It’s criminal to destroy such an iconic building with all that history. So many ugly and horrific buildings get turned into heritage sites, but this GENUINE piece of British heritage gets let for the bulldozers. Unconscionable.
I remember when Blue Peter had to dig up their Year 2000 time capsule and move it because the BBC were building a large extension onto television Centre over the top where it was currently buried. Never thought such an Iconic building with so many happy memories of all the shows made there would be shut down. Thanks for the explore.
How strange... I worked at TV Centre many times but the last time was in the dying days. I loved the place. Not just the quirky and beautifully strange building, but the atmosphere and the ethos. It really was very special. On my last day I took myself on a photographic tour, recording memories of what was by then a tragic, mostly empty ghost of its former self. Because so few people were left I was able to access all kinds of previously out of bounds areas, - everything from the staff canteen kitchen, to the basement storage areas, the news room and even the studios themselves. I got lots of great photos... And yesterday, after not having thought about TVC for a long time, I got a strong pang of nostalgia (not a feeling I am prone to) and a great urge to look through those pics again. It was as bittersweet as ever... Then today, this video is reommended to me! As I said, very strange...
I was a Police Officer in Wales in 1982 and met a BBC news crew sound engineer during a party conference. He had so much down time that he began collecting police memorabilia as a hobby.. he offered me some tickets for a show if I gave him a badge from my uniform.. I upped the ante and offered him a genuine police helmet for a trip around this building.. he jumped at the chance. I sent him the 'goods' and I had a great Saturday mornings tour.. went to lots of places that 'normal people' didn't have access to.. met lots of faces I recognised 'from the telly'.. great memories.. RIP Mike Hillman. 👍🏴
Nostalgic reminder of a school careers visit to Television Centre in 1971 or 72. Near the main reception there was a display case containing a transparent arm from a Dr Who robot (or Cyborg). Electronic components within visible. School mate Richard and I were studying this arm when someone approached from behind, arms around both our shoulders " Ern's got one of them!" It was Eric Morecambe!
It's so sad that such an iconic building is being demolished. I have happy memories of working in room 4198, Subtitling, between 1999 and 2002. The Blue Peter garden was still very much alive back then, with fish in the pond. TVC was a magical place.
Looking at all those dilapidated rooms, stairs and studios it reminded me of my childhood watching Swap Shop, Blue Peter etc. Sad that this once great building is being destroyed in the name of progress but I guess the roundel part of the center is listed and cannot be pulled down? This building is a monument to the days when the beeb was relevant and actually produced programing for everyone.
Television Centre was such a magical place, I was on the "Jules Holland" show which was shot there, I remember meeting Adele and many others, I used to stay in Shepherds Bush and would often walk past the place. Sad to see such an iconic building going.
We were a TVC family. My Father was a house service electrician for17 years, my wife was in Technical Services and Business Unit for 15 years and I was a Technician in Mechanical Work Shop for 18 years.
I cried many tears. It all floods back. An act of corporate vandalism if ever there was! The 'bean counters' were behind it all. I could almost understand losing Lime Grove. Losing the Television Theatre was a big mistake. The loss of Television Centre was totally unthinkable, but they did it!
My old Dad used to live the other side of the Westway and he worked laying the asphalt roof of the television centre. It was and icon of a building and I would always be excited going past when we went to my grandparents as so much television was made there and you may just catch a glimpse of someone or something special.
I went to see Tv Centre shortly after it closed down. I couldn't actually go inside it but I got right up to the gates, I remember thinking how massive it looked and had memories of seeing it on Blue Peter/Children in Need/Red Nose Day/Going Live and Live and Kicking. I think the Studio scenes on Ghostwatch were done there.
I worked for BBC News between 2000 and 2010 and even during those years the amount of actual TV produced there was minimal. On a night shift it was interesting to see the floor painting going on. I used to work on the 7th floor and then had a desk and a workshop space in the control room above the tiny studios 12 and 13 neither of which were ever used whilst I was there. I used to support the on line servers and then the red button news services that was £4,500,000 of equipment and then I also got to support the streaming news content. And then they screwed me forcing me to resign. I would never ever trust the BBC.
I remember watching a Ronnie Corbett show being recorded there back in 1987. they had to reshoot to one of the scenes a few times, and that is why he starts off wearing a tie and finishes not wearing a tie. We had to sit through a few retakes.
