Ex-bingo hall to become immersive film experience

A lease has been secured to transform a vacant bingo hall into an "immersive experience" where visitors can become a film crew.

The contract is for a 23,000-square-foot space in The Point on Borehamwood High Street in Hertfordshire, close to the famous Elstree Studios.

The Elstree Immersive Experience project is funded by Hertsmere Council with £2m from the Community Infrastructure Levy and £1.3m in external investment.

According to the council, the venue will be "dedicated to an ever-changing range of hands-on, multi-sensory experiences carefully designed to have broad appeal to every demographic".

Managing director Adam Morley described the venue as a "playground for content creation for all the family".

He said visitors would be able to select a film or television genre and direct, star in, or crew their own production before attending an on-site film premiere.

The venue will also house an animation zone where visitors can interact with holographic characters.

Morley said the experience would include an archive reflecting on a century of local film-making, celebrating the studio's involvement with titles such as Star Wars, EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing.

He added: "How do we regenerate High Streets? How do we get footfall back in? Well, this is one of the ways of doing that."

"How many vape shops and barbers have you got, when actually we could bring something like this to every High Street in the UK to tell the story of that location?"

The attraction is scheduled to open in spring 2027.

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