The Site

The site

Early in 1928 the B.B.C. was informed of a site at the corner of Portland Place and Langham Street which was in the hands of a syndicate who were contemplating developing it for the purpose of high-class residential flats. The position of the site appealed to the B.B.C. as fulfilling the requirement of being in the centre of London, and particularly as being only a few minutes distant from Oxford Circus, which in many ways is as convenient of access as Piccadilly Circus or any other traffic junction in Central London. The fact that the site was also a few yards from the Queen’s Hall gave it a certain sentimental appropriateness for broadcasting. The syndicate owning the site offered to build a new headquarters to suit the B.B.C.’s requirements, and to grant the B.B.C. a long-term lease, with an option to purchase which has since been exercised. 

The development of the site itself, which occupies an area of about twenty thousand super. feet, was governed by the peculiarity of its shape and certain restrictions on height arising from the existence of ‘ancient lights’ on two of the three open faces of the building. The site was shaped like a flat-iron, with a blunted apex pointing south, and the base, or northern end, joined on to existing buildings. The western front, facing Portland Place, was not subject to any restriction of height other than that of the London Building Act. The eastern front, facing Langham Street, had to be designed so as not to violate the rights of light attached to the buildings in that street. There were similar rights on the short southern front of the building, but these were satisfactorily adjusted by concessions from the owners. The main result of the restrictions has been the cutting away of the roof from the fourth floor upwards so as to keep it within the limiting angle.

The site also raised certain questions of style, in that a modernity of design appropriate to a new science like broadcasting had to be reconciled, in the exterior of the building, with the quiet distinction of the neighbouring buildings in the Adam and Regency styles.

The Exterior

View from the roof looking towards the park
2 ❧ The view from the roof looking north towards Hampstead. The photograph has been taken by an 'infra-red' camera, which gives clearness of detail at great distances. It also has the effect of showing green objects, like the trees in Regent's Park in the foreground, as dazzling white.

The exterior

Describing the exterior of the building, Professor Reilly says:

The architect has taken the big curved front to Portland Place and modelled it in a series of flat vertical planes rising sheer from the pavement but balanced about a central axis. The windows in their long ranges emphasize admirably the curve of the front. Probably out of sympathy for the surrounding buildings, he has not turned them into long continuous sheets of glass in the modern way, but has given each the ordinary vertical shape. He has even filled them with bars, in these days of plate glass, to obtain a contrasting texture with his plain stone surfaces. These great stone cliffs of his, rising, as it were, one behind the other from a base modulated by a range of larger windows, a band of wave ornament, and a central strongly marked balcony, but with no crowning cornice, give an aspiring look to the building well in keeping with its central function. 

Such ornament as there is, the decorative coat of arms and the interesting frieze of birds and rays of light on the balcony front, designed by the architect, and the impressive reliefs by Mr. Eric Gill at the base of the two bays flanking the Portland Place front, are, like the building itself, restrained and forceful.

A distinctive feature of the elevation is the group of aerial masts which undoubtedly help the building to express its function in an obvious manner. The two masts on the highest part of the roof carry the aerial of the ultra-short-wave transmitter with which the B.B.C. is at present conducting experiments. The third mast on the lower roof at the front of the building is a spare one. Small receiving aerials are slung in various places on the roof, their positions being altered experimentally from time to time. 

There are four flagstaffs on the building, two on the western side at the eighth floor level, and two spare ones on the eastern at the fourth floor level, where the roof begins to recede. The flagstaff at the north-west corner flies the Union Jack, that at the south-west the B.B.C.’s own flag. This flag, in accordance with heraldic practice, is what may be described as a rectangular version of the shield in the B.B.C.’s coat of arms. On an azure field representing the ether, the Earth is floating among the seven planets, broadcasting being represented by a golden ring encircling the globe.