Sad. Although it's a place I never actually visited, it still feels like I know and love it. Growing up in the 80s, the programmes that I watched often seemed to regularly flit to "behind the scenes", giving us the viewers a glimpse of what went on in that building. Shows like Blue Peter and Going Live would often seem to take us up a random corridor or occasionally into a control room, and as a nerdy kid I was fascinated by this. I dreamed of one day getting a job there, maybe a camera operator or one of the "boys in VT". Alas that never happened for me! Having so many different programmes made there gave the channel a "feel" for me somehow. How often a star of one show could randomly show up as a guest on another. Shows referencing each other, or making digs about the BBC canteen, it all seemed rather chummy, at least that's how it appeared to us the viewers. You'd watch the end credits of a show for familiar names, some bloke called Ken Morse would invariably be in control of the rostrum camera, Roger Limb wrote the music, Mykola somebody was the editor. It all seemed like one big happy family! All that talent under one roof was a wonderful thing, something died when TVC closed down. It lost that sense of togetherness, and became more fragmented. In years to come, when the Beeb is a sorry shadow of what it once was, people will look back to the moment they closed this building as the moment the rot set in.
Always used to marvel at that building from the outside whenever I came up to white city from Brixton, as my girlfriend and future wife lived in the estate not far from there. It seemed to be a magical place, but I never ever set foot inside. When I studied as a TV repair engineer, we had a day trip there, but I was absent for some reason I don't remember.
Oh what’s fantastic video. I only went around a couple of times in my youth. Both my parents worked for the BBC (mother for about 10 years and my late father just shy of 40 years) at Pebble Mill. But my father sometimes went to both Manchester and TVC and I’d go with him. I tried to do a similar video for Pebble Mill but was stopped by BBC Regions management for “security” reasons. Such a wonderful link around an iconic broadcasting centre.
How sad glad I visited this place when they filmed Children in Need I and a friend took the Studio Tour and saw Kylie Minogue several others and took picture with Terry Wogan. What memories
I worked there as a technical assistant/ engineer from 1978 to 1989 in telecine and vt. So sad to see it all again like this. On Google street view you can still walk around the deserted corridors on all 6 floors, but was filmed when it was almost closed . Why was it circular? In pre digital days the timing of the tv signal was very crirical, so it was a way to ensure all the studios arrived in the central apparatus room correctly timed.
That’s an interesting fact! It’s Frances here, Jamie’s wife… I used to bring the pan and scan ticker tapes for the feature films over to telecine sometimes… such great memories.
Spent 12 happy years working at TVC, first in VTR and then News. It was an act of "cultural vandalism" to demolish Television Center.... such happy memories.
The circular-section was converted into luxury flats a few years ago. I know this because I stayed in an air bnb there 4 years ago before being in the audience for QI. I guess some of the building was demolished and some was upgraded?
When I was a boy in 1986 I ended up on a CBBC game show called Secret's Out. The visit stayed with me for ever and was very sad at TVC's sale and decommissioning. I remember ringing main switch and asking for room 3305. I'm an engineer now and even then I wanted to look at the TX technology.
My father was a senior exec for news and current affairs and later presentation. When I worked in London I'd visit my father and enjoy many pint in the club lounge.
7:35 I didn't know anyone apart from Panasonic did DVCPRO. It was an unreliable format. I would love to play with that camera and I probably have a lens for it.
It really is clear just how little they care about the building, the people who work/ed there, and the licence fee payers who have PAID for all that stuff that has been left there like them pictures! I'm so glad itv stepped in to save the rest!
Unfortunately ITV didn’t step in and rescue it, they were closing down their own studios in London and chose to utilise a couple of the remaining studios on a lease for their own benefit. The rest of the building is now a huge expensive complex of houses, flats etc that stand on the original footprint of this once jewel in the crown of the BBC.
I had a truly embarrassing appearance on Beat the Teacher in 1986 and went to that wonderful building. I remember we went to a canteen for lunch and I saw Karl Howman who was appearing in Brush Strokes at the time
This is happening to iconic buildings across the country. Government - central and local - buildings a century old in some cases are being abandoned. My own county's County Hall has gone from a bustling HQ 3-4 years ago to an empty shell. My team was one of the last to leave - in the end there was just our corridor still operating in a vast empty structure. Very sad as memorial gardens and civic locations we had been proud of only a couple of years ago were lost.
I worked there for a few weeks in the early 90s. I was sure I saw the Blue Peter garden. Couldn’t remember how I saw it. Now I know. Meal times at Restaurant!
Even though there has been a lifetime of wonderful memories from there, I have absolutely zero emotion about this. TV Licensing has utterly defecated on any good work the BBC has ever done or will do. Their harassment and bullying tactics are despicable.
Majority of the building hasn’t been demolished. This Morning & Loose Women is still filmed in the studios there! Also it wasn’t ’the Labour governments desire to move tv out of London’ - the BBC vacated the premises in 2012. All the changes took place under the Tory Government & have long since been completed. This video is very misleading & makes out that stuff that happened a decade ago is happening now.
