Elstree, the British Hollywood

London: Elm Tree Books, 1983. Not Indicated . Hardcover. Fine/Fine. b/w Photos. First edition. Historically, the name "Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Despite being called "Elstree Studios" only one studio was actually located in Elstree itself, the remainder being in Borehamwood. There are a number of reasons for this: When the studios were being established, Elstree was significantly larger than Borehamwood. It must therefore have seemed sensible for anything that needed the name of the town in its name to be named after Elstree rather than Borehamwood. Nowadays, Borehamwood is the larger, but the old names have stuck. The fact that the parish that contains the town is also called "Elstree" may have had some influence on the choice of name. When the studios were at their most prolific, the local railway station was called just "Elstree". (Nowadays, it is called "Elstree and Borehamwood".) Furthermore, the local telephone exchange was also called just "Elstree". Before the advent of subscriber trunk dialling, a person wanting to make a call to a studio would ask the operator for, for example, "Elstree 1234". It would therefore be natural for anyone visiting the town to make a film to think that the whole town was called Elstree.