New Broadcasting House, Manchester

Overview

New Broadcasting House

native name	BBC Manchester Studios NBH
building type	Television and radio studios
architectural style	Precast concrete panels, with bronze-tinted solar-heat-rejecting glass
structural system	Reinforced concrete structure
address	Oxford Road, Manchester, M60 1SJ
landlord	BBC
coordinates	53.47312°N, -2.23925°W
completion date	July 1975
inauguration date	18 June 1976
demolished date	2012
other dimensions	5.4 acres (1.66 ha)
floor count	6
floor area	30400 m
main contractor	Higgs and Hill
architect	R. A. Sparks‡R1R‡
architecture firm	BBC Architectural and Civil Engineering Department
structural engineer	Ove Arup
services engineer	Haden Young
civil engineer	D. G. Nimmy
other designers	Acousticians – Sandy Brown Associates‡R2R‡ Mechanical Services – Building Design Partnership
quantity surveyor	Bare, Leaning, and Bare

New Broadcasting House (NBH) was the BBC's North West England headquarters on Oxford Road in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. The studios housed BBC Manchester, BBC North West, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Religion and Ethics department. It was known as a Network Production Centre, the others being in Birmingham (the now also demolished Pebble Mill Studios) and Broadcasting House, Bristol.

New Broadcasting House was vacated during autumn 2011 when the departments were relocated to MediaCityUK outside of central Manchester in Salford Quays. The building was demolished in 2012.[3]

Architecture and construction

New Broadcasting House was built on a site bounded by Oxford Road, Charles Street, Princess Street and Brancaster Road. To the rear of the building was the River Medlock. A compulsory purchase order for the site was approved by the Minister of Housing and Local Government on 21 July 1967 and planning began the same year.

History

Before New Broadcasting House opened, the BBC's Manchester base was at Broadcasting House in Piccadilly, and from 1958 it occupied four floors of Peter House in St Peter's Square. Dickenson Road Studios, the former studio of Mancunian Films in Rusholme, was bought in 1954 and Milton Hall on Deansgate was the home of the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra which became the BBC Philharmonic in 1982. The BBC also bought The Playhouse in Hulme in 1955 for use as a TV and radio recording studio, then as a studio for radio and music rehearsals only from the mid-1960s. The last broadcast was in 1986 and it was sold in 1989. The BBC studio was based in the smaller of two theatres in the same building known as Hulme Hippodrome, the entire building having been opened in two phases in 1901 and 1902. Before buying its smaller twin, the BBC had rented the larger theatre for studio use on Sundays with live audiences from 1950 to 1956 and installed a wooden control room in the Circle seating area.

Staff moved into the building on the weekend of 12–13 July 1975, and it was fully operational by September 1975 and officially inaugurated as the headquarters of BBC North on 18 June 1976. A second television studio was opened in May 1981 for regional TV news, leading to the closure of Broadcasting House in Piccadilly after 52 years. About 800 staff worked at the site.

New Broadcasting House was home to BBC Manchester, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC North West, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Religion and Ethics Department.[5] On opening, the radio station was named BBC Radio Manchester; it changed its name to BBC GMR (and briefly, GMR Talk) before reverting to its original name in April 2006.

In 2010, the building was offered for sale as the BBC's move to MediaCityUK rendered it surplus to requirements[6] and it was sold for £10 million in April 2011.[7][8] The BBC sign from the front of the building was removed in November 2011 shortly after the last department, regional TV, moved to MediaCityUK ending 35 years of broadcasting from the studios on Sunday 27 November 2011.[9]

New Broadcasting House, Manchester

Architecture and construction

History

See also

External links

References