Television House is the former name of a building on Kingsway in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. From 1918, it was the base of the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

. From 1955, the building was the headquarters of

Associated-Rediffusion Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...

/Rediffusion London,

Independent Television News Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washington, D.C. I ...

(ITN), '' TV Times'' magazine, the Independent Television Companies Association and, at first,

Associated Television ATV Network Limited, originally Associated TeleVision (ATV), was a British broadcaster, part of the ITV (TV network), ITV (Independent Television) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on week ...

. Later, it was the initial base for Rediffusion's successor,

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

. After Thames moved out, it was the headquarters of the General Register Office for England and Wales and subsequently of

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

. It is now known as 61 Aldwych.

History

Adastral House

The Kingsway area had been redeveloped at the start of the 20th century from

slum A slum is a highly populated Urban area, urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are p ...

s and

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, E ...

housing into a broad avenue with grand office buildings and expensive townhouses. After the formation of the

in 1918, its headquarters was on Kingsway; one of two identical buildings opposite

Bush House Bush House is a Grade II listed building at the southern end of Kingsway between Aldwych and the Strand in London, England. It was conceived as a major new trade centre by American industrialist Irving T. Bush, and commissioned, designed, ...

became Adastral House, the name being derived from the RAF motto. This remained the home of the Air Ministry through

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and the roof of the building in 1940 during

The Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

is where, while fire-watching,

Arthur Harris Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet, (13 April 1892 – 5 April 1984), commonly known as "Bomber" Harris by the press and often within the RAF as "Butcher" or "Butch" Harris, was Air Officer Commanding, Air O ...

, made the remark about the bombing to a companion, " Well, they are sowing the wind...". The building became known to the public after the war as it was announced during

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

weather forecasts that the

Met Office The Met Office, until November 2000 officially the Meteorological Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather and climate service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and ...

had measured the temperatures and wind speeds in central London from its roof. During WWII, a Jamaican teenager called Billy Strachan sold all of his possessions and travelled all the way from the Caribbean to Adastral House, incorrectly believing that this was where he should go to join the Royal Air Force (RAF). When he arrived he was racially abused by the guards, before being rescued by sergeant who gave Strachan correct instructions on how to join the RAF. Strachan then went onto become an accomplished bomber pilot and a pioneer of black civil rights in Britain.

Television House

In 1954, the

Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 ( 2 & 3 Eliz. 2. c. 55) to supervise the creation of " Independent Television" (ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ...

(ITA) awarded the first two contracts for the imminent ITV commercial television network. Because the BBC had previously held a monopoly on broadcasting, there were no non-BBC television studio facilities in the UK. Associated-Rediffusion, as one of the two contractors, needed to build from scratch a whole new facility. The company had hired Thomas Brownrigg as General Manager, partially due to his extensive knowledge of planning and project management, which would be needed in simultaneously building a new company and its studios and headquarters.

British Electric Traction British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Ren ...

, the majority owner of Associated-Rediffusion, bought the freehold on Adastral House from the government. Brownrigg engaged Bovis Limited (later

Bovis Construction Bovis is a construction business in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1885, it was subsidiary of P&O from 1974, was acquired by Lendlease in 1999 and renamed Bovis Lend Lease. The brand was retired in 2011 in favour of Lendlease Project Manageme ...

) to gut the building internally and build a new suite of offices, technical facilities, and studios to be called Television House. This was begun in early 1955 and, with a planned start date for ITV of 22 September 1955, was worked on at great speed, virtually 24 hours a day. Four small studios (numbered 7, 8, 9, and 10) were built inside the building, mainly for current affairs and continuity use (the main large studios, later the

Fountain Studios Fountain Studios was an independently owned television studio in Wembley Park, north-west London, England. The company was last part of the Avesco Group plc. Several companies owned the site before it was bought by Fountain in 1993. Originall ...

, were based at the former

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

studios in

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

). Additionally, office space and dining facilities for over 1,000 people were created. A suite of management offices, replete with an oak-paneled boardroom, was built. The original headquarters and studio facilities of

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...

were located on the seventh and eighth floors of the building. '' TV Times'', part-owned by Associated-Rediffusion, occupied offices in the building from 1957 until April 1958. A computer room, housing an early

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

that controlled advertising bookings, was added on the second floor in 1966.

