A wartime aerodrome
De Havilland and the Air Ministry created Leavesden Aerodrome in 1940, near Watford in Hertfordshire, and it became a major site of aircraft production during the Second World War. Rolls-Royce was among its later owners, and by the early 1990s the site was disused.
A film studio
In 1994 the makers of GoldenEye converted the hangars into film stages. Heyday Films leased the studio in 1999 for the Harry Potter films, and by November 2010 Warner Bros. had bought it, investing more than £100 million and building two new soundstages, J and K, for the Studio Tour.
Opening the doors
The Studio Tour opened to the public on 31 March 2012, and Prince William and Catherine opened it formally on 26 April 2013. It now covers about 14,000 square metres, and it has grown with Platform 9¾ in 2015, the Forbidden Forest in 2017 and Gringotts Wizarding Bank in 2019.



