Lower Ground Floor

Diagram of the lower ground floor
A large theatre-like space
87 ❧ The Concert Hall, looking towards the platform. This and the next photograph are by S. W. Newbery.
A large theatre-like space
88 ❧ The Concert Hall, taken from the stage, looking towards the gallery, and showing the seating accommodation for 538 people in addition to a full symphony orchestra. The microphone is seen suspended in the middle.

89 ❧ The six Friezes on the Western Wall of the Concert Hall, forming horizontal panels under the rectangular lights. The carvings are of classical scenes representing Poetry, Dancing, a Ball Game, a Sacrifice, a Foot Race, and Music. The sculptor, Mr. Gilbert Bayes, is to produce a further six reliefs, with modern subjects, for the opposite wall.

Frieze: Poetry
Pegasus unseals the spring of Poetry.
Frieze: Dance
'Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!' – Keats, Ode to a Nightingale
Frieze: Ball
Odysseus watches Nausicaa and her companions at a game of Ball.
Frieze: Sacrifice
'Who are these coming to the Sacrifice?' – Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
Frieze: Foot-race
Milanion Conquers Atalanta in the Foot-race,
Frieze: music
'Naught so stockish hard and full of rage
But Music for a time doth change its nature.' – Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice
The balcony with a large clock
90 ❧ The Balcony of the Concert Hall.
A view of a comfortable chair through some curtains
91 ❧ The Green Room, for the Conductors and Artists using the Concert Hall.
A semi-transparent clock with lines springing up from the bottom
92 ❧ The Green Room Clock.

Basement

Diagram of the basement
A room with chairs facing a big radio
94 ❧ Listening Hall No. 1. A seascape roughly painted on canvas has been introduced to counteract the effect of being shut in a small room.
Comfortable chairs and a standard lamp
Listening Hall No. 1. A view of the back of the room showing the furniture.
A large radio sits in front of a decorated recess
96 ❧ Listening Hall No. 2. The designer has produced a stimulating effect of sunlight by the use of gold and silver foil.
A bank of large black batteries
97 ❧ Storage Batteries for the Emergency Lighting Supply. This lighting is permanently switched on to enable the performances in the studios to be continued in case of the failure of the ordinary lighting.
An empty space with a microphone and a large speaker
98 ❧ One of the Echo Rooms. The music from the studio is reproduced on a loudspeaker in a resonant room, and the sounds thus obtained are picked up on a microphone and sent on to the Control Room, where they are simultaneously added (in any required degree of echo effect) to the same music coming direct from the studio.
A corridor
99 ❧ The Studio Corridor, leading to the balcony of the Vaudeville Studio, BA.
A curved balcony with railings
100 ❧ Studio BB: a view of the Balcony.
A curved balcony with seats
101 ❧ Vaudeville Studio: the Balcony, intended to accommodate part of the small audience required for giving atmosphere to the broadcasts.
1932 // THIS IS TRANSDIFFUSION