Twickenham Film Studios is being sold one year before its centenary.

A current freelance worker at the studios, where films including Alfie and the Italian Job were produced, said staff had to leave the premises by July.

Future projects already booked there will be moved to other venues, such as Pinewood Studios.

The source, who asked to remain anonymous, said selling the studios to property developers was the “easiest option” for the current owners.

Begbies Traynor, the UK’s leading business rescue, recovery and restructuring specialist, is dealing with the sale.

Gerald Krasner, a partner at the firm, confirmed the sale.

Twickenham Studios was built on the site of a former ice-rink in The Barons, St Margarets, in 1913, by Dr Ralph Jupp and was the largest studio in the UK at the time.

In 1929, the studio was renamed Twickenham Film Studios, following the new ownership under Julius Hagen and Leslie Hiscott.

In 1935, a fire destroyed the studio building, taking with it the entire contents of the camera and sound departments and claiming 15 years of work by the studio’s stills photographer, Cyril Stanborough. Further destruction was caused by a bomb blast in 1939.

During the 70s and 80s, Twickenham Studios continued to do well so it was decided to expand the facilities.

The success has grown over the past few decades, with a new sound centre opening in 1980. More recently the studio has been involved in projects such as Shanghai, Sleuth and Elizabeth the Golden Age.

The old viewing theatre and wardrobe department was also used for recent film, My Week with Marilyn, based on diary entries of Colin Clark, who worked as an assistant director on the Prince and the Showgirl – where he met Marilyn Monroe.

Parts of the film were shot in Twickenham Studios in October of last year, as part of the two-month filming schedule, to recreate the original setting of the film at Pinewood Studios in 1956, where the Prince and the Showgirl was predominantly filmed.

Director Simon Curtis said: “I love Twickenham Studios. We loved the wardrobe and corridor outside the wardrobe at Twickenham and this is where Emma Watson filmed some scenes for the film.”