Broadcasting House, Salford Quays & TVC

If the "Media Cafe" is a public area, how exactly do you get to it? When I visited NBH 2 years ago (albeit briefly) I couldn't any entrances or access points for this particular part of the building. I'll bear it in mind next time I go to London.

If you walk further up Portland Place, there is a side entrance with security screening that allows visitors to go into the Media Cafe. This is mainly used for audience members who are attending a show at the Radio Theatre.

I never been but the website said the Media Cafe was open to the public. That to me sounds like it would be a security risk if anyone and anything could walk inside.


On an unrelated note what type of tracking system is used for their green screen studio A?

To get from the Media Cafe to the main BBC building you need a pass.

Having done the London and Salford tours I'm interested in what the issue with that building is though I suspect we won't be told.

I presume the tours are cost neutral?

Do the tours take you directly in contact with some of the open offices / floor plan or is it just conducted in a hallway looking through glass? If it's taking you along the open offices I could then see it being a security issue with people being in direct contact with those working at desks. I imagine it can also be a bit distracting with people frequently coming by and gawking at you.

I think they pretty much made the reasons clear. I mean, if someone feels the BBC is a legitimate target, what better way to find its workings by taking a building tour.

I think it's a legitimate target given the prestige of the BBC among worldwide broadcasters. One terrorist could easily knock out multiple services if they were serious enough.

On the NBH tour you don't go down to the floors of the studios or open plan working area. To be honest, you don't see much more of the open plan offices than you do on the top of the hour shot on the News channel.

The tour is restricted to a relatively small area near reception and you don't gain much more of the layout of the building than you would from passing by on the street.

I can understand that tours can present a security risk but this is a building that has literally hundreds of visitors a week and has large volumes of members of the public attending recordings in the Radio Theatre.

What I'm not understanding is why the tour is stopping in London but not at the BBC's other centres. As has been pointed out the access at BH is limited and much of it can be gleaned from visiting a recording, walking around the street or is in the public domain. Tours of other buildings seem to show you much more (clearly what you see at each location depends on how buildings and studio are used and some will be in use much less than others making tours much easier).

Perhaps what output NBH produces makes it more of a target. I doubt Midlands Today, BBC WM and a recording of The Archers are on the top of terrorists' hit lists.

Having been to a number of recordings in the radio theatre in the last few years, they have certainly beefed up security in the last couple of weeks, you now have to walk through a metal detector like at an airport as well as having your bag put through an X-ray. Security has now moved from next to the external door to inside the media cafe.

Its not a decision taken lightly. Any kind of attack on the HQ of the BBC is propaganda for those who perpetrate it - the tours have been stopped for a very good reason but I doubt anyone will announce why in the same way that you don't get security information in an open court. You just have to trust that the decision is to save lives.