The great surface area of the western face is relieved partly by vertical breaks in the massing of the windows, and partly by a carved balcony on the third floor, the B.B.C. coat of arms between the third and fourth floors, and groups of sculpture at appropriate places on the level of the first floor. The carving of the B.B.C. coat of arms, and of the ‘birds of the air’ and ‘wave’ symbols on the balcony, were executed in accordance with designs made by the architect. The four external groups of sculpture were entrusted to Mr. Eric Gill, the distinguished sculptor and letter-carver. Mr. Gill accepted the B.B.C.’s suggestion that the literary subject of the carvings should be Shakespeare’s Ariel, who, as the invisible spirit of the air, might well serve as a personification of broadcasting. The two panels on the west front show ‘Ariel between Wisdom and Gaiety’, and ‘Ariel hearing celestial music’; and a panel over the entrance on the east side represents ‘Ariel piping to children’. The most important group, that intended for the niche above the main entrance, shows Prospero, Ariel’s master, sending him out into the world.

Directly above this group, at the seventh floor level, is a rectangular clock which is chimeless in the ordinary sense, but with the aid of a special amplifier and loudspeaker is able to reproduce the chimes of Big Ben at their natural strength at such times as they are being broadcast in the ordinary way. It is probable, however, that in practice the chimes will only be used once a day at a definite hour.

The scheme for the exterior of Broadcasting House includes floral decoration in the form of window-boxes lining the balconies at the eighth floor on the west front, and the third and fifth floors on the south front. These will be kept filled with plants such as daffodils, geraniums, and chrysanthemums in season. Conical bay-trees, which will be renewed once a year, form a background to the flowers on the balcony at the eighth floor level on the west front and at the fifth floor level on the south.

Conclusion

Conclusion

The facilities provided by Broadcasting House should make it possible for programmes to be handled far more smoothly than in the past, with, it is hoped, an improvement in timing and presentation. 

The rapid developments which have been made in recent years in the all-important question of acoustics, and the fact that studios have been built as studios and are not converted offices, should lead to a noticeable improvement in reproduction. In the past, for various reasons which are outside the scope of this article, studios had to be made ‘dead’, i.e. with practically no reverberation. To-day a brilliant and natural effect can be obtained, comparable with the acoustics of the best outside halls from which broadcasts are relayed.

The additional accommodation will permit more elaborate programmes to be undertaken, and will provide more space for rehearsals, while the provision of the latest methods of switching will enable minor faults to be rectified during the run of a transmission far more rapidly than has ever been possible in the past.

British materials have been used almost exclusively in the construction and decoration of Broadcasting House. At first the B.B.C. met with difficulty in obtaining British substitutes for some foreign fabrics and materials which were required for decorating the studios. Eventually the efforts of the B.B.C. and the designers resulted in certain firms being persuaded to manufacture, at competitive prices, articles of the same quality as the foreign ones. The heavier materials — stone, bricks, timber, metalwork, fittings — were all of British manufacture, all the timber coming from within the Empire.

The design itself may truthfully be described as an English design, an example of modern English architecture, which, although it shows the influence of twentieth-century currents of thought, yet pays its respects to the great English tradition of urban building which still lingers in Portland Place. As Mr. Howard Robertson says: ‘If good architectural design, as all true architects believe, is an aid to human efficiency, the future of British broadcasting is doubly bright.’

View of the roof
6 ❧ The Clock Tower and the South-west Corner of the Building, showing the Royal Standard flying on the occasion of H.M. the King's visit on July 7th, 1932. Note on the balcony the loudspeaker used for broadcasting Big Ben at approximately its natural strength.

Exterior

Exterior view
8 ❧ The South Front.
West Front from the ground
9 ❧ The West Front. The photograph is taken from the corner of Portland Place near the Langham Hotel.
A man flanked by two angelic figures
10 and 11 ❧ Sculpture Groups on the West Front at the First Floor level; above, Ariel hearing Celestial Music; below, Ariel between Wisdom and Gaiety. Both groups are by Eric Gill and are carved in Portland stone.
A figure plays a pipe whilst children dance
12 ❧ Sculpture Group on the East Front, at the first floor level, carved by Eric Gill in Portland stone. Ariel is represented piping to children.
Exterior view of the East Front
13 ❧ The East Front, facing Langham Street. Note the cutting back of the roof from the fourth floor upwards, made necessary by the existence of 'Ancient Lights'. Note also the intake panels at the third floor level, through which air is drawn in to supply some of the ventilating and air-conditioning plants.
Intakes on the roof
14 ❧ General View of the Roof, showing the fans by which the vitiated air from the building is extracted.
1932 // THIS IS TRANSDIFFUSION