Thanks for the feedback. Let me put you straight, firstly, none of the shows you mention are BBC, out of the 8 superb studios and offices that once stood there, most has been demolished with only three remaining studios. Yes they are still working, but 2 assigned long term for ITV only and where the others stood have been replaced by luxury flats (inc expensive penthouses) restaurants and I believe a gym. None of which are what the TV licence fee payers expected for their buck. In 2001/2 along with other BBC shows I took over as series studio director for Watchdog. The current Labour government headed by Tony Blair felt too much TV production and news for that matter, came from the South. So he wanted to tip the balance, the late Tessa Jowell was also instrumental in seeing Labour's dream through so BBC management had to oblige I guess. I was told at the time I took over Watchdog that Studio shows were dated, and as a result so was TVC. This in my opinion was the start the demise of TV Centre. No one could believe it, concerned I wrote to Broadcast magazine, OFCOM, BECTU etc about this and potential job losses, but none seemed to care or want to challenge the decision. We (the production team) were instructed to take the three brands of weekly live Watchdog shows (Watchdog, Watchdog Healthcheck and Weekend Watchdog) out of TVC to the BBC White City Offices up the road to produce the shows. However the building wasn't designed to broadcast live TV each week, this seemed madness but told to leave our perfectly good facilities at TVC (at great costs to licence fee payers) leaving us no choice with two WD strands out on the road as outside broadcasts. This left the main Watchdog show coming live from the White City building which wasn't geared up for telly. We also had to move the Watchdog offices from the 4th floor, down to the ground floor so we could produce the show. The only way I could make this work was to have a OB and lighting trucks arrive each week to allow us to make our show...all in a busy 'viewer sensitive' working office!
I spent countless hours working in this building, it was a joy to be there. What a dreadful, shameful waste to simply let it go like this. Oh well... we have the memories...
Aah the famous building which had shows like Top 🎩 of the Pops, MC Swap Shop,Going Live, Grandstand etc etc now torn down to rubble. That part of Shepherd's Bush in West London will look a bit different now in the future. 🤔
How come there are still PC’s / Telephones on some of the desks ? Is some of the building still being used ?…… I wish someone could have set up a touring walk around the place, I would certainly book a place 🙏🙏
I guess it is sad I ve never been to the centre let alone London I live in Scotland but as a child of the 70s watching all the marvellous iconic kids programs made there and the outside shots and some inside shots of stars walking around the corridors it is the end of an era so I can understand how you feel.
Criminal what happened, similarly like TLS which has been stripped bare and eerily full of ghosts waits the wrecking ball. And now Studio D is going to be demolished next year along with the old ATV block, some of which had been used for Holby City and the hospital scenes in EastEnders.
Despise some of the evils that happened in that building, it made a lot of history & memories for a lot of people that will never be recreated, it helped produce some of the best television shows the UK has ever experienced in the 80s & 90s from all of the Totp shows, Bottom, The Young Ones, Red Dwarf, The two Ronnies, Blue Peter with their life boat appeals , Anther Turner building Tracey island & Allo Allo! With Rene Artois with the fallen Madonna & of course not forgetting Ofah, Bonjour.
As if couldn't have been donated to the locals for community projects . . . Grenfell comes to mind. There's enough deprivation up in that locality. But no, property developers and the WEF rule. The implicit message . . "London is no longer yours . . . "
Very upsetting, grew up it was the magic factory. Terrible crime to leave it and go to Manchester. Never been the same. Even worse ITV now use it,
20 วันที่ผ่านมา +2
I would have loved to have worked there, the electrical system must have been amazing, unfortunately never got the chance, I know a few fellow electrical engineers who worked at the old BBC studios in Glasgow & they laugh when I ask them about the electrical systems in there, one in particular said “stick to fixing power faults on trains” there’s less egos 😂
I wonder if there is still a clip from "It's a Square World" where Michael Bentink implores Richard Dimbleby not to get out as the Television Centre was about to be launced into space!! (For those that don't remember Richard Dimbleby, he was very adequately built !)
Shame. I was in the Blue Peter gardens there for publicity shoot as GI Joe in an episode of 'Moon & Son'. Fond memories. I think the actress name in 'The Singing Detective' was Joanne Woodward.
Why does everything seem to be moved upto Manchester. Granada Television as it was, already controls ITV, all the the independent companies that were are now gone. I used to enjoy driving past the Television Centre when I worked down Scrubs Lane back in the 1990's. Now it's all trendy housing and restaurants. All gone!
TV Centre Studios is actually the HQ of the BBC's Commercial Arm BBC Studios Ltd. BBC sold TV Centre to Stanhope for £200m. TV Centre cost the BBC £10m to build. That's some profit.
Sad to see this building go, all the history in it gone to sunder, i remember seeing it on certain programs and such, why not sell it off or such, so yeah
Why isn't this listed? White City station named after it. Why wasn't it turned into flats? What happened to Wood Lane station and its entrance just nearby?