Associated TeleVision ATV Network Limited, originally Associated TeleVision (ATV), was a British broadcaster, part of the ITV (TV network), ITV (Independent Television) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on week ...

(ATV) inhabited Television House for the first few years of broadcasting, mainly as office accommodation rather than studio facilities. For a period early in ITV's history, Associated-Rediffusion provided this space for free as part of the effort to keep ITV afloat during the financial crisis of 1955-1957.

St Catherine's House

In the 1967 ITV contract round, the ITA awarded the London weekday contract to a joint company formed from

ABC Weekend TV ABC Television Limited, popularly known as ABC Weekend TV, was a British broadcaster which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one of ...

and Rediffusion Television,

. This new company had a surplus number of studios in London. The Wembley studios were therefore sold to the then-new

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...

. Thames, controlled by the former ABC, decided that a brand new studio complex, equipped from the start for colour broadcasting and located out of the center of London would be more appropriate. Thames used Television House as its headquarters whilst the building of the new Thames Television House in Euston took place. When Television House was vacated in 1970, the building was again occupied by the government, this time by the General Register Office for England and Wales (previously based in

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

). It was renamed St Catherine's House, and was used to house the birth, marriage and death certificates of the English and Welsh populations. In 1997, the building was vacated by the General Register Office (now the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys), which moved to

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

. After extensive refurbishment, the building became the UK headquarters of

Centrium

After ExxonMobil left, the building was renamed "The Centrium" and housed several organisations, including

Herman Miller MillerKnoll, Inc., doing business as Herman Miller, is an American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings. Its best known designs include the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, Mirra chair, and t ...

, the

Nursing and Midwifery Council The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the regulator for nursing and midwifery professions in the UK. The NMC maintains a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses and nursing associates eligible to pra ...

SVG Capital SVG Capital () was a leading British private equity and investment management business. Headquartered in London, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The business was established in 1996 to acquire the private equity interests of ...

, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Ashmore Group,

Tishman Speyer Tishman Speyer is an American multinational corporation based at 45 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. The conglomerate invests in high-profile real estate properties, has developed multiple buildings around the world, and has owned famou ...

and Interconnector UK

61 Aldwych

The building was subsequently renamed "61 Aldwych" by manager

. The building's management was later transferred to BH2 and

Cushman & Wakefield Cushman & Wakefield Inc. is an American global Commercial property, commercial real estate services firm. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois. Cushman & Wakefield is among the world's largest commercial real est ...

Production space

* Studio 7: . 33' by 24' = 10 m x 7.3 m * Studio 8: . 38' by 25' = 11.6 m x 7.6 m * Studio 9: . 64' by 40' = 19.5 m x 12.2 m * Studio 10: . 26' by 12' = 8 m x 3.7 m * Master Control: . * Maintenance Workshop: . * VTR (with 2x

Ampex Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name ''AMPEX'' is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excell ...

video recorders): . * Telecine (with 2x Cintel, 1x RCA Vidicon and 2x EMI Flying Spot telecine machines): . * Rehearsal rooms x6: . * Projector theatres x 6 * Cutting rooms x15 * Dubbing theatre

References

* Croston, Eric ''ITV 1963'' London: Independent Television Authority 1963 * Various authors ''A Guide to Rediffusion Television Studios'' London: Rediffusion Television Ltd April 1967 * Elliott, Ronald (Ed.) ''Fusion: Associated-Rediffusion's House Magazine'' number 19, June 1961 * Graham, Russ
London Calling
undated, accessed 21 February 2006
Centrium
accessed 7 February 2008 {{reflist

External links

BFI Screen Online

TV Studio History website

Television House
at This is Rediffusion Buildings and structures in the City of Westminster Cultural and educational buildings in London ITV offices, studios and buildings Mass media company headquarters in the United Kingdom Media and communications in the City of Westminster 20th-century history of the Royal Air Force Air Ministry