On 31 March, the BBC formally handed over vacant possession of Television Centre to its developers Stanhope plc, as planned.
It has been quite a journey since the deal was signed back in July 2012 to sell Television Centre to Stanhope for £200 million, and a complex one at that which has not been without a considerable amount of hard work delivered with mixed emotions - afterall, Television Centre was the BBC’s home for more than 50 years. But, I am proud of all we have achieved.
BBC Worldwide are now housed in their newly refurbished headquarters in Stage 6 of Television Centre. Work is on track for BBC Studios and Post Production to return in 2017 operating from refurbished Studios 1, 2 and 3. Through our collaboration with Stanhope, I am confident that Television Centre will become a truly public space which protects the BBC’s legacy, maintains its place in the local community, preserves and enhances the heritage of the building and provides homes and jobs in the White City area.
If you walk along Wood Lane today, you will see cranes hovering above the building and scaffolding surrounding the site as construction work starts to open up and revitalise the site. These enabling works have already begun because in October 2014 the BBC agreed to give Stanhope control of the site six months early, saving the BBC an additional £5 million. This is on top of the £30m per year the BBC is saving in bills and maintenance it would otherwise have been paying for Television Centre.
BBC Technology have also done a tremendous job de-commissioning and removing some 14,000 pieces of IT and broadcast equipment much of which had been the mainstay of hundreds of hours of BBC programme-making over the past 50 years. More than 4,000 pieces of kit from Television Centre worth approximately £3.5 million have been transferred for reuse elsewhere in the BBC; and we have raised hundreds of thousands of pounds from auctioning off a huge array of TV memorabilia and historic broadcast equipment whilst also giving the public the chance to own a small piece of TV history.
Overall, the sale of Television Centre has generated considerable savings for licence fee payers and the BBC remains on track to save £67m a year by 2017 by reducing its property footprint by 30% and using the remaining buildings more efficiently. That means more money for the great content and services you love.
The over-arching vision for the site prepared by the partnership is one of continuing the long history of creativity and programme-making at Television Centre whilst introducing complementary uses. I therefore do not see this as the end, but the start of a new beginning. We are leaving Television Centre in really good shape to write the next chapter in the history of this much-loved, iconic building.
Chris Kane is Director, Commercial Projects
- Read more about Television Centre after its sale on the About the BBC Blog
