B.B.C. GROWING OUT OF ITS CLOTHES!

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 45, 17 May 1935, Page 8

B.B.C. GROWING OUT OF ITS CLOTHES!

Plans for Doubling Size of Broadcasting House LANS for doubling the size of Broadeasting House, London, at a eost of £200,000, have been prepared, says the "News-Chron-icle." -The plan provides for an extension io Broadcasting House along Portland Place. There will be a series: of new und improved studios and administra" tive offices, and-a significant factprovision for television studios and television apparatus, The ultimate objective is to build ‘the other half" of Broadcasting House, but for the present lack of funds will probably compel. the B.B.C, to reconstruct the interior of a number of Georgian houses. When in 1932 Broadeasting House was built and equipped at a cost of

nearly £1,000,000, the tremendous growth of the B.B.C.’s. activities was not foreseen. In particular, Empire broadcasting, which is run on a 24-hour basis, was not provided for. The necessity for having studio audiences had not arisen and musical comedies and large musical shows were seldom, if ever, broadcast. Such developments have made it necessary for the B.B.C. to. take over St. ‘Georges Hall, while the increasing use of 1a orchestral combinations cajl for tliv vast studio which has been built in an old skating rink in Maida Vale. There is also the fact that the B.B.C. installed a £10,000 wonder organ in the concert hall at Broadcasting House, whose deep and powerful notes penetrate into several surrounding studios. Television threatens to demand still more extevsive accommodation; the extent to which the B.B.C, may grow in the next 10 years cannot. possibly ‘be foreseen, but some provision must be made. A double-sized Broadcasting House has therefore been decided upon as a ‘first step. Several houses have alr#ady been acquired, and ‘the B.B.C. is in temporary occupation of some of tlem.. A start, on part of the building at least, may be made within the next few months, but the entire work cannot be put through until certain leases expire,