1997: DOCTOR WHO BEHIND-THE-SCENES TV CENTRE PIC ON THE COVER OF TARDIS

From 1997: British DOCTOR WHO fanzine TARDIS (volume 15, number 1).

I really love this behind-the-scenes-and-overhead shot of the (seventies?) Tardis console, presumably in situ in one of the TV Centre studios.  Idon't recall having seen this photo anywhere else.  I have no idea who is drapped over the set and what the original purpose of the picture was.  It looks like the sort of thing that might have been snapped for a behind-the-scenes (doh) book or - possibly - some sort of internal BBC publication or training materials.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART EIGHTEEN

Yesterday I posted the underside, so here is a more familiar view of the centre of the BBC TELEVISION CENTRE doughnut, as snapped from the top floor.

Yesterday's picture (taken on a different day: hence the rain on the glass in that pic and not this one) was snapped through the glass surrounding the statue.

Pre-glass, and when the Centre first opened, this was a working fountain.  Depending on who you believe, the water was either permanently turned off because it made an enormous racket in the confined circular space (and made staff want a wee) OR the fountain leaked and the water trickled down into the inconveniently placed VT area located immediately below (in the space where I took yesterday's pic).

At the left of the picture is the canopy covering the entrance to South Hall.  I'll return to that area again (and again) in future posts.

The pods were little covered seats'n'tables combos ideal for informal meetings or eating lunch.

The area used to be a lot greener with various pot plants and plants in the brown areas around the statue.  These had - presumably - been removed as part of the running-down of the Centre.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART SEVENTEEN

This slightly V'ger-esque view is snapped from the basement of BBC TELEVISION CENTRE, looking up at the Helios statue and former fountain at the centre of the - ahem - centre.

This large open-plan area (which I rather liked) was offices BY this point although - I believe - in the dim-and-distant past it had housed TVC's VT machines when such things still filled several rooms.  Because the space was at the centre of the building, it was more-or-less equidistant to each of the studios and the Presentation suites.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART SIXTEEN

This is the main BBC Newsroom from TELEVISION CENTRE, a double level affair located immediately above the Main Reception and facing onto Wood Lane (which proved something of a design flaw when the IRA came a calling).

I always thought this was a pretty impressive space although, in comparison with the vast atriums of New Broadcasting House, it does look a little quaint.

Those stairs, or the alternate set to the left of this shot, were a favoured place for shooting trailers, interviews and talking heads pieces.  But they were well-traversed which could create some problems if someone needed to pass mid-rant.

If you look closely at the perspex guards attached to the railings, you'll see that they feature patterns from the original 'flags' era of BBC NEWS 24 (now the BBC News Channel) when - in typical BBC fashion - it didn't look like any other part of the BBC News output.

That was one of things I loved about TVC... you could always find little nods to the past that had survived for years longer than the programme or service that had spawned them.

This photo was taken after much of the BBC News output had already decamped to their new home so staff were thin on the ground.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART FIFTEEN

Another snapshot from the final days of the BBC TELEVISION CENTRE: the huge exterior doors, leading onto the Ring Road, for studio TC1.

TC1 (Television Centre 1) was (and will be, once the site is redeveloped) the largest of the eight main studios on the site.  It's size, and capacity to hold a large audience if required (on retractable seating) made it the studio of choice for large "shiny floor" entertainment shows and flagship BBC output like the annual CHILDREN IN NEED bucket-shake.

It's the front of TC1 that forms the iconic "brick wall" frontage of the centre, sporting the signage and "drawing pin" studs.

The size of the studio was variously described to be as "the largest purpose-built TV studio in the world" or - possibly - "the largest in Europe".  There was apparently some doubt whether there was a bigger studio, possibly used for soaps, in Brazil or some such.  The "purpose built" caveat is certainly important as film sound stages can certainly be used for TV projects... as can converted warehouses, factories and the like.

The doors were, of course, used to move sets and other items in and out of the studio.  At its peak, TVC was a very efficient factory with sets being struck as soon as a production had ended so that another set - for a completely different programme - could be set overnight ready for rehearsals and recording the next day.  The beauty of that system, and lengthy rehearsals off-site prior to recording, was that precious studio time could be maximised and the programme shot as quickly as possible... and turfed-out for the next production.

It's hard to get a sense of the height of the doors from the photo... maybe the "Biffa Bin" skip to the right of the shot will help.

I spoke to studio staff who wondered how that efficiency could possibly be retained now that the studios will be at the heart of a residential and hotel complex.  Living on top of a iconic TV studio might be trendy but not when you are kept awake every night by noisy tele-folk man-handling sets and equipment all night.  If that work has to be done during the day then down-time increases, the facility becomes less efficient and less flexible and, therefore, less competitive compared with rivals located well away from residential areas.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART FOURTEEN

Here's a little close-up detail from my farewell tour of BBC TELEVISION CENTRE: the branded South Hall doors leading out into the 'doughnut' courtyard at the heart of the site.

I must admit, I was very disappointed to see these.  Let me elaborate.  These doors retained similar "push" signage featuring an older, slanted, version of the BBC logo for years and it always struck me as a quaint nod to the past.  When I came to look around this last time, I found that some bright spark had belatedly embraced modernity by slapping these new ones over the top.

If you look behind, you'll see one of my lasting memories of the Centre: cables trailing everywhere.  Despite being a purpose-built TV factory, the boffins always seemed to be reduced to trailing hefty cables out of windows.

And - as an aside - there always seemed to be corridors around the building with the false ceilings removed and more boffin-types, up ladders, adding more cables to already packed cable holders.  It's no wonder that no-one knew what any of the cables did anymore... but didn't dare remove them in case it inadvertently pulled some broadcast-critical piece of gubbins off-air.  Or... so the legend goes...

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART THIRTEEN

Today's tour of the now defunct BBC TELEVISION CENTRE takes us outside to the Ring Road, standing roughly outside TC1 (or - possibly - TC2) and looking up towards the East Tower.

The concrete carbuncle was yet another reminder of how vast the TVC site really was.  Not only did it already occupy a large footprint someone, at some point (I'd guess the sixties), thought that the BBC required even more office space... and put up a whole tower block.

I guess TV was a far more labour intensive business back then (for example, when I joined in 2000 the prospect of doing your own editing - without a craft professional - was seen as a non-starter by most staff in my department necessitating a trip to an in-house, or Soho, edit suite... now I imagine close to 100% would be quite happy to sit at a desktop machine and cut their own material) and the BBC did a lot more in-house but the BBC property portfolio was vast.

Not only did BBC TV occupy TVC... it also sprawled outwards to occupy other West London sites like The Television Theatre, Lime Grove, Union House, Threshold House, Centre House, sites in Acton and Ealing (OB's, VFX, Finance, Costumes and Wigs) and - latterly - the White City Building.  Plus the whole Elstree Centre.  All to house two TV channels that weren't even on-air 24-hours a day.

In fairness, that portfolio did slim down considerably over time as buildings were closed and formally in-house divisions were sold off or run-down (the results of John Birt's Producers Choice internal market) and - presumably - production and resources were allocated more efficiently, allowing programmes (WOGAN!) that were in other studios to be pulled into TVC (or just cancelled).

I never worked in the East Tower and - until the very end - barely visited it in all the time I worked there.  It mostly (entirely?) housed the Children's Department and I never worked in that area.  They did - of course - decamp to Salford leaving the Tower surplus to requirements.

I know the Tower was in quite a poor state of repair - the result of sub-standard construction - and I wouldn't mind betting that it was a headache the BBC would rather be shot off rather than try and continue to patch it up - or demolish it in the middle of a working office and studio complex.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE: PART TWELVE

Welcome back to BBC TELEVISION CENTRE in sunny W12.

This is a view of the original Main Reception area at the base on the concrete doughnut.  This was renamed Stage Door when the (far more practical) street-facing reception was opened along with the rest of Stage 6 (see posts previous) sometime in the 1990s.

This angle captures the elaborate ceiling design in the double-height space, the charming wood-paneled walls (left of shot), the balcony on the first floor (left), the tall windows looking into the circular courtyard beyond, the BBC Transport Desk (despite the stick that the BBC constantly gets for excessive taxi bills, booking cars is sometimes essential for moving staff out-of-hours and getting staff, crew, kit and contributors to locations around London when a trip on the tube just wouldn't be practical... although I've done that too.  In my experience, taxis were never booked casually and a great deal of thought went into how to minimise the number of bookings required for any project) and the (ahem) top-notch seating provided for guests waiting to be whisked off to other parts of the centre.

This space could often be seen in news programmes when (usually political) guests were seen entering or leaving the building and was sometimes commandeered for live broadcasts such as CHILDREN IN NEED and - famously - the WOGAN talk show when they were forced to decamp from their usual TVC studio in the great asbestos scare of the late 1980s.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE: PART ELEVEN

Here's another glimpse behind-the-scenes at TVC...

I snapped this through the glass part of a locked door which helps explain why its even more murky than my other efforts.

This was the gallery for one of the studios, already stripped of all the monitors, controls and equipment leaving just the fittings behind.

Annoyingly, I don't recall which gallery/ studio this was and none of the other pictures taken immediately before and after this one give any particular clues.  Bah.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TELEVISION CENTRE: PART TEN

Here's something from the basement of BBC TELEVISION CENTRE (the base of North Hall stairs, adjacent to Stage Door to be precise): the original "foundation stone" (is that the right word?) for the building.

This was somewhat tucked away and likely only seen by staff in-the-know or users of the stairs between the ground floor and the basement (in my experience, many were far more willing to use the lift even for a short journey).  It also featured on the public tour.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART NINE

Here's another glimpse into the last days of BBC TELEVISION CENTRE:

As you might expect, these safety notices were dotted around the building and no doubt ignored by 95% of the people in their vicinity unless bored or waiting for someone or something to happen.

It gives a good idea, in very broad terms, of the layout of the site and - of course - the original long-to-physically-manifest question mark design.

Apologies that this is slightly blurred but it was still affixed to the wall.  It was obvious whilst wandering around that people had helped themselves to a lot of the signage as 'keepsakes' but it seemed poor form to nick the safety information whilst people were still working on-site.  And - knowing me - I would get caught anyway :-)

2013: THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART EIGHT

Did someone mention the BLUE PETER GARDEN?

Yup, this is the garden although, once the programme decamped to Manchester they obviously filled-in, and turfed-over, the iconic Italian Sunken Garden (as well as removed the Petra statue and all the other gubbins).  I haven't seen the show since it moved to Salford Quays so I have no idea whether they were transplanted to their new home.  I hope so.

The area of darker grass was where Percy Thrower's pride and joy (and occasional target for vandals) was located.

The garden was an area of land at the base of the restaurant block.  This pic was snapped from the balcony of the (by-that-point abandoned) dining area.  The grassland, on the other side of the wall, at the top of the picture, is the edge of Hammersmith Park at the back of the Centre.

The blue construction in the foreground was a permanent camera platform for filming.

When I started working at TVC, the BP garden was one of those icons that HAD to be sought out in the first few days of exploring.  Surprisingly, staff were free to use it when filming wasn't taking place.  There was a gate, far to the left of this picture, to control access.

Post-Broom Cupboard, CBBC had a studio (again to the left of this picture) which looked out on the garden.  I have some exterior snaps of that which I'll post in future.

It was - predictably - smaller than it looked on TV... but no less iconic.

2013: THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART SEVEN

BBC TELEVISION CENTRE was far more than the oft-seen-on-TV "concrete doughnut" that Roy Castle tapped his way around; it was a vast complex of several buildings that seemed to merge into one another thanks to various passages, bridges and walkways.

There were some parts of the site that I barely set foot in whilst I worked there which I made a point of exploring in the final few months of the Centre's life.

I hope this exterior direction sign, located near the Wood Lane entrance to the site, gives some idea of the complexity of the overall site.  Some of these ancillary buildings had changed their names in the time I worked there.  The EBX Building was previously the PBX Building and - as I understand it - originally housed the telephone exchange for TVC.  The Drama Building was originally the Design Building and was originally built to house the Corporation's in-house scenic designers and builders.  Those were the days...

2013: THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART SIX

This Enterprise-alike corridor was probably the most traversed part of BBC TELEVISION CENTRE: it was the corridor which began (or ended) at Main Reception and travelled through Stage 6, Stage 5 and the Spur to the original Reception area, latterly renamed Stage Door.  Any staff or visitors who used Main Reception had to walk along this surprisingly narrow corridor.  Depending on where you worked in the building, it might take another 5-10 minutes to actually leave the building at the end of your shift.

Coming off the corridor at this end were two large open plan offices (one on each side) that housed various BBC News and Current Affairs TV and Radio production teams including Newsnight etc.  Those offices were always daunting if you had no idea what the person you were looking for actually looked like.

Looking into the distance: A service corridor fed in from the right.  On the left was the entrance to the Foyer which was a combined eating/ drinking area for BBC staff and a holding area for audiences waiting to attend a recording in one of the studios.

This area also hosted the BBC Shop which sold various BBC-branded items to staff and visitors alike.  This was a holdover from a larger chain of stores that operated as standalone units.  There was one near Broadcasting House (as I recall, they were turfed out of BH itself because of the rebuilding) and another in Kingston.  And - I know - others as well.  They were good stores and another way for the BBC to interact with the public but the economies-of-scale against the web were never there and they were all closed (with the exception of this one and some - including one in Brighton- that were operated by a different part of the corporation).

The brown door in the distance led to a small studio (TC0) which had various functions in the time I was at TVC including a dubbing suite and - later - an experimental VR suite.  I think it was also used for Children's continuity at some point.  Later I think it languished largely unused.

The corridor does a little bend to accommodate the studio and then continues on to the area that housed the WH Smith concession, the facilities management office and the audience access - up a flight of stairs - to TC8.

Beyond that... Stage Door and the main building.

Roughly where I stood to take this picture is where the dump bins that held ARIEL, the weekly staff newspaper sat.  This was an essential weekly read and pretty much the only way to find out what was going on across such a vast organisation.  It held out longer than I expected but eventually succumbed to cost-cutting.

2013: THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART FIVE

Here's a rather unattractive sight that greeted visitors to BBC TELEVISION CENTRE coming to see shows recorded in one of the studios: an ugly great slab of metal erected outside a ground floor office (pretty much next door to the considerably less protected hairdressers) in Stage Five.

Behind the tin shield was TVC's Security Office.  I never had cause to visit it myself so I can't say exactly what went on inside but I suspect they co-ordinated the various security patrols that roamed the corridors and reacted to any specific situations which required their attendance.

This part of the site could be something of an afternoon sun trap which must have made the security office pretty uncomfortable during the occasional days of sunshine.

I don't recall exactly when this screen was erected but I think it coincided with the construction of the Westfield shopping mall across the road.  The new development was built on semi-derelict land which had previously housed railway goods yards and TVC's notoriously dodgy overflow car park (basically a muddy wasteland), deemed so dangerous that female staff could request a security escort if returning to their car in the evening.

The railway yards had been the target of German bombs during the war and there was a serious suspicion that inert bombs could be disturbed - and potentially detonated - during construction.  I think someone in the BBC realised that the security office was vulnerable to any such big bang and required additional protection.  The rest of the building was hardly bomb proof either (although I suspect the glass in Stage 6, facing Wood Lane and subject to an IRA bomb attack several years previously, was tougher than the bog-standard windows used on the rest of the site) but other staff were presumably left to take their chances.

As part of the same work, a large new pedestrian gate was installed at the back of the site, adjacent to the Restaurant Block and the Blue Peter Garden which would have allowed large numbers of people to be evacuated into Hammersmith Park in an emergency.