How on earth was this allowed to be demolished? Surely it should have come under the same iconic category as the façade of Highbury or the pillars of Battersea power station. It could surely have become a shopping centre, offices or apartments or something, but at least the building itself would still have been there for future generations to see something that was an iconic part of fifty years of British history. Instead, in fifty years from now, you can guarantee that people who care about the past will lament how crazy it was for our generation to allow this building to be lost.
The main donut has been retained and turned into luxury accommodation mainly for foreign investors… they retained three of the eight studios but a huge amount of the footprint was demolished.
As if the BBC needed anymore dismantling! This is an utterly disgusting act. I had no idea this was going to be the fait of this iconic building. How television centre wasn't listed is beyond me. Such a sad end.
Really sad to see all the things left behind there. A huge waste of a once great building too, that could of made a fantastic visitor attraction with the amount of people who will of worked or visited there who would love to return one day. The BBC now a shadow of what it was. I remember passing by years ago and thinking how I would love to go inside one day and see where all those great programmes were made.
Sorry am I missing something here? Television Centre is still very much there and restored to its former glory! Granted some of it has been converted to apartments but the studios are still very much there, it’s a fantastic place and I occasionally work there using this state of the art facility.
Not sure a building that’s been largely demolished with the majority of what was left being turned into luxury flats, with only three of its 8 studios be considered to be restored to its formerly glory??? This doesn’t include the news studios…
Doughnut was a building to get lost in either on the wrong floor or going the wrong way. I you were colour blind you were stuffed and at the wrong canteen. Pulling cable for the MD110 ISDN was interesting as the technology was epic and the TV R&D was at another level due to the creative techs. The VM's loved to press every button on the Quantel paintbox. RIP TC sadly 'British' in BBC no longer makes sense, look east and rename it ABC. Best all who did good.
Every year, at the end of the last Blue Peter before Christmas, the band of the Chalk Farm Branch of The Salvation Army marched in through the big scenery loading doors, playing carols as the last candle on the 'advent crown' was lit by Val (Singleton), Pete (Purves) or, of course, John (Noakes). Happy days, indeed - and now I'm almost sixty!! 😄
The main donut and where five of the original studios stood are now flats… whilst it’s still called Television Centre it’s not the iconic hub of British TV that it once was… especially with only three studios remaining.
It was shot 2013 with demolition shots around 2015. The BBC use a small section for offices but of the three remaining studios, Studio 1 is rented to any broadcaster making profs including the BVC whereas the other two studios are permanently rigged for ITV progs. However in a bizarre twist the BBC now has to rent alternative space itself to make up the shortfall of their own studio requirements!
It’s criminal to destroy such an iconic building with all that history. So many ugly and horrific buildings get turned into heritage sites, but this GENUINE piece of British heritage gets let for the bulldozers. Unconscionable.
This should have been a National Heritage building. An iconic design that survived beyond the era until the developers took over 😢.
So symbolic of the way the BBC has gone of late.
I remember when Blue Peter had to dig up their Year 2000 time capsule and move it because the BBC were building a large extension onto television Centre over the top where it was currently buried. Never thought such an Iconic building with so many happy memories of all the shows made there would be shut down. Thanks for the explore.
How strange... I worked at TV Centre many times but the last time was in the dying days. I loved the place. Not just the quirky and beautifully strange building, but the atmosphere and the ethos. It really was very special. On my last day I took myself on a photographic tour, recording memories of what was by then a tragic, mostly empty ghost of its former self. Because so few people were left I was able to access all kinds of previously out of bounds areas, - everything from the staff canteen kitchen, to the basement storage areas, the news room and even the studios themselves. I got lots of great photos... And yesterday, after not having thought about TVC for a long time, I got a strong pang of nostalgia (not a feeling I am prone to) and a great urge to look through those pics again. It was as bittersweet as ever... Then today, this video is reommended to me! As I said, very strange...
Wow that is weird! Glad you enjoyed going back down memory lane.
I was a Police Officer in Wales in 1982 and met a BBC news crew sound engineer during a party conference. He had so much down time that he began collecting police memorabilia as a hobby.. he offered me some tickets for a show if I gave him a badge from my uniform.. I upped the ante and offered him a genuine police helmet for a trip around this building.. he jumped at the chance. I sent him the 'goods' and I had a great Saturday mornings tour.. went to lots of places that 'normal people' didn't have access to.. met lots of faces I recognised 'from the telly'.. great memories.. RIP Mike Hillman. 👍🏴
Nostalgic reminder of a school careers visit to Television Centre in 1971 or 72. Near the main reception there was a display case containing a transparent arm from a Dr Who robot (or Cyborg). Electronic components within visible. School mate Richard and I were studying this arm when someone approached from behind, arms around both our shoulders " Ern's got one of them!" It was Eric Morecambe!
Now there really is nothing left of the BBC worth talking about.
