BBC Television Centre

The **BBC Television Centre** (**BBC TVC**) was the headquarters of BBC Television from 1960-2013. It opened on June 29, 1960, and became one of the most largest, and readily recognisable facilities in the world. It is also known as the second-oldest operational television studio in the UK, after Granada Studios where the BBC's main commericial rival, Granada Television is based for many decades. Most of the BBC's national television and radio news output came from the Television Centre (TVC) with most recorded television output from the nearby Broadcast Centre at 201 Wood Lane, care of Red Bee Media.

It was announced on September 21, 2010 that Television Centre will be closing at 2013 and the BBC will cease broadcasting there. On 13 June 2011 the BBC announced that the Television Centre was on the market, and that it was 'inviting bid proposals from people looking for a conventional, freehold property or those interested in a joint venture', suggesting that it may yet remain connected to the BBC. Radio and TV news departments of the BBC moved to Broadcasting House in central London, the old home of BBC Radio, as part of a reorganisation. On 16 July 2012 it was announced that the complex had been sold to property developers Stanhope plc for around £200 million. BBC News moved to new facilities in Broadcasting House on 18 March 2013, but the building remained in active use with many programmes filming in the studios until it closed officially on 31 March 2013.

## The building

### **Circular shape**:

The building featured a central circular block (officially known as the Main Block, but often referred to by staff as the "doughnut") around which were studios, offices, engineering areas and the News Centre. In the centre of the main block was a statue designed by T.B. Huxley-Jones of Helios, the Greek god of the sun, to symbolise the radiation of television around the world. At the foot of the statue were two reclining figures, symbolising sound and vision, the components of television. It was originally a fountain, but owing to the building's unique shape it was too noisy for the staff in the overlooking offices, and there were problems with water leakage into the videotape area directly beneath. Even though there was a foundation stone marked 'BBC 1956' in the basement of the main building, construction began in 1951. Various extensions have been added.

### **Design:**

The overall design from the air appeared to resemble a question mark in shape. The architect, Graham Dawbarn CBE (Norman & Dawbarn), drew a question mark on an envelope (now held by the BBC Written Archives Centre) while thinking about the design of the building, and realised that it would be an ideal shape for the site. An article in *The BBC Quarterly*, July 1946, proposed a circular design, several years before Dawbarn drew up his plans.

The building was commissioned in 1949 with work starting in 1950. However government restrictions on building, through its loan sanction and licensing of materials, ensured that building was halted until 1953 so the BBC remodelled the former Gaumont Studios at Lime Grove, the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith and in 1953, Shepherd's Bush Empire. Work resumed in 1953 on the TVC scenery block (Stage 1) and work began in 1954 on the canteen block (Stage 2), which doubled as a rehearsal space.

Work on Stage 3, the central circular office block and studios, began in March 1955 on TC4, 5 and 2. The shells of TC1, TC6 and TC7 were constructed around the same time but they were not fitted out until a few years later. BBC Television Centre officially opened with TC3 operational on 29 June 1960.

Arthur Hayes worked on the building from 1956 to 1970 and was responsible for the creation of the iconic 'BBC Television Centre' lettering on the façade of Studio 1. The lettering was later used all over the building, even in tile work outside lift entrances. Demands from Broadcasting House meant that Hayes had less time than he had thought to design a decor for the façade, leading to him puncturing a scale foam model of the wall with drawing pins, and thus the birth of the iconic 'Atomic Dots': there are 26 across the façade of Studio 1, each one backlit and clearly visible at night.

### **Studios:**

The centre's studios were run by BBC Studios and Post Production, a wholly owned commercial subsidiary. The studios were numerous and varying in size. All studios were often abbreviated to initials, such as TC1 (Television Centre 1) for Studio 1.

The studios hosted a wide variety of TV programmes for a range of broadcasters, including Strictly Come Dancing, *Harry Hill's TV Burp*, *Match of the Day*, *Later with Jools*, *Miranda*, *The Alan Titchmarsh Show*, *The Armstrong and Miller Show* and *8 out of 10 Cats*, and big complex live productions such as Children in Need and Comic Relief. Over the years they were home to some of the world's most famous TV programmes including *Fawlty Towers*, *Monty Python's Flying Circus*, *Blue Peter*, *Absolutely Fabulous*, classic Doctor Who and most of the best known BBC drama series. From the 1980s the use of the complex for such productions rapidly declined with the last major drama series to be shot there being *The House of Eliott*, which ended in 1994, and the last single drama recorded was *Henry IV, Part 1*, in 1995. This was because drama production moved almost entirely onto film or single-camera video, and Television Centre was a video-based, multi-camera production environment.

At 7 pm on 22 March 2013, a special edition of *The One Show* was broadcast from the front of Television Centre followed by the building's last live broadcast *Madness Live: Goodbye Television Centre* and special programming to mark the end of the BBC at TVC, with the official last day at the end of that month.

In April 2013 a campaign was started to keep studios TC1 to TC8 open.