Location Filming, Photoshoots & Creative Projects
A truly unique space with a wonderful history, the museum is a stunningly beautiful backdrop for any project. It is the perfect type of unexpected, delightful, and atmospheric venue to use in photoshoots and filming in an historically accurate space.
We are experienced in facilitating a range of production types and sizes, including student film projects, fashion and product photoshoots, documentary interviews, and even large scale tv drama productions.
Your hire includes exclusive access to the Museum and Historical Collection for up to x50 people, and 2 Museum staff members who will be on site to assist and facilitate your hire for you.
Read the Film Hire Brochure to learn more about our historic space and what we can offer.
If you are interested in hiring the museum for a private event instead of a creative project, please click here.
Timing and Availability
Film hires must take place outside of the Museum’s normal opening hours, which are currently Thursday to Sunday between 10:30 am – 5:00 pm.
Bookings are available any other day (Monday to Wednesday) between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm (subject to availability).
For additional fees, we will consider hiring the museum outside of these hours, or even consider closing the museum to the public for a few days.
(The length of the hiring will include the time needed for load in, set up, take down, and load out, so please keep this in mind when budgeting your time.)
Film Hire Costs
Due to the unique historic nature of our space, film hire costs vary depending on the size and type of production, and what kinds of accommodations may need to be made. Please contact us with more information about your project and we will get back to you with a quote.
As a registered charity, all proceeds from venue hires make a valuable contribution to our historical and community work and ensure we can keep operating for future generations.
Booking Process
After you have read through the PDF Brochure to ensure we are a suitable venue for what you have in mind, please email [email protected] with the following information:
- Preferred Dates & Times
- Type of Production (Feature Film, TV Drama, Documentary, Photoshoot, Student Project, Charity Project, YouTube Channel, Social Media Content)
- Short Description of the Production Content (how you plan to use the Museum)
- Equipment List (what you plan to bring into the Museum)
- Organisation and Contact Info
Once we have received your booking enquiry, a member of our team will get back to you to provide a quote and to arrange a free visit to the Museum to further discuss your project.
Please note, we are a registered charity, and all of our staff are only part-time, so we are not always available to respond to enquiries immediately, but we will get back to you as soon as we can.
“Freak Films brought a fairly large production to The Old Operating Theatre. Although a challenging venue to film with a large spiral staircase, and temperamental lift, we had absolutely no challenges that we weren’t able to overcome with the assistance of the team at the Old Operating Theatre. Calm, chilled, helpful and generally just a lovely team, made what could have been a nightmare shoot just run so smoothly. The herb garret also made for the most interesting green room for our talent! Sarah, Daniel and the whole team were a pleasure to work with.”
– Cassie, Freak Films
“The Old Operating Theatre was a fantastic venue for our photoshoot. The museum was extremely accommodating, and the combination of natural light and original timber infrastructure provided the perfect atmosphere we wanted to capture. The Herb Garret was particularly wonderful to work in with its colourful rows of glass jars and dried herbs hanging from the ceiling. ”
– Healey, Fightmilk Band
Photography Credit: Carl Farrugia