That programme is nearing completion. Most of our buildings have been modernised – more than 60 per cent are less than 15 years old compared to 5 per cent in 1999 – and over half of our staff now work outside of London. We have also reduced the number of buildings we occupy from over 250 to 154 and the overall space by nearly 30 per cent. The BBC now spends 4 per cent less in real terms on property than at the start of this programme. Between 2010 and 2017 we will have reduced the cost of running the estate by £67m a year.

We have replaced buildings like Television Centre, Bush House and White City in London, Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow, Oxford Road in Manchester and Pebble Mill in Birmingham – in many cases much loved, but run down and technically obsolete – with modern, technologically advanced buildings such as Broadcasting House in London, Pacific Quay in Glasgow, MediaCity UK in Salford and the Mailbox in Birmingham.

It is right to say that we have invested significantly in these buildings particularly in New Broadcasting House. In doing so, we have consolidated into one building the news, world service and television operations that were previously spread across three major sites. As a consequence this brings nearly half of all output under one roof using an unprecedented level of technological sophistication and resilience. Its open and accessible design has brought us closer to audiences with over 100,000 people visiting the building each year. And this doesn't include the countless passers-by dropping into the media café to overlook the newsroom, flocking to see their idols go in and out of Radio 1 or watching The One Show being made in the public piazza.

But we’re not quite finished yet. We still have some major sites that need to be modernised – we've announced a major new development in the centre of Cardiff to house our broadcast operations in Wales, and we're looking at options for Belfast and Bristol. We will also continue to improve on how efficiently our buildings are used and how they perform environmentally, continuing to drive down costs in real terms. But we have achieved a significant amount so far; particularly given that the Licence Fee has been held flat at £2.80 a week for six years. Today the National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, has said that we have made good progress:

“The reduction in space has significantly exceeded the reduction in staff numbers, which indicates the BBC is using its estate more efficiently.”… “This reduction coincided with an increase in its broadcast and digital output.” It added that the BBC has “replaced many ageing buildings with a smaller number of modern facilities that are better suited to its needs and more accessible to audiences.”

This confirms that the strategy the BBC set out to deliver at the start of this was the right one.

Better buildings mean better value for money. The efficiency they provide means we can spend more of the licence fee income in producing more of the world class programming that is expected of us.

Paul Greeves is the BBC's Director of Workplace and Safety

• See the full report here
• Read the press release on the Media Centre
• And the press release on the BBC Trust website

What a year 2014 has been for Broadcasting House, the BBC’s redeveloped central London headquarters. All year round, Broadcasting House produces programmes for a global audience; 265 million people access BBC News, via BBC World Service radio, BBC World News TV, or bbc.com/news. And BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 1 are the UK’s most listened to domestic radio services.

Our year got off to a royal start when The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visited the building as part of a day celebrating British radio.  Then in March, BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show host Nick Grimshaw took on the tough challenge of cycling 1,000 miles over 12 hours from a Perspex box on the World piazza outside Broadcasting House, as part of BBC Radio’s Around the World for Sport Relief – which involved a team of BBC Radio presenters, including Radio 2’s Jo Whiley, attempting to run, swim and cycle 25,000 miles - the circumference of the world.

March also saw the arrival of a very special new member of staff. Ian Fletcher, former Olympic head of deliverance began a new job as the BBC’s head of values in W1A, BBC Two’s comedy follow-up to Twenty Twelve. And the cameras will soon be rolling again in Broadcasting House as Fletcher (played by Hugh Bonneville) returns for a second series of the BBC Two series following the day-to-day problem-creating and problem-solving abilities of Fletcher and his team, aided once more by Siobhan Sharpe's PR agency Perfect Curve.

In June, Olympic rower and gold medalist James Cracknell (pictured above) carried the Queen’s Baton into Broadcasting House as it journeyed through London on its way to the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.  And since July, visitors to the Media Café have been able to follow in the footsteps of pop royalty and sit like Will.i.am or Sir Tom Jones in a replica of one of the famous chairs from hit BBC One show The Voice UK. Next year, this will be replaced with an EastEnders photo opportunity to celebrate the BBC One soap’s 30th anniversary.

In September, BBC One’s The One Show kicked off a week-long Music Festival featuring live music from The Vamps, pianist Lang Lang, Kasabian, Sam Smith and rock legend Robert Plant.

