Here is our petition to the BBC and the new owners of Television Centre, Stanhope PLC
“The BBC and Stanhope PLC are planning to demolish four of the current eight studios at BBC Television Centre. BBC Television Centre represents a national asset. They are a unique, up-to-date and efficient facility that represent a vital part of Britain’s media.
The brilliance of the original architectural and engineering design means they have retained their relevance to the present day and are widely considered to be amongst the best in the world. We believe the BBC and Stanhope plan to be inadequate, wasteful and irresponsible, and amounts to an act of cultural vandalism.
We call on Stanhope PLC and the BBC Trust to change their plans and keep all eight studios as working studios for the benefit of the UK broadcasting industry.”
PLEASE sign the petition and give us the best chance of stopping this needless destruction
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION AT CHANGE.ORG.
Now read more about the background to this campaign.
Lynn Conley
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This is the biggest act of vandalism in the history of television.
It’s outrageous that HD ready studios 4 5 6 7 and 8 are to be demolished in place of flats and yet another coffee shop.
These studios should be listed! without them, the capital will be left with a chronic shortage of viable studio space – costing the BBC much more money in the long run.
Lee Penfold
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BBC will end up regretting it if they get rid off TC4-TC8 it be there own fault
Why if something goes wrong in TC1-TC3 they could have TC4-TC8 as Spare Studios
Tim Hall
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Worked as an LD in studios all over the world. Some of my happiest times were at TVC and indeed made some of the nicest picures in my career there. The facilities and in house staff were superb. It was great having on on-site lighting warehouse as well.
Jeff Stevenson
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One day somebody will get the blame for this big mistake but then it will be far too late. Once again some overpaid idiot making a decision that puts so many hard working people out of work.
Myles Roberts
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Who owns the studios the BBC is renting in Manchester ? Who’s making millions from this ridiculous move ?
Janet Couzens
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“These are exciting times for television production” said Tony Hall, the new Director-General of the BBC, recently. “We are at the dawn of a new golden age of TV Production” said Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, recently. Both were speaking in reference to the Mayor’s massive investment in promoting London as a Film Industry Destination: it is already the 3rd busiest city in the world for film-making. The aim is to make London the city of choice for film production to boost jobs, support home grown talent and attract high-end production to the capital. Common sense alone should dictate that this is not the time to destroy that which can provide the best marketing magnet to bring that to fruition. TVC and its excellent studios and facilities should be the lighthouse beacon that draws production into the heart of our capital. Why more shops when there are plenty of shops over the road? Why not production companies? Why not the equivalent if not the superior to the development taking place around the Elephant and Castle? TVC should be maintained and developed as an exciting hub of production in London. Think outside the box and do something much more dynamic and imaginative that will enhance the BBC’s reputation and keep it ahead in a game within which it is gradually being surpassed. Shops won’t save the BBC once the money is spent. Sound investment and the sensible retention of these studios will.
L Clarke
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Irretrievable heritage will be gone for good if this takes place. Wicked and short sighted.
Joanna MacDonnell
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The decision to close TV Centre is a shortsighted one, the studios need to be saved. Why demolish something only to build something not as good elsewhere, this doesn’t make sense. I’m still staggered that the closure of TVC is considered ‘good’ for the TV industry in this country and a ‘good’ financial decision. It’s not! I worked at TVC for many years as a Floor Manager and there was no better feeling than working at the heart of Television with so many professionals who were as excited and passionate as I was about the programmes we were making.
Tina M Jenkins
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Getting rid of TV Centre is like NBC getting rid of their HQ in the Rockerfeller Centre in New York. There are some landmark buildings that create the pulse of an industry. TV Centre is one of them. We still have the best broadcasting system in the world and that is the building where so many talents have been allowed to flourish. Why turn it into a housing development for the benefit of a handful of already rich people? How much money does any individual need? It won’t bail out the BBC. These large corporate decisions never do. I remember when Virginia Bottomly tried to close St Bart’s Hospital in London, an 800 year old hospital, one of the oldest in the world, as it turned out, and yet she had the arrogance to think that economics spoke louder than history. It was one cut too far. Months later, she was dispatched and so were the Conservatives. When cuts are made on this staggering scale, you are taking the heart, the lungs and other vital organs from the body. What are you left with? Somerthing that is inert, incapable of life and well and truly dead. Do not kill off British Television in this way. You are making one cut too far and you are at risk of killing the entire beast, by weakening it’s infrastructure to such an extent that the whole cannot stand.
Vlad Moldovan
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A disastrous move from a greedy leadership who only sees dollar signs and fails to recognise a comprehensively loved symbol of an historic institution. Door to door accommodation and cloned coffee shops for the rich in a post apocalyptic capital of a great corporate nation.
Lucy Haynes
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No no no!
H357
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A crazy idea, they will regret
Denny Wise
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Surely as licence payers we should have privy to the closure of such an iconic building, I gather that the BBC also had some mind blowing New Technology within the studios of the the BBC TV Centre, we have the right to know what has happened to it!
Jacqui Peacock
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I was under the impression that the licence payers who cover the cost of the BBC have a right to be consulted. We where just informed that all was moving up north it would be a benifit to the area blaa blaa. However very few people have been employed just re-deployed. No one wants to drive up there for interviews so studios in the capital are payed for. Where is the benifit and saving. Just another fudged decision by a nobody penpusher. SAVE THE STUDIO AND BRING THE BEEB HOME
richard Drew
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huge mistake
Darcia Martin
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Bad idea to close it!! Madness!
AM El-Tawil
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I am very sorry to hear this bad news. I strongly against this decision.
