Located at the Leavesden Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, England, forty minutes north of London, this enormous complex—in which British Mosquito fighter-bombers and Halifax bombers were built and test-flown during World War II—replaced Pinewood Studios as 007 headquarters for the filming of GoldenEye. At the time, Pinewood was overbooked with the production of the films Mary Reilly (with Julia Roberts) and First Knight (in which Sean Connery costars as King Arthur), so the producers relocated to the Rolls-Royce facility, which was considered the largest covered factory area in the world, featuring 1.2 million square feet of space.

Converted into five soundstages and combined with exterior sets and a deserted Royal Air Force military airfield, that makes for 290 acres of studio space—about three times as big as Pinewood. Six hundred crew members were reported to be working on GoldenEye during its construction phase. The Leavesden studios were later the home of the Harry Potter film series, after which Warner Bros. purchased the property.

Because of its early association with GoldenEye, the facility was briefly given the informal nickname of “Cubbywood,” after Bond producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli.