BBC Television Centre

Return to Television Centre

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I worked in this iconic BBC building for many years until its closure in 2013.

It was sold off and underwent a lengthy redevelopment process which I witnessed first hand.

Television Centre is now open for business again, and I went to take a look on a flying visit to London.

It’s now an upmarket residential complex with smart facilities – a cafe now occupies the place I used to enter the building every day.

It was a disquieting visit, seeing the completion of such great change, contemplating memories and a past era…

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BBC Television Centre in March 2013

 

Farewell to London

/ mikeosbornphoto / 16 Comments

After living in London for more than 16 years, it’s time to say goodbye. I’m heading north to Manchester for fresh challenges and a whole new hinterland for photography.

I’ve been looking back over thousands of photographs taken in this city over the past five years, meaning much of my time here is locked in memories. This tiny fraction of images touches upon London’s scale and grand architecture – and places I’ve spent many hours in or passed by so many times. A goodbye here is a hello elsewhere – see you again soon from pastures new.

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Rubble and memories

/ mikeosbornphoto / 16 Comments

Television Centre in west London is currently a hive of activity. But not a place where programmes are being made by a hive of dedicated staff. It’s become a noisy building site where the former BBC hub is being transformed into a complex of homes, a hotel and other facilities.

I pass by the knot of cranes, bulldozers and diggers on my way to work at what’s left of the BBC in this area. The ‘donut’ has been stripped bare, while other familiar locations including the restaurant building are being pulled apart.

Most startling of all is the demolition of an entire wing of the complex where I worked for several years, leaving the spur – now occupied by BBC Worldwide – standing alone. Offices and corridors on the 7th floor that I knew so well have long since turned to dust.

Watching such a familiar landmark undergoing such drastic change is somehow difficult – yet fascinating – to witness every day. But at the same time I remind myself that its fabric was sagging around the edges and was at times not my favourite place on Earth. Life moves on…

As for these photographs, they are not intended to be artful or easy on the eye. They’re documentary snapshots capturing the former BBC Television Centre on 2 October 2015.

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Television Centre view

BBC Television Centre in March 2013

The Photo Shop

Yellow peril

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From the old to the new. Before BBC Television Centre in west London closed for good, I captured its staircases, both well used and more hidden.

The corporation’s main headquarters in the capital is now New Broadcasting House, a hunk of glass and metal carefully spliced into the existing radio building.

I found a new stairwell at the back of the new shell, reaching down eight flights. The designers chose luminous yellow handrails, perhaps for health and safety reasons? Perhaps not, because you can find an open window next to the staircase, an escape route for those who need it…

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Moody rooftops

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Sullen skyline

 These are the first photographs since moving to our new home and bidding farewell to W6.

The move did not take us far, but it’s different. Gone is the conventional ground floor flat – it has been replaced with upper floor living and a space in the rooftops.

Our skies were laced with stormy, rain-bearing clouds which look even more pronounced in monotone. In the scene below, the tower block is part of the old BBC Television Centre where I used to work. The site is now being slowly transformed, which we can see from our new neighbourhood.

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Rooftops of W12

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