contains four stages, plus offices and workshops. Hammer originally leased country houses in which to shoot films, until the company eventually purchased Down Place in 1951 on the banks of the Thames near Bray. After using every room and angle in its films, in 1952 it built soundstages in the grounds and named the complex Bray Studios after the nearby town. In 1958, Hammer followed the success of its The Curse of Frankenstein from the previous year with Dracula, directed by Terence Fisher. Fisher's production featured Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. It was an international hit for Hammer Films, and Lee fixed the image of the fanged vampire in popular culture. The last Hammer production made at Bray was The Mummy's Shroud, which wrapped on 21 October 1966. Hammer sold the studio in November 1970. The model and miniature filming for the film Alien and the TV seriesSpace 1999 were shot here, as well as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Bray Studios continued to host television, film work and band rehearsals until around 2012. The site of Bray Studios was due to undergo a programme of redevelopment into a residential area under the current owner of the studio, who claimed for several years that there was no call for the studio any more, despite having refused a number of applications by productions to use the facilities. Following several planning applications, work began in late 2017 to demolish unsafe buildings within the complex. The studio continues to be used for filming today. Dracula, a television adaptation by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, based on the novel by Bram Stoker for broadcast and release on BBC One and Netflix at Christmas 2019. The three part series was filmed at the studios in 2019. Mark Gatiss told the BBC: "It's seriously delightful that our new Dracula is being shot at Bray Studios - the former home of Hammer Films!"
