Argent Related and Barnet Council, the joint venture partnership delivering Brent Cross Town have announced that Troubadour Theatres, the theatre and film studios specialising in temporary performance venues, will open a 150,000 sq ft TV and film studio early next year.

“Troubadour Brent Cross Studios” will feature offices and workshops and will be Troubadour’s largest single studio space in London and the largest tenancy announced so far on the Brent Cross Town development.

Troubadour, which counts the National Theatre, MTV and Netflix among its clients, has secured a three-year lease for the former Toys ‘R’ Us building on Tilling Road, NW2. It will bring a vibrant community of local and international film and media houses, as well as entertainment businesses and professionals to the neighbourhood.

The new Troubadour Brent Cross Studios will feature a Skills Academy that will enable local residents to be trained in the film and television industry. An estimated 150 training sessions are planned in the first three years.

Bringing Troubadour to the old Toys ‘R’ Us building means that it will be refurbished and fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment and recycled materials where possible, with an inventive reuse of the space – such as converting old storerooms into set and costume workshops and prop rooms.

Nick Searl, Partner of Argent Related said: “Creating valuable opportunities so that the neighbourhood can benefit from Brent Cross Town in its early stages is a top priority as we deliver on our pledge of creating a town where all can flourish. Troubadour Theatres is a fantastic addition to the development, bringing with it new job and training opportunities in the dynamic international TV and film sector. Brent Cross Studios will provide a tangible boost to the local economy and will attract world-class TV productions and film houses.”

Councillor Daniel Thomas, Leader of Barnet Council, said: “The opening of the Troubadour Theatres’ Brent Cross Studios next year is another great example of how we are reviving this corner of Barnet and will transform the well-known Toys ‘R’ Us site. The vibrant offer presented by Troubadour will create exciting job and skills development opportunities for local people with a new training academy. It will also join the London North Studio in Mill Hill in supporting a growing sector across the borough by bringing a new network of film, television and other creative businesses and entertainment professionals to the area.”

The space will include the largest single studio space (27,000 sq ft) that Troubadour has created in London to date. The company has two other permanent studios, Troubadour Meridian Water Studios and Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, which has seen theatre productions such as the National Theatre’s War Horse and TV and film productions including Little Mix: The Search for the BBC and The Grinch for NBC.

Brent Cross Town also offers a great strategic location for Troubadour with excellent existing transport networks allowing easy access to central London, with the addition of Brent Cross West which will improve connectivity even more when it opens at the end of next year.

Oliver Royds and Tristan Baker at Troubadour Theatres added: “We are enormously excited about coming to Brent Cross Town and working together with the local council and Argent Related in opening Brent Cross Studios. We strongly believe that this studio will quickly become an integral part of the community in the heart of an area going through regeneration. Our Skills Academy will create an immediate positive and demonstrable local impact and we hope will become a catalyst for employment within the Borough.”

Brent Cross Town is the neighbourhood at the heart of the Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration programme, find out more on our webpages.