It was back in April 2017 that I was first made aware of the £250 million Pentland studio development just outside of Edinburgh when various local papers announced it had been green lit. Although this turned out to be something of an exaggeration or at least over optimistic, there was a sense of movement. It was maybe a month later when the Guardhouse studio was announced, to be built on the old research park of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. To add to the drama a letter was published by Alison Piper (AD T2 Trainspotting & Sunshine Over Leith) critical of the Pentland plans and the presumed timetable. At that time the Scottish Government had gave notice of an intention to accept planning permission in principle which would then allow the developers to negotiate with the current land owner properly and submit detailed plans. However the PPP hadn’t actually been approved.
Finally, in December, the PPP was approved for the developers PSL Land Ltd and things started moving again. This announcement came nearly six months after Guardhouse announced preparing to submit their plans for the site on the other side of Edinburgh. There was mention of the Guardhouse plans at a university annual conference and Guardhouse told the media that work should commence once the sister site in Northern Italy was completed. The expectation for Guardhouse was to begin work in 2019. So the question is, where are these two projects now?
There is extremely little information to be found about Guardhouse and no reliable methods of contact could be found at the time of writing. Whether the Italian sister site is underway or not is unclear, there are two social media feeds one an inactive Facebook account the other an Instagram account of the supposed studio exec who posts nothing much but pictures of her wine glasses under Tuscan skies. This doesn’t fill me with confidence. PSL Land Ltd and the Pentland studio project is a bit of a different story. Although it may still have its issues.
The Pentland studio has its planning permission in principle and is currently in final stages of organising its financial requirements according to their PR contact. Alison Piper certainly did her homework and her criticisms should probably be taken seriously and considered carefully. Having said that several of her concerns seem to have already been addressed, although I cannot say if all of them have been resolved. As to her question about whether the Scottish film industry should continue supporting the plans I think the answer is probably yes. The project may take longer than the developers first assumed, that’s hardly unusual with these things, they’re expecting to complete phase one Q3 2019 rather than 2018, but alternatives don’t seem to be anywhere. Cardiff is running far ahead even though Edinburgh makes substantially more sense for the industry with two rail links to London and it’s own international airport and a finance sector in existence. Oh and the highlands etc in easy reach of what is an incredibly beautiful city.
Edinburgh has had a few film productions take place recently with the largest being Avengers: Infinity War. This is a city screaming to be a film production hot spot and the most substantial reason it isn’t is infrastructure. Glasgow has some offerings in the way of infrastructure but most of it is television oriented and the geography of the Clyde area makes substantial studio facilities more difficult to implement. Edinburgh has far more space to grow into without too much physical difficulty. All in all this is an interesting time for film in Scotland and Edinburgh in particular and I will certainly be keeping an eye on what is happening and telling you about it.
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