After ATV became Central Television in the early 1980s and moved to a new Midlands-based complex, this site was sold to the BBC in 1984.

[1] The BBC Elstree Centre site includes the external set for the long-running soap opera EastEnders[1] and, until December 2021, the medical drama Holby City.

During the 2010s, BBC Studioworks began operating three additional sound stages, newly equipped for television, at the nearby Elstree Studios in Shenley Road.

At the time, this was an innovation, as the majority of early films were shot in large glass-roof studios which relied on natural light.

[2] During 1928, the studios were sold to Ludwig Blattner, who connected them to the electricity mains and introduced a German system of sound recording.

A 7.5 acres (3.0 hectares) site on London's South Bank had been purchased, but completion of a wholly new complex would be some years in the future, while the need for more studio space was urgent.

As a result, the Eldon Avenue centre was re-equipped as an electronic television complex, and most of ATV's live and video-taped shows were made there.

Larger-scale productions, including many drama programmes, continued to be recorded at the Elstree facility for the rest of ATV's existence.

Studio D, with permanent audience seating, was used for light entertainment programmes[5] such as the ATV Morecambe and Wise series (Two of a Kind, 1961–68) and The Muppet Show (1976–81).

For the last 18 months of its use as an ITV production studio, the complex was under the ownership of Central Independent Television; as ATV ceased to exist as a company at the end of 31 December 1981.

When the BBC bought the Elstree site in 1984 to produce its new soap opera EastEnders[1] (first aired on 19 February 1985), it did not purchase the equipment within the building.

[7] Some sources state that, as a consequence, Central TV's studio technicians were instructed to make the equipment left behind inoperable (there are particular claims about the camera prisms being smashed).

The election ‘hub’ in the old galleries of studio C has been moved to BBC New Broadcasting House in central London.

It has featured in several popular television series, including as the school in Grange Hill, and since 1999, as the hospital reception for Holby City.

A purpose-built set was constructed for Grange Hill at the back of the building in 1989, but was dismantled when the series left Elstree in 2002.

Neptune House can be seen in the opening titles of Gerry Anderson's science-fiction series UFO (1970) as Harlington-Straker Film Studios, the (literal) cover for the secret and below-ground headquarters of SHADO.

The hospital 'wards' in Holby City are actually the top floor of Neptune House, fully kitted out, allowing genuine outside views from the windows.

[12] In January 2014, the BBC announced on the EastEnders website that the set has been approved to be expanded by twenty per cent; creating a new permanent front lot, located on the site of the former staff car park.

The original gallery facilities have been converted into a switching and engineering area for BBC News' election broadcasts.