Return to Broadcasting House...
So I don't know where to start really so I'm just going to come out and say it. After several weeks of organisation, negotiation and discussion I find myself cheerfully back in gainful employment. My new job has almost intimidating potential and at the moment is a little large a concept to easily digest, but as of ten o'clock this morning I became once more an employee of the BBC - more specifically working in Radio & Music as part of a new live research and development team.
But it's not just the job that's fascinating - it's also the environment. For the first time I'm actually going to be working in and around Broadcasting House, and (even though the whole area is being ripped asunder and rebuilt and even though I'm based in an extension to the main building) just being there feels like it connects me to a larger and messier tradition of people who have worked at the BBC in Broadcasting House over the last seventy years. From the origins of television through the Blitz right through until the present day, Broadcasting House has been a key element of the legacy of the BBC and there's ludicrous amounts of history saturating every surface.
Last year I had a chance to visit the bomb shelters from the second world war - walls of concrete six/eight feet deep covered with faded remnants of sixty years of use and disuse. It was fascinating, atmospheric, almost haunting... The BBC Radio Theatre that was in the core of the oldest part of the building has been the scene for some of the countries greatest comedic performances - from the Goons and Round the Horne right through to (almost) the present day. When George Orwell was working for the BBC writing propoganda, he was based in Broadcasting House. There's a Room 101 in the building, and it's widely believed to have been the basis for the Room 101 in the novel 1984. Pretty much concurrently with his work, one of the so-called Cambridge Spies - the drunken, gay, apparently sybaritic Guy Burgess was also working in the building. That is, of course, when he wasn't working for Russia...
But it's not just what happened inside the building that makes it vibrate with such potent historical energies. Even the sculptures on the front of the building (which are unfortunately covered up at the moment by scaffolding and screening) are significant. They were designed by Eric Gill - most familiar to graphic designers and typographers today because of his creation of Gill Sans. I heard a rumour from a friend of a friend once that the male statue originally had prominent genitals that were removed by a censorious establishment. I don't know if it's true or not, but it would fit with Gill's aesthetic and with what I know about the political life of the nineteen-thirties.
There's so much more that the building has been a silent witness to over the years. It's coped with direct-hits from Nazi bombs, coped with generations of creative revolutionaries over eight decades and now is coping with a radical rebuilding to make it a home for the BBC for decades to come. It's going to sound cheesy, but it's a genuine honour to work there.
Comments
Please stay on-topic, informative and polite. I reserve the right to remove comments for whatever vague capricious reasons seem reasonable at the time.
Congrats on the new job!
→ Posted by: kavi at July 1, 2003 2:06 AM
Yes Tom, congratulations, and best of luck at the BBC. I've long thought of them as one of the most respected and highest quality news organisations in the world. They're only further my views by hiring the likes of you.
→ Posted by: Bryan at July 1, 2003 2:43 AM
Congrats, Tom - it seems almost inevitable that the BBC should end up hiring you given the number of good people they manage to grab - I am glad you've found a way to serve the public and keep body and soul together as well...
→ Posted by: David Brake at July 1, 2003 8:34 AM
Thanks guys! The sentiment is truly appreciated. But enough about me - does anyone know any more interesting stories about Broadcasting House? I'm trying to get more of a sense of my new home. Oh - and I'm going to be taking some pictures of the stairs today if I get a moment. They're awesome...
→ Posted by: Tom Coates at July 1, 2003 8:42 AM
Well done on the new job! BH is a fascinating place given that it was the first building in the world which was custom-built for broadcasting. It's only a shame you won't get to see the old part of BH as it is being completely internally gutted and rebuilt.
Make sure you visit the bunker - if it hasn't been closed already. Before the BBC had contingencies for moving the radio networks out of London in case of civil disruption or a nuclear strike, there was a concrete underground bunker behind BH with 4 small radio studios, a phone exchange, a transmission control room and living quarters for key staff. It's fascinating to look round.
