White City Place is the name given to the collection of buildings formerly known as BBC Media Village (more commonly simply as White City or W12 within the BBC). White City Place is a collection of six buildings occupying a 17-acre site off Wood Lane, White City in West London, bordered by South Africa Road, Dorando Close and the A40 Westway. The site is a short distance along Wood Lane from

BBC Television Centre Television Centre (TVC), formerly known as BBC Television Centre, is a building complex in White City, London, White City, West London, which was the headquarters of BBC Television from 1960 to 2013, when BBC Television moved to Broadcasting H ...

. All formerly properties of the

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 ...

, only two buildings – Broadcast Centre and the Lighthouse – are currently occupied by BBC staff. The BBC sold the majority of buildings on the site in 2015 and it was renamed White City Place by new owners Stanhope and

Mitsui Fudosan is a major Japanese real estate developer with properties located globally. Mitsui Fudosan is one of the core companies of Mitsui Group. Corporate structure The company is organized into four divisions. *Office Building Division *Real Estate ...

BBC White City

The first building on the site, BBC White City, was designed by architects Scott Brownrigg & Turner and was opened in 1990. Built on the site of the 1908

Franco-British Exhibition The Franco-British Exhibition was a large public fair held in London between 14 May and 31 October 1908. It was the first in the series of the White City Exhibitions. The exhibition attracted 8 million visitors and celebrated the Entente Cordial ...

, White City was constructed on the location of the former

White City Stadium White City Stadium in London, England, was built for the 1908 Summer Olympics. It hosted the finish of the first modern marathon and swimming, speedway, boxing, show jumping, athletics, stock car racing, concerts and a match at the 1966 FIFA W ...

(The Great Stadium) used for the

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were originally schedu ...

. The stadium was demolished in 1985 and parts of the Olympic swimming pool were also discovered when the foundations of the new building were laid. The building was originally intended to be a new home for

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

, replacing

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

. This plan was scrapped and the building instead became office space with fifty edit suites, various Television production teams, the Digital Switchover team,

BBC Academy The BBC Academy is an educational arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation which trains current and prospective broadcasting employees in the skills of the Broadcasting industry, in addition to training the corporation's own staff and prospect ...

, the

Children in Need ''BBC Children in Need'' is the BBC's UK Charitable organization, charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the country. Established in 1980, the organisation has raised over £1 billion by 2023 through its ...

charity and parts of Operations and HR, as well as a large restaurant. It housed most of the BBC's current affairs and factual and learning programmes, such as ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

'', '' Top Gear'' (where it featured in a segment about the Peel P50), ''

Watchdog Watchdog or watch dog may refer to: Animals *Guard dog, a dog that barks to alert its owners of an intruder's presence * Portuguese Watchdog, Cão de Castro Laboreiro, a dog breed * Moscow Watchdog, a breed of dog that was bred in the Soviet U ...

'' and many others. The BBC vacated the building in March 2013 and sold it to developers. It has sometimes been referred to as White City One to distinguish it from the wider site. Architectural critic Jonathan Glancey wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in 2002 that by comparison to the "handsome, if timeworn ships of the line" such as Broadcasting House and

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, ...

, White City was "a tin-pot freighter, inefficient, ugly, and old before its time." Rachid Errtibi, a facilities coordinator at the BBC reflected that "most staff disliked the White City building for one reason or another utthe building did have a unique character, and was flexible enough to accommodate any new departments at short notice – achieved simply and quickly by putting up a few glass partition panels and rearranging furniture, at minimum cost."

Media Village

Development

Construction of the second phase of the development began in September 2001 and the site was officially opened in May 2004 and was known as the Media Village. It consists of five further buildings in addition to White City One – Media Centre, Broadcast Centre, Energy Centre, Garden House and the Lighthouse.New BBC Media Village opens tomorrow
BBC Press Office, 11 May 2004 The buildings were designed by

Allies and Morrison Allies and Morrison LLP is an architecture and urban planning practice based in London and Cambridge. Founded in 1984, the practice is now one of Britain's largest architectural firms. The practice's work ranges from architecture and interio ...

Architects and

Buro Happold Buro Happold Limited (previously ''BuroHappold Engineering'') is a British professional services firm that provides engineering consultancy, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for buildings, infrastructure, and the env ...

and built by Bovis Lend Lease. In addition to BBC offices, the site included a post office, a Tesco Express, a

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

, a Davy's wine bar and several other retail outlets, many of which have now been replaced.BBC Media Village White City
BBC Press pack 5 May 2004 To pay for construction costs, the BBC signed a 30-year deal with Land Securities Trillium, Britain's largest property developer. The rear of Media Centre included gardens designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole. A poem ''Voices of White City'' by Poet Laureate Andrew Motion was inlaid into the paving in the piazza. The site featured artworks such as Simon Patterson's art wall in Broadcast Centre which is based on First World War dazzle camouflage and Yuko Shiraishi's mural in Media Centre reception. She was also responsible for the overall colour scheme in both buildings. Energy Centre features the

Olympic Rings The International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses icons, flags, and symbols to represent and enhance the Olympic Games. These symbols include those commonly used during Olympic competitions such as the flame, fanfare, and theme as well as those u ...

as a marker of the finishing line of the 1908 Olympic marathon, with a plaque unveiled by IOC president Jacques Rogge in 2005. A further planned building, the Music Box, designed by Foreign Office Architects was originally scheduled for opening in 2006, but was cancelled in 2008 before construction began. It would have been a concert hall and recording venue for the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The ...

and

Chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

, the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...

and the BBC Singers.

