Gainsborough Pictures, British film production company based at the Islington Studios in north London, famed for its costume dramas. Gainsborough was founded by the producer Michael Balcon and the director Graham Cutts in 1924, who bought the lease of the Islington property from the Famous Players-Lasky studio. Among the staff already working there was Alfred Hitchcock, whose earliest films as director were made for Gainsborough. During the 1920s Balcon and Cutts pursued a policy of making high-quality films with international appeal, often drawing on the expertise of Ufa Studios in Berlin, with whom Gainsborough had a co-production agreement.

In 1928 Gainsborough was absorbed into the growing Gaumont-British conglomerate. Balcon became production head both at Islington and at Gaumont’s larger studio at Shepherd’s Bush. Gainsborough retained its separate identity, but was largely relegated to lower-budget productions such as the series of comedies starring Jack Hulbert and film versions of the Aldwych farces of Ben Travers. When Gaumont hit financial trouble in 1936 Balcon left. Shepherd’s Bush was closed and production was concentrated at Islington under the direction of Ted Black and Maurice Ostrer. Despite cutbacks, the programme included one of Hitchcock’s finest British films, The Lady Vanishes (1938).

At the outbreak of war in 1939 the Gainsborough team temporarily relocated to Shepherd’s Bush, since Islington was considered more vulnerable to bombing. In 1941 Gaumont, and Gainsborough along with it, began to be amalgamated into the Rank Organisation. It was during the war that Gainsborough embarked on the series of costume melodramas for which it is now best remembered, starting with The Man in Grey (1943, directed by Leslie Arliss). These “bodice-rippers”, often starring such up-and-coming actors as James Mason, Stewart Granger, Phyllis Calvert, and Margaret Lockwood, boasted extravagant plots, low-cut dresses, and a high level of eroticism. They were despised by the critics but hugely popular at the box office. In the late 1940s Rank began a process of retrenchment: in 1950 the Islington Studios were closed, and the Gainsborough logo vanished for ever.

For a time the Islington Studios served as a warehouse but the building subsequently fell into disrepair. Later, it was used sporadically for film shoots, fashion shows, exhibitions, music performances, and most notably a Shakespeare repertory season by the Almeida Theatre in 2000 starring Ralph Fiennes. Over the years, various redevelopment projects had been proposed but not realized until work finally began in 2001 on a scheme to convert the site into luxury flats and offices, though retaining the building’s main studio for film use.