BBC Broadcasting House - Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, UK
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member Master Mariner
N 54° 35.602 W 005° 55.846
30U E 310659 N 6053491
BBC Broadcasting House is located in the centre of Belfast on the north side of Ormeau Avenue at the junction with Bedford Street. It was built in 1939 to the designs of James Millar in Art-Deco style.
Waymark Code: WM11ENJ
Location: Ulster, Ireland
Date Posted: 10/09/2019
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member bluesnote
Views: 1

Wikipedia has an article about Broadcasting house that tells us:

Broadcasting House, Belfast is the headquarters building from which BBC Northern Ireland operates many of its broadcasting services. The building is located on Ormeau Avenue in Belfast city centre, at the junction with Bedford Street. Public tours of the building are available.

The six-storey building was designed in 1936 by James Millar from Glasgow in neo-Georgian style, steel framed with reinforced concrete floors and roof and a facing of sand-faced bricks. Work started in 1938 and continued despite the Second World War to opening in May 1941. It featured a concert hall and several radio studios (television took until 1953 to reach Northern Ireland). In 1975 an eight-storey extension was built on Ormeau Avenue and in 1984 a three-storey extension, for the expanding news and current affairs service, was added in Linenhall Street West.

BBC Broadcasting House in Belfast has many radio studios, some self-operated, some manned, used for the BBC's main local radio station in Northern Ireland – BBC Radio Ulster, as well as being used by the BBC for other radio productions. There is also a news studio for radio news bulletins, a newsroom which provides news gathering for both television and radio news services for BBC Northern Ireland, along with production offices, makeup, green room, dressing rooms and hospitality/cafeteria services.

Broadcasting House is linked by satellite and cable to the whole BBC network, and is able to link to broadcasters around the world through the BBC's global link ups.

BBC Broadcasting House in Belfast has two main television studios named Studio B and Studio 1. Studio B is a 2,000 sq ft (190 m2) studio, home to BBC Northern Ireland's local news programme BBC Newsline, as well as home to other news/politics/current affairs programming. Studio 1 is a 2,200 sq ft (200 m2) studio, and is used for small productions. It can accommodate an audience of around one hundred if needed, and is ideal for small productions, interviews and is also used for media training purposes. There is also a small presentation studio and a small CSO studio used for small news bulletins, weather, or single-camera interviews.

BBC Northern Ireland's main 5,000 sq ft (460 m2) television studio called Studio A is not based at the BBC Broadcasting House, but is located a number of streets away at BBC Blackstaff House on Great Victoria Street in Belfast.

The building is B1 listed with the entry at the Department of Communities website advising:

A six-storey multi-bay modernist BBC broadcasting centre and office block erected 1939 to the designs of architect James Millar. Prominently located at the junction of a busy intersection close to the city centre and facing onto Ormeau Avenue and Bedford Street. An exercise in Art-deco style architecture with all its essential components retained. The primary external features are the principal curved façade and strong vertical styling of the radio tower. The additional blocks in 1975 and 1984 are also representative of the architecture of its time; erected in red brick they are clearly contrasting with the principal building. Typifying the modern era of national radio broadcasting, the building is representative of its time and function; and continues to serve its role on a now international level of importance.

Style: Art Deco

Structure Type: Culture/Entertainment

Architect: James Millar

Date Built: 1939

Supporting references: Not listed

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