Filming at QEII Centre

A location as well as a conference venue

Unlike the large exhibition halls elsewhere in London, the QEII Centre actively markets itself as a filming location. Its own article cites the BBC series The Capture and the political thriller Roadkill among past productions, and it lists filming alongside conferences, AGMs, exhibitions and award ceremonies as a use of the building.

That gives you two quite different starting points. If you are hiring space to film, you deal with the venue's location partner. If you are recording someone else's conference, you will be working as a guest of the hirer, and the organiser's own arrangements apply, so ask them for their rules before anything else.

Who to contact for a stand-alone shoot

The centre has an exclusive agreement with Location Collective, which handles enquiries by type of production: commercials, stills and unscripted TV go to one contact, and feature film and scripted TV to another. Its listing shows a turnaround of five working days and says weekday filming is possible, depending on the areas in use.

Bring your dates and a shortlist of rooms to that first conversation, because availability depends on what else is in the building. The venue says it hosts more than 400 events a year.

Rooms worth knowing about

The venue says it has 32 rooms, from about 40 sqm to 1,375 sqm, and its blank-canvas spaces can be adapted for modern or period sets. Smaller rooms have been suggested for interrogation scenes and promotional shoots, which translates well to corporate interviews and podcast sets.

• The third floor offers 2,142 sqm of flexible, self-contained space with moveable walls.
• The third and fifth floors offer the most exhibition space and can be combined into shell schemes or table-top modules.
• The largest suites hold up to 1,300 people, and the centre holds up to 2,500 across event types.
• The sixth floor has views of Westminster and Big Ben, and the building also has a lawn and a large reception area.

Technical support, power and parking

QEII Live, the in-house audiovisual team, can supply sound, lighting, studio cameras and camera platforms, and the venue can help with bandwidth and IPTV. QEII Taste can cater for crew. The exhibition pages promise ample mains power sockets but publish no load figures, so send your power requirement to the venue or your event's organiser in advance if you are running a lit set.

Tech parking is offered subject to availability, so a space should not be assumed. Loading and vehicle access are not set out on the public pages; the venue's downloadable Organisers Pack and floor plan are the next place to look, and an event's exhibitor manual will cover its own arrangements.

Who uses the building

This is mainly a conference venue rather than a home for long-running trade fairs. The clients it names include the Royal Navy, NATO, the Conservative Party and One Young World. Meetings of that kind may involve extra sensitivities around who appears on camera, so agree what can be recorded and any approval process with your host before the day.

Practical tips

The site is at Broad Sanctuary, opposite Westminster Abbey, with Victoria, Charing Cross and Waterloo all within a 15-minute walk. With parking unguaranteed in central Westminster, a small crew arriving on foot may be the simpler option for interviews.

Fame Crew can source a local videographer or photographer for a day here. Tell us the room, whether you need QEII Live's kit or a self-contained setup, and who has signed off filming, so the crew arrives with the right equipment.