Property developer Allied London is to overhaul the former Granada TV studios in Manchester so they can once again be used for making multi-camera entertainment shows.

With The London Studios set to close in 2018, leaving the UK with a shortage of suitable space for shiny fl oor shows, the Quay Street studios will be revamped and marketed as ALL Studios, bringing Studio 12 (7,922 sq ft), Studio 8 (5,447 sq ft), Studio 6 (4,456 sq ft) and Studio 2 (1,625 sq ft) onto the open market.

All four studios still have resin floors, lighting rigs and gantries and the ALL Studios team is planning to invest in production galleries so they can host live and pre-recorded shows.

The studios will be available for multi-camera entertainment shows, complete with wet hire facilities, from the third quarter of 2018.

Founder and former managing director of Wimbledon Film & TV Studios Piers Read has joined Allied London to head up ALL Studios.

He said: “The reason we are bringing the Old Granada Studios back to their original purpose and design is simply market led.

“Demand for studio space in the UK is at an all-time high.”

Read confirmed that the studios themselves remain in good condition.

“The quality and design of the studios is simply outstanding.

“They are as good now as the day they were built, akin to the set-up at London Studios, which is hardly surprising considering they were built by ITV to produce lightentertainment shows,” he said.

First used to broadcast TV shows in 1956, the studios, and the Quay Street site, were home to ITV until June 2013, when the broadcaster moved to MediaCityUK in Salford Quays and Trafford Quays, and relocated its studio work to Dock 10.

The studios were previously available to external clients through ITV and BBC joint venture 3Sixtymedia.

Rebadged as the Old Granada Studios, the central Manchester site is currently used for concerts, exhibitions and other cultural events, as well as a space for singlecamera TV productions, including BBC1’s 2016 Brontë sisters drama To Walk Invisible.

Allied London, working with Manchester City Council, bought the 13.5 acre Granada plot in 2013 for a reported fee of £26.5m.

As well as bringing the studios back online, the development, known as the St. John’s neighbourhood, will include the Enterprise City business district and housing.

Allied London chief executive Michael Ingall said: “Our acquisition of the former ITV studios has coincided with an unprecedented disruption in the TV and film industry, giving birth to a greater demand for smaller, independent single- and multicamera studios.