I recall reading somewhere that if TVC was evacuated for any length of time it would take days (weeks?) for it to be brought fully back into service because it would take ages to power-up all the systems and technology and bring it back on-line.

At the beginning of this period, the BBC Broadcast playout suites for assorted BBC and UKTV channels were still housed in the wedge area located behind South Hall lifts (with the Enterprise-like Pres Control nearby on the third floor) so there would have been disruption to usual services beyond the evacuation of the studios and News Centre.  They later relocated to the Broadcast Centre on the White City site down the road.  In retrospect, another sign that TVC's days were numbered...

2013: THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART FOUR

The lights are on... but no one is home.

This is the BBC WORLD NEWS GALLERY shortly before BBC TELEVISION CENTRE was decommissioned.  The channel had already relocated to New Broadcasting House by this point but the studio and gallery were still operational - albeit unstaffed.

It's possible that the adjacent studio was still being used for the odd recording and/ or training or that the equipment was being left running so that - in an emergency - the channel could relocate to TVC and resume broadcasts.

The gallery, tucked into one corner of the News Room, was originally build for BBC NEWS 24 (aka The BBC News Channel) and sat right next to the semi open plan studio itself.  The studio was originally built for N24 but extensively reconfigured for BBC WN when the News Channel started sharing the studios used for BBC ONE bulletins.

2013: THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART THREE

This is one thing that I found was guaranteed to surprise any first-time visitors to BBC TELEVISION CENTRE: It had its own miniature branch of WH Smith on the ground floor.

TVC was so large and - until the opening of the Westfield mall, very underserved by local shops that its (relatively) captive staff and visitors must have ensured a steady turnover.

The mini-branch was - technically - run along the same lines as one of their travel shops (airports, railway stations etc.) which meant a similar mix of magazines, cards, stationary, paperbacks, nik-naks and sweets.  None of which were stocked in much depth and, certainly in the nik-naks and confectionary categories, frequently vastly overpriced.

The travel shop designation meant that sometimes they would participate in newspaper giveaway (usually DVD) promotions... and sometimes not.  It was handy to be able to just pop in and pick-up whatever the freebie was on the way upstairs to the office.  But potentially embarrassing if someone spotted you in the lift clutching 'the wrong sort of newspaper'.

The branch occupied a ground floor space opposite the ID Card/ Facilities Management office somewhat mid-way between the Reception area and North Hall lifts adjacent to Stage Door (aka the original reception... which we'll get to).

For the first few years I worked at TVC, there was a independent newsagent located in what amounted to (or seemed to me) to be little more than a converted cupboard in the same location.  I'm not sure what was adjacent to it but the space was expanded considerably when WHS rolled-up.  I recall that there was some controversy in the pages of ARIEL (the weekly staff newsletter beloved by the media as it usually provided a juicy tale of Corporation inefficiency or mice infestation that could be regurgitated, frequently uncredited, in the press on Wednesday or Thursday) when the previous independent newsagent was ousted.  I think it would be true to say that he had a better magazine selection.

Although they slowly shuttered over time (as choice increased and staff numbers diminished), the ground floor also boasted a hairdressers, a dry cleaners (I think!) and flower shop when I first joined.  The punningly-named "Auntie's Blooms" (see what they did there?) shuttered shortly after there was a change to the expenses rules which put the kibosh on using BBC money to pay for flowers for staff and contributors.

2013: THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART TWO

Moving inside... this was a very surreptitiously snapped picture of a virtually empty Main Reception from the final week.

This is at the very front of the (relatively) modern extension, known as Stage 6 (the naming relates to the point in the site's history that the extension was built rather than anything to do with studios and sound stages), which opened immediately onto Wood Lane.  It replaced the better known original reception, part of the main "doughnut"building, that was renamed "Stage Door" and only accessible to staff and visitors already permitted access to the site.  Anyone could wander into Main Reception.