It's so sad that such an iconic building is being demolished. I have happy memories of working in room 4198, Subtitling, between 1999 and 2002. The Blue Peter garden was still very much alive back then, with fish in the pond. TVC was a magical place.
Looking at all those dilapidated rooms, stairs and studios it reminded me of my childhood watching Swap Shop, Blue Peter etc. Sad that this once great building is being destroyed in the name of progress but I guess the roundel part of the center is listed and cannot be pulled down? This building is a monument to the days when the beeb was relevant and actually produced programing for everyone.
I was under the impression that this would be converted not demolished. So much history that you can't replace.
The main donut was converted a three studios kept but a huge portion was demolished.
Was invited to Television Centre by Richard Woolf once. I got to see hearts of gold being recorded. It was very professional.
Television Centre was such a magical place, I was on the "Jules Holland" show which was shot there, I remember meeting Adele and many others, I used to stay in Shepherds Bush and would often walk past the place. Sad to see such an iconic building going.
We were a TVC family. My Father was a house service electrician for17 years, my wife was in Technical Services and Business Unit for 15 years and I was a Technician in Mechanical Work Shop for 18 years.
Thanks so much for uploading. What a gem. If you have anymore, please upload - we love it!!
I cried many tears. It all floods back. An act of corporate vandalism if ever there was! The 'bean counters' were behind it all. I could almost understand losing Lime Grove. Losing the Television Theatre was a big mistake. The loss of Television Centre was totally unthinkable, but they did it!
My old Dad used to live the other side of the Westway and he worked laying the asphalt roof of the television centre. It was and icon of a building and I would always be excited going past when we went to my grandparents as so much television was made there and you may just catch a glimpse of someone or something special.
I went to see Tv Centre shortly after it closed down. I couldn't actually go inside it but I got right up to the gates, I remember thinking how massive it looked and had memories of seeing it on Blue Peter/Children in Need/Red Nose Day/Going Live and Live and Kicking. I think the Studio scenes on Ghostwatch were done there.
I worked for BBC News between 2000 and 2010 and even during those years the amount of actual TV produced there was minimal. On a night shift it was interesting to see the floor painting going on. I used to work on the 7th floor and then had a desk and a workshop space in the control room above the tiny studios 12 and 13 neither of which were ever used whilst I was there. I used to support the on line servers and then the red button news services that was £4,500,000 of equipment and then I also got to support the streaming news content. And then they screwed me forcing me to resign. I would never ever trust the BBC.
I remember watching a Ronnie Corbett show being recorded there back in 1987. they had to reshoot to one of the scenes a few times, and that is why he starts off wearing a tie and finishes not wearing a tie. We had to sit through a few retakes.
Great story.
Sad. Although it's a place I never actually visited, it still feels like I know and love it. Growing up in the 80s, the programmes that I watched often seemed to regularly flit to "behind the scenes", giving us the viewers a glimpse of what went on in that building. Shows like Blue Peter and Going Live would often seem to take us up a random corridor or occasionally into a control room, and as a nerdy kid I was fascinated by this. I dreamed of one day getting a job there, maybe a camera operator or one of the "boys in VT". Alas that never happened for me!
Having so many different programmes made there gave the channel a "feel" for me somehow. How often a star of one show could randomly show up as a guest on another. Shows referencing each other, or making digs about the BBC canteen, it all seemed rather chummy, at least that's how it appeared to us the viewers. You'd watch the end credits of a show for familiar names, some bloke called Ken Morse would invariably be in control of the rostrum camera, Roger Limb wrote the music, Mykola somebody was the editor. It all seemed like one big happy family! All that talent under one roof was a wonderful thing, something died when TVC closed down. It lost that sense of togetherness, and became more fragmented. In years to come, when the Beeb is a sorry shadow of what it once was, people will look back to the moment they closed this building as the moment the rot set in.
It really was like that… a fantastic place to work. You are right the day they closed it down is the day TV died for me.
Oh no! Childhood memories - a place I always wanted to go to.... AND they filled in the Italian Sunken Garden!
Always used to marvel at that building from the outside whenever I came up to white city from Brixton, as my girlfriend and future wife lived in the estate not far from there. It seemed to be a magical place, but I never ever set foot inside. When I studied as a TV repair engineer, we had a day trip there, but I was absent for some reason I don't remember.
Oh what’s fantastic video. I only went around a couple of times in my youth. Both my parents worked for the BBC (mother for about 10 years and my late father just shy of 40 years) at Pebble Mill. But my father sometimes went to both Manchester and TVC and I’d go with him.
I tried to do a similar video for Pebble Mill but was stopped by BBC Regions management for “security” reasons.
Such a wonderful link around an iconic broadcasting centre.