In November, the piazza exhibited a giant digital mosaic of the face of a British Army private killed during World War One (pictured). Artist Helen Marshall was commissioned by BBC Local Radio to produce this ambitious project, which used more than 30,000 images, as a way of commemorating the First World War in a digital age. The piazza also became a super car park for the day when some of the most beautiful cars known to man parked up as part of Radio 2 Breakfast presenter Chris Evans’ Magnificent Seven auction for BBC Children in Need.

No year would be complete without a visit from the Wintershall Nativity players who will be returning to the piazza on Wednesday 17th December, along with live sheep (pictured at top) and donkeys, to perform their unique large-scale, family-friendly production of the nativity.

These are just a few of the highlights to have taken place this year from a building that never sleeps. If you would like to find out more about your BBC at Broadcasting House, then why not book on a BBC Tour to peek behind the scenes of this dynamic, state-of-the-art, multimedia broadcasting hub in the heart of London. Over 120,000 people have toured Broadcasting House since they began in March 2013; and last week, Broadcasting House Tours won the Silver Award for Best Customer Service at the British Youth Travel Awards.

There’s also the possibility of booking to see one of the many BBC shows that are recorded in the beautifully refurbished, art deco Radio Theatre; this year over 53,000 people have joined the audience for shows ranging from gigs by Take That and Coldplay, popular Radio 4 programmes such as The News Quiz and Loose Ends; and special programmes and events such as BBC Two’s The European Union: In or Out? with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and UKIP leader Nigel Farage debating Britain’s membership of the EU and Radio 4’s Character Invasion Day which included a special live performance by the original cast of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. For more information and to book a show or tour visit the BBC Shows and Tours website.

So that is the year at Broadcasting House pretty well wrapped up. 2015 promises to be another eventful year and we look forward to welcoming thousands more visitors to Broadcasting House, whether as a programme guest, an audience member or on a BBC Tour.  To keep up-to-date with all the latest news and events, stay tuned to the Broadcasting House website.

Andy Baker is W1 Manager

The facts at a glance

• 70.25% of waste recycled in 2013 (Jan 13 – Dec 13), with 907 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill.
• 1,093 tonnes of CO2 avoided by recycling, compared to landfill disposal, enough to fill 190  hot air balloons (Jan 13 – Dec 13).
• 7,559,769 litres of water saved through recycling, enough for 3,999 showers (July 2011 - May 2012).
• 3,222 trees saved by recycling paper and cardboard, absorbing an extra 2,497 tonnes of CO2 per year (July 2011 - May 2012).
• Motion sensors throughout the building that switch off lights to save energy and monitor temperature.
• Solar sensitive glass façade.
• A heat reclamation system that allows fresh air to be recycled.
• High levels of natural daylight throughout the building.
• Technology procurement is rated as EPEAT®GOLD (the industry standard for green electronics).
• All timber used in the building has been FSC sourced.
• Recycling points are situated in every hub in the building.
• There is cycle parking for 600 bikes.
• State of the art low energy production lighting in the majority of our TV studios.
• Where possible, UK-based designers and suppliers have been used to fit out Broadcasting House, focusing on new talent and taking designs that are environmentally friendly, durable and cost effective.
• The PVC flooring in Radio 1 and the News Café is made up of raw materials from renewable or inexhaustible resources.
• All the glass splash backs and surfaces in the hubs are made from recycled glass.The fabrics used throughout the building, for example in the seating, are 78% sourced from the UK.

All in all, the move into Broadcasting House from the BBC’s old base at Television Centre has contributed to making the estate as a whole more sustainable and helped the BBC reach its goal of reducing energy consumption across the estate by 20%, and associated CO2 emissions.

Andy Baker is W1 Manager

Earlier on today, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visited New Broadcasting House in London first spending time in the newsroom. The Duchess of Cornwall visited the Woman's Hour studio, while The Prince of Wales spent time talking to World Service staff where even a Royal visit didn't interrupt an editorial meeting.

BBC photographer Jeff Overs documented the visit. We've included a selection of his photographs in this gallery.

 

We'll be updating this blog post throughout the day with additional pictures, videos and tweets.

