Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tours/details/details_bh.shtmlToday I went on a tour around BBC Broadcasting House. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me.
To go on a tour you have to book in advance so I already had my £4.40 student ticket with me when I set off. I arrived just before my 2.10pm tour and was told to take a seat with the other people in the group. I sat in the plush waiting area and started to look through the BBC in-house magazine: Ariel. One particularly interesting story was by a novelist trying to encourage the BBC to do more to promote science. He said "I know only a tiny bit of science and nobody holds it against me... Maybe they should". Well... I hold it against you. But anyway...
At the start time for the tour we were welcomed by our two tour guides: Sarah and Adrian. They checked us off a list and then got us to write our names on a sheet of paper "in case there is an evacuation". We were then taken back outside by Adrian and stood on the steps of All Souls Church to face the Broadcasting House building.
He ran through the history of the nice art-deco building from it's official opening in 1932 to the present redevelopment. Above the main entrance stands a prominent statue of Ariel and Prospero from the Shakespeare play the Tempest:
This was sculpted by Eric Gill (who also made the typeface for the current BBC logo: Gill Sans) and there were suggestions that it was really depicting God and Son. The sculptor apparently told people that there was a secret in the work that would not be discovered until the building was knocked down. Well, too bad for him but during some restoration work they put a camera behind the statue of Prospero and found a hidden carving of a woman's face. Weird.
The building has been likened to a top hat (with the rim being the pavement) or a ship sailing down Regent Street.We finished looking at the outside and then went back to reception. Here we got to see the original octagonal BBC logo made as a mosaic in the floor. Originally the BBC stood for British Broadcasting Company before it became British Broadcasting Corporation. I'm not too clear on the difference. We then set off through security, to the toilets and then on our way...
First stop was the Radio Theatre. This sits in the centre of the building with offices wrapped around its outside. In the past few years it's been renovated to make it more accessible. This involved raising the floor by about 2 metres. We all sat in theatre-style seats and looked at the stage which had a few plain chairs on it. Everywhere microphones and speakers hung from the ceiling. We were told that most radio shows are pre-recorded now and a lot of them are recorded in the Radio Theatre. We saw a photo of the theatre being used as a bomb shelter during World War II - with men and women separated by a big curtain at night time. The building was actually hit by a bomb in WWII during a news announcement...
The next stop was by the (renovated but original) lifts. Here we saw a huge tapestry that had been given to the BBC by France to honour the BBC for it's help to the French resistance. We then visited the plush Council Chamber where all the BBC's decisions are made.
We then took the stairs up to some recording studios. This was my first time inside a recording studio and I was impressed. Although it wasn't as flashy as I'd imagined (if anything it was a bit cramped when all our group was in there) it looked like it was used by people who know how to do their job well. The walls were designed to avoid reverberating sounds and there were synchronised clocks everywhere you looked so people can announce the correct time-check on air. The studio we were in is where "Woman's Hour" and "You and Yours" are recorded. We visited another recording studio (where "Poetry Please" is recorded) before arriving at a bigger studio that had a piano and "enough space for a small orchestra".
We then went to the top of the building and out onto a little roof terrace. This was really nice and had a fantastic view. We were told about how the BBC was in Phase One of the redevelopment of the area. This included, for example, a Persian and Arabic broadcasting building next door. Unfortunately it began to rain so we went back inside and were told in more detail about the "Breathing Sculpture" on the roof:
This was made as a memorial to all the journalists and crew that have been killed in war-reporting. The text that spirals down the cone says:We then went down to the most fun part of the tour. Our group got to record a mini radio drama. Six volunteers were chosen to either read parts of a script or do electronic or physical sound-effects (e.g. corks popping or gongs bonging). The story of the drama was about a couple breaking down on a dark country road and walking to a spooky country house for help. The butler ominously welcomes them in, gives them champagne and then says "It's time for dinner... and the dinner is YOU!".life turns and turns on the crystal glass
breathing in our body
silence is a voice, our voice
silence is a body, our body
life turns and turns on the crystal glass
breathing in our body
I invite you to breathe
I invite you to listen to the silence
We watched them perform it and then listened to it again. It sounded impressively professional on the played back version - apart from some mix-ups with the sound effects and some badly delivered lines. The star of the show was the "Annoucer/Butler" played by a deep-voiced German man. He sounded very professional and really delivered his lines well.
We then returned to the reception, returned our customer satisfaction forms and departed.
Summary: Very interesting - would recommend to anyone who's ever listened to the BBC radio stations.
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