It's also a shame that you've missed the beautiful art-deco radio theatre which I guess is now closed as well.
When I worked there the smoking room was a studio in the basement which must have been used for recording plays and dramas in the past. It contained all kinds of things for making sound effects - flights of wooden, stone and carpeted stairs which didn't go anywhere, boxes of different sizes of gravel, paving slabs of various surfaces and different kinds of doors with many different sorts of locks and latches - all there just for creating atmospheres! Fascinating!
→ Posted by: absurdistan at July 1, 2003 9:00 AM
Congratulations, Tom. Welcome back.
I miss working in W1. An office over a Barclays in Shepherds Bush just isn't the same... *sigh*
→ Posted by: Darren at July 1, 2003 10:27 AM
Yes, congratulations from here too.
Mind you, an exciting and innovative job AND working in W1 rather than the grim, grey hell-hole of that building by the A40 flyover in W12 - some of us could get jealous! :-)
→ Posted by: Vaughan at July 1, 2003 1:39 PM
Cheers, Tom — had too happen! Blessings to you and exciting days for the rest of us, as the BBC puts your wits into play.
→ Posted by: AKMA at July 1, 2003 1:51 PM
Congratulations! I'm only new to your site, but nonetheless wish you all the best with the new job!
→ Posted by: suw at July 1, 2003 1:58 PM
Congrats on the new job. I grew up here in Canada inhaling as much British programming as I could take. I think it would thrilling to work for a company with such an international reputation. If you happen to run into Cathy McGowan, tell her I said hi.
→ Posted by: John at July 1, 2003 3:49 PM
Congratulations, Tom! That's wonderful news.
→ Posted by: Liz at July 1, 2003 9:07 PM
Slowly, but surely, webloggers are taking over public broadcasting. The BBC's the only good thing I can get on Dutch cable - now it's even better.
→ Posted by: Caroline at July 1, 2003 11:09 PM
THAT IS GREAT !
I know the feeling about getting a "real" job again. After being a contractor for a City government for the past months, I just got my first real offer....only problem is I have to move about 6 hours away.
Good luck, and I will be watching for your name in the credits of all the BBC shows on BBC-America :)
jim
→ Posted by: james mcmurry at July 2, 2003 4:32 AM
Congratulations, Tom! Maybe that means the rest of us wanna-work-in-BBC-London-types can hope for job opps too!
Andrew, stuck somewhere not even in London...
→ Posted by: Andrew at July 2, 2003 1:03 PM
Congrats ! I used to work there on the 5th floor in the IT department back in '99. It's a fantastic building with some looooong corridors ( doesn't rival TV Center though ;) ) and some parts you can easily get lost in ! Be sure to join the BBC Club ( it's just round the corner ) where the booze is plentiful and cheap-cheap-cheap !! ;) Oh, and the BBC canteen isn't as bad as people make out ! :p
→ Posted by: paul at July 3, 2003 3:31 AM
I agree the bbc canteen aint bad at all i had lunch there yesterday i had chicken chili stuf n face it was lush i also had a cheesecake that was rly enjoyable! the prices aint bad either!
→ Posted by: Tulsi at November 4, 2005 6:37 PM
Hi Tom. I was one of the design consultants on the rebuild project, and i can say that the building holds many memories, including Ghosts!!
It was not a lucky project, and a few of us believed that the ghosts of BBC past wanted it to remain the same. Obviously things change, technology moves on, and it is a great building. The good news is that the radio theatre remains pretty much the same, albeit a few minor changes to the stage (lifts either side), and a hospitality suit in the upper balcony, but the rest is as original. The council chambers look as good as in 1932, with all fixtures refurbished, and is a credit to the contractors.
The only thing that was a problem, was the RT organ, and how it was going to be re fitted into the theatre. I have now moved from the project, but I am proud to have been a part of restoring such a historic building. Just wait until BHX is replaced!!
→ Posted by: john at August 2, 2006 11:57 AM