Spider-Man helps council earn £312,000

Filming for movies such as Spider-Man at a Grade II listed building earned Hertfordshire County Council about £312,000 last year.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is believed to have paid £89,950 to use the Hertford County Hall for filming between June and November.

Tom Holland and Zendaya return for the fourth film of the current series, which is due to be released in July, alongside Stranger Things' Sadie Sink and Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo.

Other productions featuring stars such as Joan Collins, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Gillian Anderson were also filmed at the venue in 2025.

Another film to have used the venue was The Bitter End — a biographical drama about Wallis Simpson, the divorcee who married Edward VIII after he abdicated.

Starring Joan Collins, the production used County Hall at a cost of £30,450 in May and June, although the actual divorce proceedings took place in County Hall in Ipswich.

The Julia Set, a yet-to-be-released coming-of-age film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, was filmed at Hertford County Hall in October and November, costing £45,500.

Television productions also used the site in 2025, such as the second series of ITV's Red Eye which was broadcast in January.

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.

Council staff moved into new offices in 2023, and the authority approved plans to sell County Hall last year.

A spokesperson said that income from filming helped "offset some costs" of running the building, which were about £2.4m a year.

They added: "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."

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