Occupants

In 2004, it was intended that the Garden House and Lighthouse would be leased by independent production companies working with the BBC. The Media Centre was the global headquarters for the BBC's for-profit publishing subsidiary

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetised BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...

from 2008 until 2015, when it moved into the former BBC News annex of Television Centre.Andrew Fullerto
Media Centre, London: first in, last out
BBC blogs, 10 July 2015 Media Centre also housed non-broadcast divisions of the BBC which had been moved from central London to make way for the redevelopment of Broadcasting House. Media Centre was used for broadcasts of ''

'' and ''

Rogue Traders Rogue Traders is an Australian electronic rock band formed in Melbourne, Victoria in 2002 by mainstay James Ash on keyboards. In 1989, Ash met fellow original member Steve Davis in London while both were working as DJs. Before forming Rogue ...

'' as well as a filming location for ''

The Thick of It ''The Thick of It'' is a British comedy television series created, written and directed by Armando Iannucci that satirises the inner workings of British government. It was first broadcast for two short series on BBC Four in 2005, initially ...

''. Some BBC Television-making departments were located in Media Centre following the vacating of Television Centre in 2013 including Comedy, Entertainment & Events and Factual. The BBC then left Media Centre and Garden House, with staff relocated to Broadcast Centre, Broadcasting House, Grafton House and some to

MediaCityUK MediaCityUK is a mixed-use property development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in City of Salford, Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The project was developed by The Peel Group, Peel Media; its principal tenants are Mass media, ...

in Salford. Media Centre and Garden House closed on 10 July 2015 following the sale to Stanhope and Mitsui Fudosan. It was stated that the BBC received £87 million for the sale.BBC agrees property deal to save millions
BBC Press Release, 5 June 2015 At the time of its closure in July 2015, Garden House was mainly occupied by

Atos Atos SE is a European multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company with headquarters in Bezons suburb of Paris, France, and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communicat ...

and associated sub-contractors' teams following the sale of BBC Technology to Siemens in 2004. Broadcast Centre continued to house

BBC Design & Engineering BBC Design & Engineering (styled as BBC Design + Engineering) was an operational Division (business), business division of the BBC, which combined the BBC Digital, BBC Engineering and BBC Worldwide Technology divisions. It is responsible for all ...

staff, BBC Global News,

BBC Studios BBC Studios Limited is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Wor ...

production staff and Marketing and Audiences staff until 2020. The majority of the building is now leased to ITV following the closure of

The London Studios The London Studios (also known as The South Bank Studios, The London Television Centre, ITV Tower, Kent House and LWT Tower) in Lambeth, Central London was a television studio complex owned by ITV plc and originally built for London Weekend Te ...

Red Bee Media Red Bee Media Ltd., formerly Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services (EBMS), is an international broadcasting and media services company and the largest access provider in Europe. Red Bee has its headquarters in London, England, with branch offi ...

broadcasts

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, Channel 5,

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

from Broadcast Centre. The Energy Centre provides services to the entire site, and between 2008 and 2018 was the offices for the '' Top Gear'' television production team and the ''Top Gear'' magazine team.Richard Porter, ''And On That Bombshell: Inside the Madness and Genius of Top Gear'' (Orion, 2015) They moved into the main BBC Studios offices in Broadcast Centre in 2018. ''

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weekdays at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Roman Kemp, Ronan Keating ...

'' studio was located in the Energy Centre from 2007 to 2013 before moving to the newly built Peel Wing of

. In March 2019,

BBC Research & Development BBC Research & Development is the technical research department of the BBC. Function It has responsibility for researching and developing advanced and emerging media technologies for the benefit of the corporation, and wider UK and European m ...

moved into the Lighthouse building, having vacated Centre House on Wood Lane. A new building, Gateway Central, was constructed in 2022 and will be the headquarters of

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

White City Place

Under new owners Stanhope and Mitsui Fudosan, the site has been renamed White City Place and an extensive refurbishment and refitting of the vacated properties on the site has taken place. The former Media Centre was renamed to The MediaWorks and a significant renovation of White City One, renamed to The WestWorks, changed its main entrance and introduced a row of shops facing the piazza.

References

External links

{{BBC White City Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Media and communications in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham White City, London