| The London Studios | |
|---|---|
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| Former names | The South Bank Television Centre |
| Alternative names | The ITV Studios London Television Centre ITV Towers LWT Tower LWT |
| General information | |
| Type | Television studios |
| Location | Upper Ground, London, SE1 9LT[1],Lambeth, London, England |
| Coordinates | 51°30′26″N0°06′45″W / 51.50733°N 0.11237°W /51.50733; -0.11237 |
| Elevation | 85 m (279 ft) |
| Construction started | 1969 |
| Completed | 1972 |
| Closed | Studios closed 30 April 2018 |
| Demolished | 2025 |
| Owner | ITV plc (2013–2019) Mitsubishi Estate London (2019–2025)[2][3] |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 24 |
| Floor area | 2.5 acres |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | EPR Architects |
| Structural engineer | Clarke Nicholls and Marcel, Civil and Structural Engineers |
| Main contractor | Higgs and Hill |
The London Studios (also known asThe South Bank Studios,The London Television Centre,ITV Tower,Kent House andLWT Tower) inLambeth,Central London was a television studio complex owned byITV plc and originally built forLondon Weekend Television. The studios were located in Central London, on theSouth Bank next to theIBM Building and theRoyal National Theatre. The building was set on 2.5 acres of land and was 24 floors high. The London Studios closed on 30 April 2018, and demolition began in early 2025.[4]
The facilities were the main studios forITV, along with a number of production companies includingITV Studios andShiver based in Kent House tower, while the studios were home to many entertainment, game and daytime shows. These includedGood Morning Britain,The Graham Norton Show,Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway andThe Jonathan Ross Show. The studios were also used for other programmes from various other channels includingBBC Television andChannel 4. ITV Creative, which promotes programmes on the ITV network, was also based at the London Studios. Many ITV programmes now come fromTelevision Centre inWhite City, London.
WhenLWT succeededATV as the London weekendITV franchisee in 1968, it rentedAssociated-Rediffusion's old studios atWembley (later known asThe Fountain Studios) while plans for a new studio complex in central London were drawn up.
The chosen site stood beside the then newRoyal National Theatre on theSouth Bank of theRiver Thames. It was bought in 1969, and construction work, awarded toHiggs and Hill, began in 1970. The centre opened fortransmission in 1972, though it was not fully operational until 1974. The complex was owned by the pension fund of theNational Coal Board and leased by the station. It was originally calledThe South Bank Television Centre (a name that lasted until the early 1990s) and at the time was the most advanced television centre in Europe.
On 28 January 2013ITV plc finally bought thefreehold of the now renamedLondon Television Centre for £56 million from what had become Coal Pension Properties.[5][6][7]
On social media, the building is named 'ITV Towers' since the purchase in January 2013. The official name of the building is The London Television Centre (with the studio business branded as 'The London Studios'), that being the logo in reception and around the building.
The site closed in April 2018 for demolition. Initially, ITV intended to redevelop the site with three smaller studios, but in October 2018 it announced it would not be returning to the South Bank, and the whole site would be redeveloped into premium housing.[8]
In November 2019, it was announced that ITV had reached an agreement to sell The London Studios for £145.6 million toMitsubishi Estate London.[3][2] New plans for the redevelopment of the site into a commercial development were revealed in February 2021.[9]
Demolition of the site commenced in early 2025.[4]
Kent House was a 24-storey tower block, which was home to ITV plc and many production offices includingITV Studios andShiver Productions. During the 1990s the block was also home to Carlton Television and GMTV. It was seen in the titles ofGood Morning Britain andAnt and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. The tower housed programme production offices, edit suites, dubbing suites, VTR studio booths and graphic booths.
Sandwiched between Kent House Tower and the River Thames were the main studio blocks, housing studios 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7, the restaurant, the takeaway bar (prior studio cafe), management offices, edit facilities, make-up and wardrobe. It was designed by London-based architecture practiceElsom Pack & Roberts.
On the east side of the site, there is a neighbouring building calledGabriel's Wharf. Previously belonging to Younger's Brewery, this three-storey building was added later to the site as a scenery store. WhenThis Morning moved fromLiverpool, the 3,000 square feet (280 m2) studio 8 was converted from the riverside end of the first storey. This area was on lease[10] fromCoin Street Community Builders to ITV until 2018, when they left the premises.
There were a total of nine different studios during the complex's lifespan. By the time of closure there were six. There were weather studios producing the ITV national, and some of the network's regional forecasts at ITN's headquarters in Gray's Inn Road.
The studios were originally built by the London weekendITV franchise holder,London Weekend Television (LWT). In 1991,Carlton Television won the London weekday franchise fromThames Television, but unlike Thames, Carlton had no studios of its own. Carlton rented space from The London Studios from 1993 for its own post-production and continuity facilities. This arrangement continued until 2002, when an agreement was reached for Carlton to be permanently based within space used by LWT; in the intervening years LWT had been taken over byGranada plc, and a close relationship had developed between Granada and Carlton. This led to consolidation within the ITV network and an agreement for the two to work together asITV London.
Since 2002, all theITV plc-owned regions'continuity before national programmes were presented from the London Studios and additional continuity before regional programmes in the following regions:Meridian,Westcountry,HTV West,Anglia, the non-franchiseITV Thames Valley region and since 16 January 2006HTV Wales, although between 2002 and 15 January 2006, the Welsh station's continuity was recorded and sent electronically to London. The complex also housed the continuity ofITV plc's digital channelsITV2,ITV3,ITV4 andCITV. The site also handled theplayout of all the above until 2007, when the service was outsourced to Technicolor Network Services (TNS) (now part ofEricsson). The play-out is now run from Ericsson's broadcast centre inChiswick.
Ericsson now provides network feeds to transmission centres inLeeds (home of the Northern Transmission Centre, which was also originally taken over by TNS as part of the outsourcing deal) andGlasgow (STV).
In 1994,Granada Group took over LWT and acquired the building. When ITV franchises were permitted to take one another over in the 1990s (which were previously restricted), Carlton and Granada between them, eventually owned all the franchises in England and Wales, merged in 2004. All of Carlton's studios had either been sold, or were surplus to requirements. Although the parent companies merged, and are now one (calledITV plc), Granada Television Ltd still exists as a subsidiary of ITV plc, and owns all ITV plc's studios (wholly inLeeds and London, and formerly as a joint venture withBBC Studios & Post Production inManchester).
The studios produced the bulk of originalITV Studios' programmes, but anyone could hire the studios, so the studios were often seen on other channels' programmes.
The London Studios was home to many popular programmes. List of shows, studio used and network broadcast on below:
The building used to host anamateur radio repeater, GB3LW. The site was provided by the London Weekend TV Amateur Radio Society.[11]
Authority control databases: Geographic |
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