The Underwater Stage
Pinewood Studios

Diving Services UK and the Underwater Stage at Pinewood Studios is a world class facility at the heart of the UK media industry.

The world’s first permanently filled, temperature-controlled, studio-based underwater stage.

Designed by Dave Shaw. Managed by Diving Services UK. Trusted by the world’s biggest productions for over 20 years.

Designed over a five-year period by Dave Shaw and opened in 2004, the Underwater Stage at Pinewood Studios is a permanently filled studio facility purpose-built for underwater filming. It has been the home of Diving Services UK for over 20 years, and in that time has hosted thousands of underwater sequences for feature films, television series, commercials, music videos and stills shoots. It remains the only facility of its kind; a clean, warm, fully serviced underwater stage at Pinewood Studios, with everything a production needs already on site — a permanently filled facility that removes the need to build a tank, fill and heat, and drain and strike.

Stage specifications

  • Permanently filled
  • Pool dimensions: 20m (60ft) long × 10m (30ft) wide × 6m (20ft) deep
  • Volume: 1,200,000 litres
  • Water temperature: held constant at 32°C (90°F) for cast and crew comfort
  • Filtration: UV-treated, crystal-clear water for clean photography
  • Viewing windows: three large windows on the ground floor
  • Underwater fixings: 60 × scaffold fixing points built into the pool walls
  • Floor anchors: two structural steels in the pool floor for scissor lifts and gimbal mounts
  • Two-floor design: ground-floor production support spaces and pool-level access to the pool, a lighting gantry and changing-room facilities

Pool level

Pool level is reached via two staircases or a vehicle ramp with a 7,500 kg Safe Working Load — enough to drive set, props and large rigs straight in.

  • First aid room with patient bed, fixed and portable oxygen sets and an AED
  • Male and female changing rooms with four showers
  • Dive station with underwater tools including underwater drills and angle grinders
  • Diving equipment storage
  • Access steps into the pool
  • Silent High Pressure (HP) diving cylinder charging panel
  • HR12 cherry picker for safely working over water
  • Rigging gantry with 10 × 12m, 500kg chain blocks
  • Three large roller-shutter doors (6m high × 5m wide) for set and equipment access

Ground floor

  • Reception
  • Electrical intake room (400 amp per phase)
  • Disabled toilet
  • Welfare and seating area
  • Kitchen
  • Make-up room
  • Production office
  • Underwater Stage office
  • Workshop
  • Diving store and compressor room
  • Diving and marine equipment storage
  • Three viewing windows

What’s included

  • The team that designed the Underwater Stage, Diving Services UK
  • All necessary experience under one roof
  • HSE qualified divers and supervisors
  • Full diving coordination service
  • Immediate access to equipment hire stock
  • Portable tanks
  • Water heating and filtration systems
  • SFX water rigging

A selection of productions filmed on the Underwater Stage

Whatever the size of your production we’d love to hear from you

Start an enquiry
+44 (0)1753 785401
info@divingservicesuk.com