51°30′50″N0°13′36″W / 51.51389°N 0.22667°W /51.51389; -0.22667
White City Place is a collection of six buildings occupying a 17-acre site offWood Lane inWhite City, West London, bordered by South Africa Road, Dorando Close and the A40 Westway. The site is a short distance along Wood Lane fromTelevision Centre. All formerly properties of theBBC, only two buildings – Broadcast Centre and the Lighthouse – are currently occupied by BBC staff.
White City Place was formerly known asBBC Media Village until the BBC sold the site in 2015 and it was renamed by new ownersStanhope andMitsui Fudosan.[1][2] Together with Television Centre, it is sometimes known in the broadcasting industry by themetonym "W12", after itsW12 postcode.[3]
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The first building on the site, BBC White City, was designed by architects Scott Brownrigg & Turner and was opened in 1990.[4] Built on the site of the 1908Franco-British Exhibition, BBC White City was constructed on the location of the formerWhite City Stadium (The Great Stadium) used for the1908 Summer Olympics. The stadium was demolished in 1985 and parts of the Olympic swimming pool were discovered when the foundations of the new building were laid.[5]
The building was originally intended to be a new home forBBC Radio, replacingBroadcasting House.[6] 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, theChildren in Need charity and parts of operations and HR, as well as a large restaurant.[7]
It housed most of the BBC's current affairs and factual and learning programmes, such asPanorama,Top Gear (where it featured in aseries 10 segment about thePeel P50),[8]Watchdog and many others. The BBC vacated the building in March 2013 and sold it to developers.[7] It has sometimes been referred to as White City One to distinguish it from the wider site.[9]
Architectural criticJonathan Glancey wrote inThe Guardian in 2002 that by comparison to the "handsome, if timeworn ships of the line" such as Broadcasting House andBush House, BBC White City was "a tin-pot freighter, inefficient, ugly, and old before its time."[10] Rachid Errtibi, a facilities coordinator at the BBC reflected that "most staff disliked the White City building for one reason or another [but] the 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."[7][11]
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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.[2] It consists of five further buildings in addition to White City One –Media Centre,Broadcast Centre,Energy Centre,Garden House and theLighthouse.[12] The buildings were designed byAllies and Morrison Architects andBuro Happold and built byBovis Lend Lease. In addition to BBC offices, the site included a post office, aTesco Express, aStarbucks, a Davy's wine bar and several other retail outlets, many of which have now been replaced.[4][12] To pay for construction costs, the BBC signed a 30-year deal withLand Securities Trillium, Britain's largest property developer.[4][12]
The rear of Media Centre included gardens designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole.[4] A poemVoices of White City by Poet LaureateAndrew Motion was inlaid into the paving in the piazza.[4] The site featured artworks such asSimon Patterson's art wall in Broadcast Centre which is based on First World Wardazzle camouflage and Yuko Shiraishi's mural in Media Centre reception. She was also responsible for the overall colour scheme in both buildings.[4][13] Energy Centre features theOlympic rings as a marker of the finishing line of the1908 Olympic marathon, with a plaque unveiled by IOC presidentJacques Rogge in 2005.[14]
A further planned building, the Music Box, designed byForeign Office Architects was originally scheduled for opening in 2006, but was cancelled in 2008 before construction began.[15] It would have been a concert hall and recording venue for theBBC Symphony Orchestra andBBC Symphony Chorus, theBBC Concert Orchestra and theBBC Singers.[4][16]
In 2004, it was intended that the Garden House and Lighthouse would be leased byindependent production companies working with the BBC.[4]
The Media Centre was the global headquarters for the BBC's for-profit publishing subsidiaryBBC Worldwide from 2008 until 2015, when it moved into the former BBC News annex of Television Centre.[2][17] 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.[2] Media Centre was used for broadcasts ofWatchdog andRogue Traders as well as a filming location forThe Thick of It.[2]
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 toMediaCityUK 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.[9]
At the time of its closure in July 2015, Garden House was mainly occupied byAtos and associated sub-contractors' teams following thesale of BBC Technology to Siemens in 2004.[2]
Broadcast Centre continued to houseBBC Design & Engineering staff,BBC Global News,BBC Studios production staff and Marketing and Audiences staff until 2020. The majority of the building is now leased toITV following the closure ofThe London Studios.[18]
Red Bee Media broadcastsBBC One,BBC Two,BBC News,Channel 4,Channel 5,BT Sport from Broadcast Centre.
The Energy Centre provides services to the entire site, and between 2008 and 2018 was the offices for theTop Gear television production team and theTop Gear magazine team.[11] They moved into the main BBC Studios offices in Broadcast Centre in 2018.The One Show studio was located in the Energy Centre from 2007 to 2013 before moving to the newly built Peel Wing ofBroadcasting House.[19][20][21]
In March 2019,BBC Research & Development moved into the Lighthouse building, having vacated Centre House on Wood Lane.[22]
A new building, Gateway Central, was constructed in 2022 and will be the headquarters ofL'Oréal.[23]
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.[1][2] The former Media Centre was renamed to The MediaWorks[24] 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.[25]
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Media related toBBC White City at Wikimedia Commons
