The Construction of BH.

As early as 1926 it was clear that the BBC's Savoy Hill headquarters were inadequate for the Company's increasing activities. It was decided that new premises were required and that they should be in the West End of London. Initially a search was made for an existing building which could be adapted for the needs of broadcasting. After looking at several properties, including Dorchester House which would subsequently be rebuilt as a hotel, it was decided that the problems of adaptation were too great and that it would be better, despite the greater expense, to construct a new building.

Various central London sites were considered and preliminary plans were prepared for some of them. It was in the Spring of 1927 that a site at the corner of Portland Place and Langham Street had been brought to the notice of the BBC. Early the following year, with the decision made to erect a new building, the BBC looked again at this site.

It was in the hands of a syndicate who were originally planning to build high-class residential flats. They offered, instead, to erect a building to suit the BBC's requirements and to grant the BBC a long-term lease, with an option to purchase. An agreement between the BBC and the syndicate was signed on 21st November, 1928. The photo, left, shows the steps of All Souls Church on the right.

The site was a strange shape and there were restrictions on height arising from the existence of 'ancient lights'. 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. The solution was to cut back the roof above the fourth floor. The effect that this had on the interior can be seen in the various floor plans in these pages. There were similar rights on the southern front of the building, but concessions from the owners resolved the problem.

There were difficulties underground, too, in the form of a deep sewer, more than a hundred years old, running through the site. This had to be encased in a reinforced concrete sheath before the foundations could be begun.

The architect was Lieut.-Col. G. Val Myer, F.R.I.B.A., who worked in association with the BBC's civil engineer Mr. M. T. Tudsbery. They faced the classic problem of a radio building - keeping extraneous sounds from both inside and outside the structure out of the studios. They also had to provide a large number of offices, all with daylight. The usual way of doing this in a large building is to construct it with a central light-well. But for BH it was decided to place all the offices in the form of an outer shell surrounding an inner core containing the studios. The offices thus provided sound insulation for the studios.

There was still the problem of internal sound insulation. A building of this size would normally be constructed around a steel structure, but this would transmit sound from studio to studio. The central core, or 'Tower', was therefore planned as virtually a separate building within the outer shell (which did use steel) and was constructed almost entirely of brick. Because of the enormous weight of the brickwork and the studio floors supported by it, ordinary Fletton bricks would have been over-stressed and blue Staffordshire bricks were used for most of the tower's construction. In order to make the Concert Hall as large as possible, it was designed to extend beyond the north wall of the tower, so this wall was carried at second floor level by twin plate girders, each 10'6" deep.

The tower could not be continued to the eighth-floor level because of the roof shape mentioned above. Studio 8A was therefore constructed more towards the western side of the building. This presented considerable difficulties, as it was necessary to avoid connecting the studio with the steel framework which supported it.

The outer wall of the tower was very thick (42 inches) to improve sound insulation and to provide the necessary stability. The non-structural partitions within the tower were cavity built, of cellular-concrete blocks. A layer of triple-ply sound deadening quilting was placed in the cavities.

A further problem was the ability of sound to travel through the ventilation system. This was solved by the use of sound absorbing material in the ducting and by providing four separate air-conditioning plants.

An artesian well was sunk to a depth of more than 600 feet in the north-west corner of the site (left). This was able to provide a stand-by supply of about a thousand gallons of water per hour.

Six lifts were installed, two originally meant for artists, two for staff and two for goods. These lifts travelled at 400 feet per minute, the passenger ones having a capacity of 24 persons.

This picture from the 1931 Year Book shows progress in October 1930.

The building was completed in 1931, and was initially rented at £45,000 p.a. It was later purchased for £650,000 and the freehold transferred to the BBC on 16 July 1936.

There were 22 studios, compared with nine (plus two effects studios and a temporary studio at Big Tree Wharf) at Savoy Hill.

Programmes transferred gradually to the new building. On the 15th of March, 1932 the first musical programme to come from BH was given by Henry Hall and his Dance Orchestra. The first news bulletin was read by Stuart Hibberd on March 18th. The last transmission from Savoy Hill was on May 14th.

The building entered full service on 2nd May and the following morning Sir John Reith addressed his staff in the Concert Hall. He spoke to them 'not as staff in the mass but as individuals'. Many of those individuals were disappointed with their new building, though. Even Reith expressed his initial dislike of it and was unhappy with the inclusion of his name in the Latin inscription in the reception hall. The friendly atmosphere of Savoy Hill was missing, and the building itself proved to have many shortcomings. Despite all the planning, there were soon complaints about the facilities. Offices and some studios were thought to be too small; there was noise leakage between studios; the Concert Hall organ could be heard in other studios; and, in return, big bands playing in the sub-basement could be heard in the Concert Hall; the rumble from the Bakerloo line could be heard in the lower studios; there was inadequate lighting to read scripts and scores; and some doors were too narrow to allow pianos through.

Even in the time that it had taken to plan and build BH, the requirements of broadcasting had increased. This trend continued and staff were soon moving out to other buildings in the area - the total number of BBC employees more than doubled in the period 1932-1936. The Empire Service began on the 19th December 1932 and made demands on space and recording facilities. There were more vaudeville, comedy and revue shows so St. George's Hall, next door to the Queen's Hall, was acquired in 1933. A space suitable for large orchestras was required and an old ice-rink in Maida Vale was converted into a studio complex in 1934. Early television experiments moved to 16 Portland Place, also in 1934.

SOME DATA CONCERNING BROADCASTING HOUSE IN 1932

• The height of the building above street level was 112 feet 9 inches.
• The depth of the building below street level was 34 ft. 3 in.
• The weight of the building was 24,000 tons.
• The number of blocks used was 2,630,000.
• The cubic capacity of the building was 2,260,161 cub. ft.
• The number of doors was 800.
• The number of panes of glass in the building was 7,500.
• The length of corridors was 1 mile.
• The weight of earth excavated before building commenced was 43,000 tons.
• The average consumption of water per day was approx. 193,000 gallons.
• The capacity of the fuel oil storage tanks was 60 tons.
• The average oil consumption per day for heating was 2 tons.
• The steam-raising capacity of the boilers was 12,000 lbs. per hour.
• The number of radiators in the building was 840.
• The power consumption of the air-conditioning and ventilating plant was equal to approx. 450 h.p.
• The amount of air handled by the ventilating apparatus per hour was approx. 260 tons.
• The number of rooms served by air-conditioning and ventilating plant was 180.
• The moisture given off in twelve hours by people in the tower, when it was fully occupied was 1 ton.
• The number of electric lamps in the building was approx. 6,500.
• The number of thermionic valves was approx. 660.
• The average filament heating load was 1,700 watts.
• The average H.T. load, including local loud-speaker amplifiers, was 1,300 watts.
• The average total electricity consumption daily was 5,300 units.
• The number of clocks in the building was 98.
• The total length of wiring in broadcasting circuits was approx. 142 miles.

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