BBC Broadcasting House

About BBC Broadcasting House

Headquarters and registered office of the BBC in London, England, UK

Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, standing in Portland Place and Langham Place in central London at the head of Regent Street. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932 and it was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The original building is in the Art Deco style with a facing of Portland stone over a steel frame and is Grade II* listed; its facade carries the famous sculpture of Prospero and Ariel and the Ariel friezes by Eric Gill and Gilbert Bayes, and it houses the BBC Radio Theatre, where music and speech programmes are recorded before a studio audience. As part of a major consolidation of the BBC's London property, the building was extensively renovated and extended: post-war additions on its eastern side were demolished and replaced by a new wing completed in 2005 and named the John Peel Wing in 2012 after the disc jockey. It houses BBC London, BBC Arabic Television and BBC Persian Television and, since 2024, Radio 2 and 6 Music, while Radio 3, Radio 4 and the BBC World Service broadcast from refurbished studios in the main building. The building is not open to visitors for security reasons, according to Wikivoyage, but the forecourt is public, and The One Show is transmitted every weeknight from 7PM from the glass-fronted ground-floor studio facing the plaza, with some segments performed in the plaza itself.

Where:

London, United Kingdom