I have never been inside either but seen it from outside going past it on several occasions. I also remember the artwork on the wall ❤
How sad glad I visited this place when they filmed Children in Need I and a friend took the Studio Tour and saw Kylie Minogue several others and took picture with Terry Wogan. What memories
I worked there as a technical assistant/ engineer from 1978 to 1989 in telecine and vt. So sad to see it all again like this. On Google street view you can still walk around the deserted corridors on all 6 floors, but was filmed when it was almost closed .
Why was it circular? In pre digital days the timing of the tv signal was very crirical, so it was a way to ensure all the studios arrived in the central apparatus room correctly timed.
That’s an interesting fact! It’s Frances here, Jamie’s wife… I used to bring the pan and scan ticker tapes for the feature films over to telecine sometimes… such great memories.
Spent 12 happy years working at TVC, first in VTR and then News. It was an act of "cultural vandalism" to demolish Television Center.... such happy memories.
Thanks for the memories!
How sad is this???!! Another iconic part of the London skyline gone. Tragic.
Absolute madness moving out of there.
The circular-section was converted into luxury flats a few years ago. I know this because I stayed in an air bnb there 4 years ago before being in the audience for QI. I guess some of the building was demolished and some was upgraded?
When I was a boy in 1986 I ended up on a CBBC game show called Secret's Out. The visit stayed with me for ever and was very sad at TVC's sale and decommissioning. I remember ringing main switch and asking for room 3305. I'm an engineer now and even then I wanted to look at the TX technology.
My father was a senior exec for news and current affairs and later presentation. When I worked in London I'd visit my father and enjoy many pint in the club lounge.
7:35 I didn't know anyone apart from Panasonic did DVCPRO. It was an unreliable format. I would love to play with that camera and I probably have a lens for it.
Ah no! End of an era. All the original tv filming studios have gone now I think? 😢❤
Thanks for showing this.
Very sad… three of the original studios are still there. Five were demolished.
I done work experience there in 1995 best two weeks of my life used to wander around the corridors and saw a few programmes being made
It really is clear just how little they care about the building, the people who work/ed there, and the licence fee payers who have PAID for all that stuff that has been left there like them pictures! I'm so glad itv stepped in to save the rest!
Unfortunately ITV didn’t step in and rescue it, they were closing down their own studios in London and chose to utilise a couple of the remaining studios on a lease for their own benefit. The rest of the building is now a huge expensive complex of houses, flats etc that stand on the original footprint of this once jewel in the crown of the BBC.
Wow the Blue Peter garden, from the john nokes days, amazing.
Remember getting lost there, and in the reception area was a massive tv broadcasting internally HDTV
I had a truly embarrassing appearance on Beat the Teacher in 1986 and went to that wonderful building. I remember we went to a canteen for lunch and I saw Karl Howman who was appearing in Brush Strokes at the time
This is happening to iconic buildings across the country. Government - central and local - buildings a century old in some cases are being abandoned. My own county's County Hall has gone from a bustling HQ 3-4 years ago to an empty shell. My team was one of the last to leave - in the end there was just our corridor still operating in a vast empty structure.
Very sad as memorial gardens and civic locations we had been proud of only a couple of years ago were lost.
Thank you
You're welcome 👍
I worked there for a few weeks in the early 90s. I was sure I saw the Blue Peter garden. Couldn’t remember how I saw it. Now I know. Meal times at Restaurant!
i remember television centre being part of the intro to bbc live and kicking
Even though there has been a lifetime of wonderful memories from there, I have absolutely zero emotion about this. TV Licensing has utterly defecated on any good work the BBC has ever done or will do. Their harassment and bullying tactics are despicable.
Majority of the building hasn’t been demolished. This Morning & Loose Women is still filmed in the studios there! Also it wasn’t ’the Labour governments desire to move tv out of London’ - the BBC vacated the premises in 2012. All the changes took place under the Tory Government & have long since been completed. This video is very misleading & makes out that stuff that happened a decade ago is happening now.
Thanks for the feedback. Let me put you straight, firstly, none of the shows you mention are BBC, out of the 8 superb studios and offices that once stood there, most has been demolished with only three remaining studios. Yes they are still working, but 2 assigned long term for ITV only and where the others stood have been replaced by luxury flats (inc expensive penthouses) restaurants and I believe a gym. None of which are what the TV licence fee payers expected for their buck. In 2001/2 along with other BBC shows I took over as series studio director for Watchdog. The current Labour government headed by Tony Blair felt too much TV production and news for that matter, came from the South. So he wanted to tip the balance, the late Tessa Jowell was also instrumental in seeing Labour's dream through so BBC management had to oblige I guess. I was told at the time I took over Watchdog that Studio shows were dated, and as a result so was TVC. This in my opinion was the start the demise of TV Centre. No one could believe it, concerned I wrote to Broadcast magazine, OFCOM, BECTU etc about this and potential job losses, but none seemed to care or want to challenge the decision. We (the production team) were instructed to take the three brands of weekly live Watchdog shows (Watchdog, Watchdog Healthcheck and Weekend Watchdog) out of TVC to the BBC White City Offices up the road to produce the shows. However the building wasn't designed to broadcast live TV each week, this seemed madness but told to leave our perfectly good facilities at TVC (at great costs to licence fee payers) leaving us no choice with two WD strands out on the road as outside broadcasts. This left the main Watchdog show coming live from the White City building which wasn't geared up for telly. We also had to move the Watchdog offices from the 4th floor, down to the ground floor so we could produce the show. The only way I could make this work was to have a OB and lighting trucks arrive each week to allow us to make our show...all in a busy 'viewer sensitive' working office!
