Holby City

BOREHAMWOOD, HERTFORDSHIRE
PHOTOGRAPHED IN 2022

The Wyvern Wing of Holby City Hospital’s ‘Lenton Road Site’ was filmed at the BBC Elstree Centre’s Neptune House since 1999, until production ceased at the end of 2021.

Eagle-eyed and perhaps older viewers might also recognise Neptune House from past appearances in Emergency Ward 10 (1957-1967) as ‘Oxbridge General Hospital’; its colour successor, General Hospital (1972-1979); and as the entrance to the secret ‘Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation (SHADO)’ in UFO during the early 1970s. The building’s corridors also doubled as Grange Hill School until Grange Hill‘s move to Liverpool.

Neptune House was built in 1961, shortly after Associated Television (ATV) acquired the pre-World War I studio complex in 1958. The studios were subsequently taken over by the BBC in 1984 (who bought the site in 1983) as the production and filming location for EastEnders.

^{Neptune House (the tall office block) ©ATV Network Limited/ATV Today UK}

In the programme, the building contained the surgical wards of the hospital, including the original Darwin Ward and its operating theatres (pictured in the below gallery), Keller Ward, the Acute Assessment Unit and upper floor offices, and the Admissions ward (also pictured in the gallery).

The ground floor of the building’s most northerly wing housed the Admissions ward set and was actually a named studio – Studio G – a former rehearsal room which was home to the BBC’s Newsroom South East from 1989 until 2001. Studio M, located approximately 120 metres away, was also used for Holby City.

^{Newsroom South East set and newsroom in Studio G ©BBC}

After Holby City ended in December 2021, the BBC moved props to its other medical productions (Casualty and Doctors), donated hospital beds and suitable medical equipment to the NHS and an animal hospital, and gave blankets and clothing to charity. By June 2022, the Holby sets had been largely dismantled.

Despite this, many of the filming areas continued to be dressed and used for other BBC programmes including EastEnders (as ‘The Walford Sexual Health & Wellbeing Centre’) and Silent Witness (as ‘Royal Byfield Hospital’).

^{_{A corridor as Holby City Hospital (left) & The Walford Sexual Health & Wellbeing Centre (right – ©BBC)}}

^{The building’s exterior, shown on-screen in Silent Witness series 26 ©BBC}

By September 2022, Neptune House was no longer being used for filming, although BBC Studios (namely EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing production teams) and BBC Studioworks (the BBC’s studio facilities and post-production arm) remained in the building until 2024. By early 2025, the building was fully vacant; pending demolition.

^{EastEnders post-production (edit suites) on the second floor of Neptune House}

In July 2025, film and TV production company Century 21 Films and oral history project The Elstree Project photographed Neptune House as part of its efforts to document the wider BBC Elstree Centre before it is demolished in 2026.

^{©The Elstree Project. Look closely and you can see the remnants of Holby}

Before all this, I’d managed to photograph parts of Holby City Hospital while still intact. The operating theatres pictured are the Darwin Theatre – located on the sixth floor (both in the programme and in real life) and mapped out below:

Gallery