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Broadcasting House

(September 2004)

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BT
Baroness Trumpington
Yes! Old BH now being refurbished. Most (not quite all) of green bit now flattened and being replaced by new building. All of blue bit scheduled to be demolished (that's BHX and BHXX in BBC parlance) in due course and replaced by new building.

Nice picture, by the way. Taken from the Telecom Tower?
MO
Moz
Baroness Trumpington posted:
Yes! Old BH now being refurbished. Most (not quite all) of green bit now flattened and being replaced by new building. All of blue bit scheduled to be demolished (that's BHX and BHXX in BBC parlance) in due course and replaced by new building.

Nice picture, by the way. Taken from the Telecom Tower?


Photo courtesey of a Nik Rawlinson from his website http://www.nik.co.uk/photos/bttower/broadcasting_house.shtml

Was taken from BT tower. If anyone's up there soon and could take a similar picture it'd be interesting to see it!
WM
Weather Man
Moz posted:
Baroness Trumpington posted:
Yes! Old BH now being refurbished. Most (not quite all) of green bit now flattened and being replaced by new building. All of blue bit scheduled to be demolished (that's BHX and BHXX in BBC parlance) in due course and replaced by new building.

Nice picture, by the way. Taken from the Telecom Tower?


Photo courtesey of a Nik Rawlinson from his website http://www.nik.co.uk/photos/bttower/broadcasting_house.shtml

Was taken from BT tower. If anyone's up there soon and could take a similar picture it'd be interesting to see it!


Can i ask, (off topic) can you go into the BT Tower and go to the top floor for free or something like that, or is there tour ect.
BE
Ben Founding member
Weather Man posted:
Can i ask, (off topic) can you go into the BT Tower and go to the top floor for free or something like that, or is there tour ect.


Neither. It's quite hard to get into the BT tower if you're a member of the public.
BB
BBC TV Centre
Ben posted:
Weather Man posted:
Can i ask, (off topic) can you go into the BT Tower and go to the top floor for free or something like that, or is there tour ect.


Neither. It's quite hard to get into the BT tower if you're a member of the public.


I've been told that you used to be able to go into BT Tower ages ago and into the restaurant, but since the privatisation of BT and the bomb (?) its been closed to the public. Unless you're a member of staff or something, it's pretty much impossible to get in as a member of the public.

Also is Newsbeat in this bit circled in red?

http://tvforum.ath.cx:8080/tvftemp/radio1.jpg

The view out of the window in the daytime from the newsroom webcam looks familiar ...
IS
Inspector Sands
BBC TV Centre posted:
I've been told that you used to be able to go into BT Tower ages ago and into the restaurant, but since the privatisation of BT and the bomb (?) its been closed to the public. Unless you're a member of staff or something, it's pretty much impossible to get in as a member of the public.


Yes after the bomb in the 1971 which blew out a large section of the public gallery it was closed:
http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/31/newsid_2464000/2464143.stm

Quote:

Also is Newsbeat in this bit circled in red?


No, Radio 1 is in a diffrent building a long way out of the bottom right of the photo


It's amazing looking at that photo how big the BH extensions are. The sad thing is that the more modern section on the right is only about 15 years old, bit of a waste really
MO
Moz
Inspector Sands posted:
It's amazing looking at that photo how big the BH extensions are. The sad thing is that the more modern section on the right is only about 15 years old, bit of a waste really


I thought that - the BHX and BHXX extensions are huge! In fact the new buildings look like resulting in a reduction in space, but more departments are moving in!
IS
Inspector Sands
Moz posted:
I thought that - the BHX and BHXX extensions are huge! In fact the new buildings look like resulting in a reduction in space, but more departments are moving in!


The new building will provide more space than what was there before - covering the red green and blue parts of the map. The buidings that have gone from the green section weren't very big
BT
Baroness Trumpington
BBC TV Centre posted:
I've been told that you used to be able to go into BT Tower ages ago and into the restaurant, but since the privatisation of BT and the bomb (?) its been closed to the public.


I remember going up there to the viewing gallery, when I was just a young lass. The revolving restaurant was too expensive for us to visit! I went up the tower again a few years ago, for an industry function. BT use the old revolving restaurant section as their Corporate Hospitality area. You go up in one of a pair of very fast lifts. It gives a fantastic view of London and it still revolves. It goes round incredibly smoothly and at a gentle rate. But if you stand there talking to someone, after a while you notice that the view behind them has changed!!

The kitchen area is in the central core, which doesn't revolve. I was told that when it was a restaurant, the waitresses used to find it confusing because if they spent a few minutes gathering stuff in the kitchens, the table they were trying to serve would have moved on from where it was when they left it.

It's a great shame it had to be closed to the public, but the IRA bomb did a lot of damage and, because that tower is of quite significant importance, the authorities decided they couldn't take any further risks. Mind you, it was designed not to fall down, even in the face of quite a close nuclear blast, so the IRA's exploding lunchbox shouldn't have posed too catastrophic a danger.....
BA
Bail Moderator
Baroness Trumpington posted:
BBC TV Centre posted:
I've been told that you used to be able to go into BT Tower ages ago and into the restaurant, but since the privatization of BT and the bomb (?) it’s been closed to the public.


It's a great shame it had to be closed to the public, but the IRA bomb did a lot of damage and, because that tower is of quite significant importance, the authorities decided they couldn't take any further risks. Mind you, it was designed not to fall down, even in the face of quite a close nuclear blast , so the IRA's exploding lunchbox shouldn't have posed too catastrophic a danger.....


Didn't they say the same thing about the World Trade Center(s)...

Looking at this on the long list of things the IRA has done why is the BBC TVC Bomb greyed out? That's the only one, and just happens to be the BBC.
AP
AdamP
Bail posted:
Looking at this on the long list of things the IRA has done why is the BBC TVC Bomb greyed out? That's the only one, and just happens to be the BBC.


It's not the only one - the Grand national being called off is also grey. It looks to me as though they're like that because they don't have a link to the full story.
MO
Moz
I think the BBC should put a webcam on top of the BT tower so we can watch OUR new Broadcasting House being built!

Who should I email to get this done?

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