th-cam.com/video/PsVPOWLEW_s/w-d-xo.htmlsi=BXBVk4g9m_2c7bqc
I spent countless hours working in this building, it was a joy to be there. What a dreadful, shameful waste to simply let it go like this. Oh well... we have the memories...
Joanne Whalley was the woman he was trying to remember - once married to Val Kilmer.
Aah the famous building which had shows like Top 🎩 of the Pops, MC Swap Shop,Going Live, Grandstand etc etc now torn down to rubble.
That part of Shepherd's Bush in West London will look a bit different now in the future. 🤔
Should have been covered by a unique design preservation order. And used as a drama school or something similar.
Can’t believe that it wasn’t listed, all about 🏦🏦I suppose
How come there are still PC’s / Telephones on some of the desks ? Is some of the building still being used ?…… I wish someone could have set up a touring walk around the place, I would certainly book a place 🙏🙏
I guess it is sad I ve never been to the centre let alone London I live in Scotland but as a child of the 70s watching all the marvellous iconic kids programs made there and the outside shots and some inside shots of stars walking around the corridors it is the end of an era so I can understand how you feel.
At the very least some of it is still in Television use, unlike Southbank, Teddington, Pebble Mill, Fountain, Bridge Street (Birmingham) + more.
@5:55 i wonder if the Blue Peter garden will be kept and wasn’t a time capsule buried in the garden?
Hope all the office equipment is not going to be trashed
The Singing Detective - I think you refer to Joanne Whalley as Nurse Mills - the nurse taking care of Philip Marlow's (Michael Gambon) needs.
Criminal what happened, similarly like TLS which has been stripped bare and eerily full of ghosts waits the wrecking ball. And now Studio D is going to be demolished next year along with the old ATV block, some of which had been used for Holby City and the hospital scenes in EastEnders.
Despise some of the evils that happened in that building, it made a lot of history & memories for a lot of people that will never be recreated, it helped produce some of the best television shows the UK has ever experienced in the 80s & 90s from all of the Totp shows, Bottom, The Young Ones, Red Dwarf, The two Ronnies, Blue Peter with their life boat appeals , Anther Turner building Tracey island & Allo Allo! With Rene Artois with the fallen Madonna & of course not forgetting Ofah, Bonjour.
Truly the beginning of the end for the BBC
Luxury Apartments now!😊
As if couldn't have been donated to the locals for community projects . . . Grenfell comes to mind. There's enough deprivation up in that locality.
But no, property developers and the WEF rule. The implicit message . . "London is no longer yours . . . "
Very upsetting, grew up it was the magic factory. Terrible crime to leave it and go to Manchester. Never been the same. Even worse ITV now use it,
I would have loved to have worked there, the electrical system must have been amazing, unfortunately never got the chance, I know a few fellow electrical engineers who worked at the old BBC studios in Glasgow & they laugh when I ask them about the electrical systems in there, one in particular said “stick to fixing power faults on trains” there’s less egos 😂
I did the tour one year, very sad to see it go
Just to think the creation of Doctor Who began in that building, television history was made in there such a shame they have done this.
Astounded that this isn’t a protected building
I wonder if there is still a clip from "It's a Square World" where Michael Bentink implores Richard Dimbleby not to get out as the Television Centre was about to be launced into space!!
(For those that don't remember Richard Dimbleby, he was very adequately built !)
Shame. I was in the Blue Peter gardens there for publicity shoot as GI Joe in an episode of 'Moon & Son'. Fond memories. I think the actress name in 'The Singing Detective' was Joanne Woodward.
Why does everything seem to be moved upto Manchester. Granada Television as it was, already controls ITV, all the the independent companies that were are now gone. I used to enjoy driving past the Television Centre when I worked down Scrubs Lane back in the 1990's. Now it's all trendy housing and restaurants. All gone!
TV Centre Studios is actually the HQ of the BBC's Commercial Arm BBC Studios Ltd. BBC sold TV Centre to Stanhope for £200m. TV Centre cost the BBC £10m to build. That's some profit.
I would have thought the building would have been heritage listed!!
What happened to the Blue Peter Garden? Was it retained when the site was redeveloped?
There is a building on top of it now.
