Two colossal Grade II* listed sheds on the edge of Bedford have played host to everything from early 20th-century airships to 21st-century Hollywood blockbusters. The Cardington sheds, originally built for military aviation, now serve as one of Britain's most unusual and sought-after film studio locations.
Origins of the Sheds
The story begins in 1915, when Short Brothers constructed the first shed at Cardington for the Royal Airship Works. The site was nationalised in April 1919, becoming the Royal Airship Works, and Shed No. 1 was extended between October 1924 and March 1926 to accommodate larger vessels. A second shed, originally built at RNAS Pulham in Norfolk, was dismantled and re-erected at Cardington in 1928. Together, these vast structures housed the construction of airships including the R31, R32, and most famously the R101, a 777-foot vessel that crashed on 5 October 1930 near Beauvais in France, killing 48 of the 54 people on board. The disaster effectively ended British airship development, but the sheds remained, later serving during the Second World War for barrage balloon production.
From Barrage Balloons to Blockbusters
The transition from aviation to entertainment began gradually. In 1968, scenes for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang were filmed at the sheds, followed in 1971 by the film Zeppelin starring Michael York. Planning permission for theatrical stagings was granted in 1993, and the vast interior spaces attracted music rehearsals by Paul McCartney, U2, the Spice Girls, and Take That. The turning point came in 2012, when Warner Bros. leased Shed 2 for film and television productions, establishing what is now known as Cardington Studios.
A Director's Favourite Backlot
The scale of the sheds proved ideal for large-scale practical effects. Christopher Nolan used Shed 2 for several of his films, including Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The plane scene in The Dark Knight Rises was filmed there during the summer of 2011. Other productions shot at the site include Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), Warner Bros.' Pan (2015), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), Justice League (2017), and Tim Burton's Dumbo (2019), which used Shed 2 in 2017.
The Star Wars Connection
Cardington's link to the Star Wars franchise stretches back to 1977, when Shed 1 was used to represent the Rebel base on Yavin 4 in the original Star Wars: A New Hope. The connection was revived nearly four decades later when Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) returned to Cardington to film its Yavin 4 base scenes at the Bedfordshire airfield.
Looking Ahead
In November 2018, Hangar 1 was sold for £10.5 million to Gallagher Developments, whilst Hangar 2 remains leased to Warner Bros. as Cardington Studios. Much of the wider site has been acquired by Bellway Homes, which is constructing 1,000 new homes. The Airship Heritage Trust has expressed hope that the site might one day host an education centre or even a return of lighter-than-air craft. For now, however, the sheds continue their remarkable second act, bringing global film productions to Bedford.