The revolving doors were fitted sometime circa 2000 in response to a security scare (As I recall, someone was able to clamber over the previous turnstile/ gate arrangement and menace Anna Ford) and were notorious for either being out-of-order or allowing a user to enter before malfunctioning and "reversing" slowly, shoving the unfortunate user back out of the doors.  In all the years I used them, the doors never lost that vague hint of danger and unpredictability.

Facilities Management produced a "Users' Guide" leaflet explaining how to use the doors at some point.  This was picked-up in the press as a 'dozy BBC staff need guide to using revolving doors' story.  I wish I'd kept a copy of that leaflet.

Immediately above the reception was the newsroom which, across various open-plan offices, television and radio studios, housed the Corporation's domestic and international news operations.  Compared with the vast atriums and deck plans of New Broadcasting House, it was (in retrospect) pretty low key but - at the time - seemed grand.

The roof design is - for me - reminiscent of the NCC 1701-D.

There were times when this place was heaving, packed-full of assorted guests, contributors and members of the public arriving for programmes and tours.  Big events, like Children in Need, would mean it was particularly busy.  I never got to know any of the reception staff well but I always found them a pleasure to work with.  Always happy, smiling and professional.

This was also the scene of my one-and-only meeting with ex-Director General Greg Dyke.  It's fair to say that he was a leader that inspired great loyalty from his "troops".  I always said he was the sort of boss that would tell you you'd been made redundant but instantly convince you that it was for the greater good so you felt good about it.  On the day of his dismissal, staff spontaneously walked out in a sign of protest and solidarity.  I think the vast majority felt that the Hutton Enquiry had been unfairly critical of the BBC.  We expected everyone to be found to be partially at fault but - as the top-line results were being read out on live TV - we realised it looked very bad.  I remember someone in our office saying "this could be all our jobs" as the knife twisted deeper.

When we heard Greg had "resigned" (he was sacked), we walked out onto Wood Lane and he left Broadcasting House (it's interesting to rewatch the footage of his leaving... he departs from a side door in the BH extension which was subsequently demolished in the rebuilding work that created New Broadcasting House) to travel by car to Television Centre to 'say goodbye'.  We all followed him into Main Reception (the space was heaving) and - suddenly - the crowd parted in front of me and he stepped forward and shook my hand.  He must have shaken a million hands that day but it was an unforgettable moment.  He then went upstairs to the newsroom, stood on a desk, and gave an impromptu speech about - if I recall correctly - the quality and independence of BBC journalism.

The space will survive - in some form - as the BBC will reoccupy some of Stage 6 when BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary responsible for international sales and channels, merchandising and licensing, moves in after the redevelopment.  A solitary BBC outpost in what used to be a BBC city (TVC, Centre House, the White City Building, the Broadcast Centre, the Media Centre and Woodlands as well as various ancillary buildings dotted around the immediate area housing people like BBC Technology) in West London.

2013: THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE: PART ONE

This is something that I hope will become a new STARLOGGED recurring feature: a photo gallery of the last days of the BBC's TELEVISION CENTRE as working studios and offices.

I was lucky enough to be able to wander its hallowed corridors earlier this year in the final few days before it closed for redevelopment and I snapped as many pictures as the battery on my phone would allow.  Not because I'm an amazing photographer (that much will become clear, although I blame the technical deficiencies of my antiquated camera phone) but because there were so many memories I wanted to preserve.

I worked at TVC for years and, although arguably its glory days were already long-gone, it was still the most fantastic place to work.  Constantly surprising, often frustrating and confusing, it was a magical place packed full of surprises, secrets and new things to discover.  Even at the very end - as I roamed around for the final time - I still visited parts of the building (or, to be more accurate, buildings) that I had never been to before.

I tried to snap as many corridors, corners and tucked-away places as I could because I knew I'd never get another chance... and they'd be lost forever as soon as the building is partially-demolished and stripped clean to make way for flats, a hotel and a small BBC presence (a few of the studios will remain, along with BBC Worldwide who'll move into the former BBC News space at the front of the building).

I should explain that - technically - photography on BBC premises is forbidden so - technically - I was doing this covertly.  That's why I wasn't wandering around with a top-notch camera and all the associated gubbins.