TVC….. worked there over a 6 month period back in 1990…. Such a shame….
Absolutely criminal all those responsible should be held to account including Mr Thompson the then DG
ITV owns the television centre now
I believe ITV lease studio space but Stanhope actually own it.
I thought it was converted into flats except for one big studio used for shoes like Graham Norton.
I thought it was now being used by ITV after the BBC had deserted it.
Sad to see this building go, all the history in it gone to sunder, i remember seeing it on certain programs and such, why not sell it off or such, so yeah
Why isn't this listed? White City station named after it. Why wasn't it turned into flats? What happened to Wood Lane station and its entrance just nearby?
I believe the donut is listed and is now full of luxury accommodation…
How on earth was this allowed to be demolished? Surely it should have come under the same iconic category as the façade of Highbury or the pillars of Battersea power station. It could surely have become a shopping centre, offices or apartments or something, but at least the building itself would still have been there for future generations to see something that was an iconic part of fifty years of British history. Instead, in fifty years from now, you can guarantee that people who care about the past will lament how crazy it was for our generation to allow this building to be lost.
The main donut has been retained and turned into luxury accommodation mainly for foreign investors… they retained three of the eight studios but a huge amount of the footprint was demolished.
As if the BBC needed anymore dismantling!
This is an utterly disgusting act.
I had no idea this was going to be the fait of this iconic building. How television centre wasn't listed is beyond me.
Such a sad end.
They kept the donut which may be listed… and turned it into luxury flats. But a big majority of the rest was demolished including 5 out the 8 studios.
Really sad to see all the things left behind there. A huge waste of a once great building too, that could of made a fantastic visitor attraction with the amount of people who will of worked or visited there who would love to return one day. The BBC now a shadow of what it was. I remember passing by years ago and thinking how I would love to go inside one day and see where all those great programmes were made.
I thought they filmed some of the Chris Harris Top Gear episodes at Television Centre
Sorry am I missing something here? Television Centre is still very much there and restored to its former glory! Granted some of it has been converted to apartments but the studios are still very much there, it’s a fantastic place and I occasionally work there using this state of the art facility.
Not sure a building that’s been largely demolished with the majority of what was left being turned into luxury flats, with only three of its 8 studios be considered to be restored to its formerly glory??? This doesn’t include the news studios…
Thought the building would be kept & made into luxury accommodation & restaurants !
The main donut has been made into luxury accommodation mainly for foreign investors… but a huge part of the rest of the footprint was demolished.
Doughnut was a building to get lost in either on the wrong floor or going the wrong way. I you were colour blind you were stuffed and at the wrong canteen. Pulling cable for the MD110 ISDN was interesting as the technology was epic and the TV R&D was at another level due to the creative techs. The VM's loved to press every button on the Quantel paintbox. RIP TC sadly 'British' in BBC no longer makes sense, look east and rename it ABC. Best all who did good.
Every year, at the end of the last Blue Peter before Christmas, the band of the Chalk Farm Branch of The Salvation Army marched in through the big scenery loading doors, playing carols as the last candle on the 'advent crown' was lit by Val (Singleton), Pete (Purves) or, of course, John (Noakes). Happy days, indeed - and now I'm almost sixty!! 😄
Doesnt ITV still use this building for This Morning?
Yes correct… 3 of the 8 studios were kept and itv lease them.
I thought the building had been converted into luxury apartments.
Did you ever work with my mate David Wheeler?
It’s totally possible but I’m terrible with names 🤣
The Beeb must have everyone standing now... They left all the chairs to be abandoned in the old place
I thought the building was retained, what's Television Centre now that ITV etc uses?
The main donut and where five of the original studios stood are now flats… whilst it’s still called Television Centre it’s not the iconic hub of British TV that it once was… especially with only three studios remaining.
No doubt, to be replaced with yet more "luxury" accommodation that none of the locals can afford.
That’s exactly what did happen…
Do you know which of the studios Top of the Pops in the 1970s was filmed in?
I understand it was filmed in various studios. I attended as a teenager and it was in 3 or 4 but I’m sure someone out there will know more?
I thought most of it was G2 Listed?
I believe the donut is listed which is the part that’s been turned into luxury accommodation. Much of the rest has gone along with the tv heritage.
Iconic building. I thought they had turned some of it into flats. So sad
You are right they have… luxury accommodation which appear to be owned mainly by foreign investors.
The bbc still use parts of this building. The video looks many years old.
It was shot 2013 with demolition shots around 2015. The BBC use a small section for offices but of the three remaining studios, Studio 1 is rented to any broadcaster making profs including the BVC whereas the other two studios are permanently rigged for ITV progs. However in a bizarre twist the BBC now has to rent alternative space itself to make up the shortfall of their own studio requirements!
Was this not a listed building? If so how did it slip through the net?
The main donut was kept and converted into luxury accommodation.