1989: Reviewing the BBC's Architectural Heritage | The Late Show | BBC Archive

"No set of buildings can be inhabited by so vast and various an institution as the BBC, and not become symbolically contaminated by that institution."

Author and architectural critic, Jonathan Meades, goes on a whistlestop tour of assorted BBC buildings in London, to consider what the broadcaster's architectural heritage says about it. He first visits Bush House in Kingsway, the home of the World Service, commissioned by the American industrialist Irving T. Bush. Next, he visits BBC Broadcasting House, the first major purpose-built BBC structure, designed by architect George Val Myer and BBC Engineer Marmaduke T. Tudsbery. Jonathan considers how it compares to the Senate House of London University - an architectural contemporary - and the British Telecom Tower - a more modern communications building. He then visits The BBC Film Studios at Ealing and Lime Grove, which were acquired from struggling British film companies in 1955 and 1949 respectively. Lime Grove was intended to be a temporary home for the BBC, while work was completed on BBC Television Centre at Shepherd's Bush, which Jonathan visits next. Finally, he visits the fomer site of the White City Stadium, where the BBC's new Corporate HQ building is under construction. What does it say about the future of the BBC?

Introduced by Tracey MacLeod from BBC Lime Grove; "a building which combines the charm of a public urinal with the efficiency of a Cretan labyrinth."

Clip taken from The Late Show, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 1 March, 1989.

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