BBC Buildings - Television Centre
The world's first ever purpose-built TV centre
Designed by Graham Dawbarn and built in 1960, this was the world's first purpose-built centre for television production. It lies four miles outside central London at Shepherds Bush (also the site for BBC White City and BBC Woodlands buildings) on a site used for the Franco-British exhibition of 1908.
A distinctive circular main block (affectionately known in-house as the 'doughnut') houses technical areas and equipment, together with facilities for artists and administrative offices. Grouped around it are studios, linked by a covered walkway to a scenery block to allow swift movement of scenery.
The sculpture in the central garden of the building shows Helios, the Greek god of the sun. Designed by T. B. Huxley-Jones, and erected in 1960, it represents the radiation of television light around the world. The two reclining figures at the bottom are Sound and Vision, the two components of television.
A unique design
There is a story behind the curious shape of Television Centre. When Graham Dawbarn first looked at the site, he was stuck for ideas and went to a local pub. He sat down, pulled out an old envelope and drew the triangular shape of the site on the back. He then drew a question mark in the middle.
How could he design a centre with eight studios, production galleries, dressing rooms, camera workshops, recording areas and offices to support them? It must also allow trucks onto the site with the sets and areas for audiences and guests that were separate from the trucks.
He looked at the question mark and in a flash of inspiration realised that it would make the perfect design.
TV highlights
The centre has eight studios, ranging in size from 110 square metres to the vast Studio TC1 at 995 square metres – the second largest TV studio in Britain.
Notable TV programmes that have been recorded here include Fawlty Towers, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Blue Peter, Absolutely Fabulous, classic Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing. In addition, the centre features the famous Blue Peter garden – loved by generations of child viewers, and many of Blue Peter’s famous pets are memorialised in the garden.
The last major drama series to be shot here was, however, The House of Eliott in 1994 – after that, drama production moved onto film or single-camera video, and Television Centre was not entirely suitable for such production.
The building was damaged by a car bomb located outside Television Centre in March 2001. Staff evacuated the premises and no-one was injured.The attack was attributed to dissident Irish Republicans.
