Broadcasting House, Salford Quays & TVC

East Tower still clings on for now though! I wonder when that will be brought down, I thought it would have been one of the first to go.

I believe that's where Stanhope have moved in and set up their offices whilst work goes on elsewhere, the MSCP is still standing too.

The listed status only applied to the doughnut, the circular block around the Helios statue, the statue itself and courtyard, plus the main facade of studio TC 1. Which is essentially all that they're retaining. BBC Worldwide has moved into Stage VI (the old news centre) which is where that photo was taken from. That'll be the only other bit that'll remain.

Newbie-ish question: Why were some listed as studios while others are stages? Were some larger areas broken down to different smaller areas?

Stages refer to phases of the building being constructed. Stages 1-3 were the main doughnut, 4-6 were the spur that completed the question mark bit.

Yes, it is a confusing term given that often at the moment film stages are being used as television studios (Strictly is currently coming from a film stage at Elstree for example).

Stage I - Scenery Block
Stage II - Restaurant Block
Stage III - The main 'doughnut' and Studios TC1-TC7
Stage IV - aka 'The Spur, includig TC8 and the original news studios N1 and N2
Stage V - Post Production
Stage VI - the 'new' news centre and new reception

There's a huge amount of information and photos on Martin Kempton's excellent website:
http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/tv%20centre%20history.htm

And N3.

N1 and N2 were re-named TC10 and TC11, but N3 was not retained as a studio when Resources took over the former-News studios when News moved into the News Centre (aka Stage VI)


Though Stage V also included N9 (original News 24 studio for a year and then BBC World's home until they moved into N8 in Stage VI) and N6's studio floor (though the gallery was in Stage VI) and a lot of other News operation stuff like MFA, production offices. I'm not sure Post ever occupied the whole of Stage V (as I think was originally intended).

So in simplest terms the BBC took some of the larger sound stages and dividing them up to smaller studios.


Thanks I'll check it out in a few.

edit : reading the webpage and just saw that stages referred to the different areas as they were constructed.

There was no soundstages, 'stage' refers to when the specific part of the building was created.

Every morning at 07:15 Carol Kirkwood presents a weather forecast on Chris Evans' Radio 2 show, and normally engages in a bit of banter. Of course moments later she is on TV presenting the weather on BBC Breakfast.

The audio quality is usually awful, sounds like a poor ISDN line, this morning it was via a phone line.

I don't understand. OK, she's in NBH, Evans is nearby in Western House, but don't the Beeb have some
sort of MADI (or similar) ring between buildings in the W1 'campus' ?

Carol doesn't leave NBH and go into the studio with Chris. You need to watch this video. http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34017354

No - there were never any sound stages at TVC.


It was purpose built as a TV studio complex with saturated studio lighting grids and TV flat floors in the studios, designed for TV-style production rather than film. All studios were acoustically treated for sound production (apart from the late-90s/early-00s "News studios in offices")

The stages simply refer to the stages, or phases, of the construction of the site.

The BBC had film sound stages (often referred to as film studios in the UK) in Ealing, on a different site.

From memory the only studio the BBC occasionally split into two was TC5 when it was BBC Sport's bought-out studio - which had two galleries (aka control rooms) - and at some points two studios, or a set designed with two independent areas. (The two galleries were both often used without studios to allow OB-based shows to have graphics and replays added, and to mix between multilateral and unilateral coverage)