Filming at County Hall earned Hertfordshire County Council around £312,000 last year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service can reveal.
Productions featuring stars such as Tom Holland, Joan Collins, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Gillian Anderson were filmed at the venue in 2025.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is believed to have used County Hall for filming in June, July, October and November, paying £82,950 to do so.
The fourth film in the latest Spider-Man series, starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink and Mark Ruffalo, is set to be released in July.
Filming for the production, organised by Man Productions Ltd, took place in Basingstoke in September last year – and the same company was twice granted permission to film at County Hall.
Another upcoming film to have taken advantage of the Grade II* listed County Hall is The Bitter End, a biographical drama about Wallis Simpson, the divorceé wife of Edward VIII.
The production, which used County Hall at a cost of £30,450 in May and June, will star Joan Collins, Isabelle Rossellini, Miranda Richardson and Charles Dance.
The Julia Set, a yet-to-be-released coming-of-age film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Issacs, filmed at County Hall in October and November last year, costing £45,500.
A further feature film, referred to only as ‘RHD’, used County Hall between February and April at a cost of £77,700. RHD UK Productions Ltd is an Amazon-owned production company.
Television shows to have used County Hall for filming in 2025 include Red Eye’s second series, which premiered on ITV in January, and Secret Service, an ITV Studios adaptation of Tom Bradby’s novel that is set to be broadcast later this month.
The county council also earned £61,4250 from filming for The Price You Pay at Leahoe in Hertford, with the upcoming Amazon Prime adaptation of Nick Harkaway’s novel The Price You Pay using the site in May and June.
Heath House in Bushey was used in June for Make That Movie, a scripted Channel 4 comedy series created by Australian comedian Sam Campbell, who won Taskmaster in 2023. Big Hiss Ltd paid £12,250 to film the site, part of the county council’s total income of £430,000 from filming in 2025.
Hertfordshire County Council initially declined to provide information about the names of productions filmed at County Hall, but reconsidered after an appeal from the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The council’s 2025 filming income represents a significant rise from previous years, which saw the authority bring in £54,000 in 2023 and £170,000 in 2024.
Last year, the council agreed plans to sell County Hall, valued at £50 million, for alternative uses, after two years marketing it as an employment site failed to attract a buyer.
Council staff were moved to new offices in Stevenage in 2023 and council meetings followed last year.
The council found that continuing to own County Hall would cost the authority around £2.4 million a year in running costs, including bills, business rates and insurance, and repairs and maintenance.
Ahead of the decision to sell County Hall, officers found that retaining the building’s frontage would alone cost around £10 million.
A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said that income from filming varied each year and helped “offset some costs” of running County Hall, but added: “There are significantly higher overall costs associated with maintaining County Hall, reflecting the age, size and listed nature of the building.”
“We welcome filming requests and are pleased that County Hall’s historic and architectural character continues to attract productions, supporting the growth of Hertfordshire’s film industry,” the spokesperson said.
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