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Broadcasting House, Salford Quays & TVC

(September 2010)

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BA
Bail Moderator
I love the red colour they've done on the front, much nicer than the blue it had. Based presumably on this artists impression of the centre before it was built:
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/corporate2/images/width/live/p0/27/v8/p027v80y.jpg/624

I'm not so keen, it's not what's ever been before, and considering that was one of the bits that was "listed" it seems wrong to totally replace it and change the colour. It's like taking down the John Piper mural, reusing the tiles but putting them back in a different order. It's not the same thing if you change it.

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IS
Inspector Sands
The thing about the blue is that it was very much the standard colour for cladding, it's on a lot of buildings from around that time. It also looks faded and a bit grubby in my opinion. The red just looks so much more vibrant (though whether it will fade we will see)
TR
TROGGLES
Considering the listing its amazing how much they have been able to get away with.
BL
bluecortina
Considering the listing its amazing how much they have been able to get away with.


They can always cover it up with some sticky backed plastic if they get fed up with the colour.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Has anybody got a link to that original 60s artist's impression of TV Centre, the one with the Bat Wings logo on the roof? I can't find it but I seem to recall there was a lot of red in that.

9 days later

SP
Steve in Pudsey
Broadcast is reporting that ITV plans to close The London Studios - it's paywalled so I can't get anything beyond the headline.

Anybody able to summarise?
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
Broadcast is reporting that ITV plans to close The London Studios - it's paywalled so I can't get anything beyond the headline.

Anybody able to summarise?

See: http://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/itv-refurb-extend-south-bank-42462/
JB
James Bryan
I happened to be in London with the kids today so thought I would take a trip to Wood Lane station to have a look. Once we got off and had a look round I was surprised at how sad/frustrated it was to see the building in its current state. It just hit home how much is now lost. How such a large plot in London can be sold for £200m is astonishing, it's such a bad deal but overwhelmingly the sadness of knowing those studios are gone and what's left will be mearly rented to the BBC as a side project of the development, almost as an inconvenience. Not to mention the pure stupidity of occupying just a small part of a grand building that was once all yours for no monetary gain whatsoever.

I know there is some argument that it was in a poor state but it still doesn't add up to me and I just wish I had visited it more when I could have.
TROGGLES and Custard56 gave kudos
IS
Ipswich Simon
Considering the whole point of Television Centre was to have everything under one roof, production offices for news, sport, children's, comedy, drama etc, and set building and storage and 8 studios, that actually didn't happen until the 1990s after Lime Grove was closed. Only stayed like that for about 20 years before the BBC decided to move children's and sport up north to Manchester; news to a £1 billion development in central London. Now they could have spent some of that money on Television Centre, closed say half and refurbished it, then done the other half. Replace the East Tower with a new tower.

I mean residents are not going to put up with audiences leaving the studios around 10:30 in the evening; sets being removed during the night, I assume there will be no storage on site for sets so that means trucks driving in at all hours. Not a very good idea considering that television is basically a 24/7 operation.
DE
deejay
I believe the agreed curfew is 2300 with exceptions granted occasionally (presumably for something like Children in Need?). AIUI sets are likely to be left standing overnight then struck next day, thus reducing turnaround time considerably - previously studios were struck and reset overnight ready for the next booking. I've also heard rumour that as TC2 won't initially have a gallery, it may well become something of a scene dock storage space.

The main studios were anything but run down by the end. Most were well specced, modern and routinely in use. The office accommodation admittedly wasn't fashionable in design. Most places are hotdesk, open spaces. TC had separate offices off its circular corridors, and peripheral offices in add on buildings perched along roofs. Many were empty by the end. And as has been mentioned a lot on here, where once separate functions within television production once required specialist staff and mechanical machinery, now almost all of it can be done within computers, so machine rooms have really just become data centres.

TC's offices definitely needed refreshing, main block had no aircon, windows were single glazed, etc. The scenery block had historic but outdated (and disused) areas like the paint frame which simply weren't needed any more. Following the departure to Salford of Children's and Sport, there was plenty of space.

There's little point going on about what could have been. It is what it is now. That's sad but let's hope that with TLS and Fountain closing, the centre rises again. I think they should certainly bring forward the full fit out of all three remaining studios.
IS
Inspector Sands
I happened to be in London with the kids today so thought I would take a trip to Wood Lane station to have a look. Once we got off and had a look round I was surprised at how sad/frustrated it was to see the building in its current state. It just hit home how much is now lost. How such a large plot in London can be sold for £200m is astonishing, it's such a bad deal

They didn't sell the 'plot', they sold the building. The land is still owned by the BBC and will be worth much more, in fact the reason they didn't sell it was because the market was low at the time.

Whether that's a bad price for the building, I'm not so sure. It's not as if it was usable for another purpose without massive rebuilding.
IS
Inspector Sands
Considering the whole point of Television Centre was to have everything under one roof, production offices for news, sport, children's, comedy, drama etc, and set building and storage and 8 studios, that actually didn't happen until the 1990s after Lime Grove was closed.

It didn't even happen then. Remember that they didn't invent sending departments and having network production in or being transferred to Manchester and Birmingham in the 2000's.

Also in the 90s they built White City. Having everything under one roof never happened


I believe the agreed curfew is 2300 with exceptions granted occasionally (presumably for something like Children in Need?).

In the good old days didn't they have to finish studio records by 2200 because the unions would have turn off the power or need much more money if they ran past that?

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