A.M. El-Tawil
atawil20052003@yahoo.co.uk
Martin Lowrie
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Its a national disgrace that a purpose built tv centre is being consigned to the dustbin! It must be costing BBC far more to produce programme at other centres up and down the country than what it would if it was all In one place. I know some of the studios are going to retained and reopened in 1214 but even then the BBC will have to rent them at market rates rather than own them! The studios need to saved from the bulldozer now!
Andrew Gilhooly
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What has been planned is an act of cultural terrorism. TV centre studios should be saved.
Sally
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To get rid of studios which are fully functioning and some of the best in London, if not the UK is stupid.
TVC was built for a purpose and it works perfectly well so why change it?
Patrick Duffy
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Because it is considered trendy to believe that television broadcasters don’t need studios any more!
Ben Johnson
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I love BBC TV Centre! The place should stay as it is. If the BBC don’t want it then somebody else should have it. The site should remain a TV Centre though, no coffee shops or flats. Let’s just leave it as it is!
Liz Ann Bowden
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I love TVC it’s where I had one of my first ever jobs and to see it close its studio doors forever would be so sad!
Come on people you know it’s right!!
SAVE BBC TELEVISION CENTRE!!!
Paul Wilkinson
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The sale of Television Centre is short sighted madness and demolishing five studios that are up to date with modern technology is wasteful vandalism. History is embedded in the walls of those five threatened studios and it’s all for a few extra Flats, which the rest of site will have in thousands. Television Centre was a purpose built national treasure, that so many children grew up with. It was once a city within a city, with everything done under the same roof and most of all, it was a factory producing classic television consistantly. At it’s peak, working at Television Centre must have been like working in a Hollywood studio complex. I hope Stanhope PLC and the BBC will take notice of this petition and retain at least Studio 4 and Studio 8, because Television Centre needs to have more than three studios to cope with the constant demand.
Antonia Rae
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The idea of knocking down 5 of the best HD studios in London isn’t just a bad idea, it is completely and utterly crazy and a massive waste of BBC Licence Fee payers’ money. There is now a chronic shortage of studio space in London and productions are desperate for decent studio facilities in the capital. It also provided real jobs in one of least affluent areas of London as well as being a beautiful, iconic functioning building.
Reg Tarling
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Having worked at TV Centre during the late 80′s early 90′s
as Project Surveyor for the construction group that developed
hundreds of millions of pounds of TV Centre buildings and
studios including TC1 for the BBC to walk away having spent
all of our money on producing these fine facilities is nothing
less than shameless.
Anne Cowley
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It seems madness to demolish good studios at this iconic location. Let’s keep them!
Pat Hagarty
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Please save these BBC Studios at White City,as i am sure they would PAY for them selves in the long run.
Andrew Stacey
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It seems madness to destroy one of the most efficient programme making facilities in the country, even though, with the loss of it’s props, scenes and wardrobe departments, it’s excellence has already been sadly diminished. It is also one of the most Iconic and recognisable buildings in the country.
In the wake of the latest, £100 million (digital) loss fiasco it would appear to be time to ask,though I hate to use the corrupted phrase. if those running the BBC are fit for purpose,
Mike Leaback
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As a nation we have been investing in the BBC all these years . For it to be sold off bit by bit is a disgrace . The BBC and TV centre are national assets , we may as well sell off the crown jewels as well .
Patrick Duffy
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Wait and see, as sure as night follows day, in about five years or so we will get a great pronouncement from some future BBC DG that closing TVC was the BBC’s worst decision ever.
This of course will be made with the safe knowledge that it was not “my decision” and something should have been done at the time to stop it…………….. I mean how often have we heard similar admissions from various organisations in the past?
Adrian Bray
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The future for west London looks increasing bland and bleak. It is probably too late to save the massive Earls Court exhibition center which is only a mile down the road. That huge and iconic site with its great transport links and well established infrastructure, and which has been showcasing British industry for 80 years is set to be razed to the ground and turned into, guess what? You’ve got it, flats, shops and hotels. Now much the same fate awaits large slices of TVC? I have said elsewhere that London without Earls Court will be like New York without Madison Square Gardens. So I like the analogy above that now we are losing the equivalent of NBC in the Rockefeller Center too! Who is planning all this? Who is allowing all the industry that has made this area world famous, is demonstrably ‘sustainable’ and fit for the twenty-first century to be torn apart in favour of coffee shops and over-priced flats. Why is this madness being allowed to happen? Don’t blame the developers – they are doing what developers do – cashing in on the massive housing price bubble. Blame the government. They are the ones we allegedly vote into power to look after our best interests and see the bigger picture but who now seem to believe that our best interests lie not in sustainable, established, creative industries in which Britain is a recognised world leader, but in flats and coffee shops. And everyone knows that other countries do flats and coffee shops much better than we do. As a local resident of 20 years, I don’t recall voting for any of this. One cannot help but suspect that the government no longer has the best interests of the average voter close to its heart? I welcome plans to make TVC the centre of a media village for the twenty-first century. Who wouldn’t want that? Bring it on. But the developers will always look to maximise their short term profits, and those short term profits come from the sale of flats and houses. So for them the destruction of state of the art TV studios is a perfectly reasonable plan. It is up to a higher authority than the directors of Stanhope PLC. The planning authorities must recognise this and ensure that the iconic (listed) building that is the hub of this development is maintained fit for purpose, not so weakened and hamstrung by the developers, that the long term viability of the project is jeapordised for the short term gain to the developers. Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Keep the studios.
Joel Bernardes
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This decision should not be taken by the BBC but by the viewers who pay for the service. it is just unacceptable.