After years out in the wild wild west of White City – The One Show team arrived, energetic, noisy and ambitious…with a piazza to play with. One thing I noticed when I first stood on that piazza looking at the studio was, it was at street-level. I mean it’s pretty hard not to notice that, but bear with me. It reminded me of someone once explaining how and why televised football changed forever. Why the viewers suddenly got a feeling of deeper interaction and accessibility, getting close up to the raw action. It was because TV cameras became portable and went pitch-side, ground level, giving viewers the perspective of actually being at the event. Which is a similar effect I believe the new location gives us. Filming outside looking in gives the show an identity as a landmark. And being inside shooting out, the public passing through the back of shot (also known as you going home) or stopping by to witness the event live, creates an atmosphere, an experience, a buzz. Exciting. Thanks for bearing with me.

So, myself, assistant producer Ben and researcher Rebecca were the lucky ones who landed the first Monday and Friday shows. Monday was a conundrum in itself - do we go all out jazz hands? Should we make the sofa revolve like a Voice chair to welcome Kylie and will.i.am? Or should we just keep it simple? Maybe we shouldn’t even refer to having moved studio? Matt and Alex did. will.i.am said it was ‘dope’.

But the launch wasn’t without jeopardy. We should have known better but attempted to work with animals. Those emphatic swans of Swan Lake were lined up to perform, but disaster struck. Three swans injured (THREE!) the Friday before TX. No pirouetting live around the BBC newsroom. Maybe a newsreader told them to break a leg? In hindsight, maybe the unfortunate injuries were a blessing in disguise, but we’ll never know. What we do know is, 14 Japanese Taiko drummers are very loud. And maybe a deafening drum roll is what the opening show needed after all? The first show received five million viewers, a soothing cold flannel to a hot brow.

Throughout the week, the ambitious ideas continued, our Deputy Editor Gareth’s big 14 idea (for 2014) was in full flow… 14 pianos were playing Beethoven, 14 'Elvi' weren’t lonesome at all singing their medley, 14 Strictly dancers danced their way in to the national press and Elsie was PAT tested and breathing fire from 14 orifices. Only on The One Show!

All this as well as Tom Cuckson’s Wednesday hour seeing an action man abseiling down the side of the building and an OB linking the studio to an airplane 27,000ft above Norway capturing the aurora borealis! The day and film teams try very hard to wreak havoc on The One Show technical team, like any creative team on a live show worth their salt should. But, it’s 1-0 to the technical gods so far. 

The usual rich, factual content continued across the week with a strand of films on three soldiers returning from Afghanistan to their families, the re-creation of a female wooly mammoth from bones dug up from under the North Sea, and not forgetting the intriguing film on how the shape of chocolate can alter the taste. It’s true. We tested it. 

As our Director of Television Danny Cohen mentioned in his speech after the first show, on what other TV show in the world do you get such a mix of quality content... 

Here’s to many more memories from W1.

Barney Newman is Producer, The One Show.

 

• The One Show is broadcast weekday evenings on BBC One at 7pm.
• More photos and behind the scenes news from The One Show is available on their facebook page.

Since we opened our new central London headquarters, the public space in front of Broadcasting House has become a well-trodden path for pop stars, politicians, presenters and the like. Well, that’s what you might expect from a building that houses our News, Radio and Television services.

However, I never expected to see livestock flocking across the flagstones.  But that is exactly what happened on Thursday 19 December when a donkey and a herd of sheep took centre stage as part of the famous Wintershall Nativity performed for the first time in the heart of London’s West End, against the dramatic backdrop of Broadcasting House.

The animals were accompanied by a cast of more than 70, dressed in traditional costumes and included musicians and a choir performing specially composed music. The players then travelled on into nearby All Souls Church in Langham Place to continue their performance.

 
To keep up with all the latest news and events at Broadcasting House as they happen, visit the new Broadcasting House website.

Andy Baker is W1 Manager.

Programme Director Andy Griffee and his central W1 Project team, supported by the delivery teams from BBC Operations, Technology and Workplace, worked hand-in-hand with all the BBC divisions moving into the new building.

The approach worked - all areas were delivered safely, over 72 weekends, with the right training (17,494 training days in total) delivered at the right time, to multiple tight deadlines and without any on-air interruptions. No mean feat when moving over 3,500 journalists out of five different buildings across London into a new building with new production and technical facilities. And all this came to a head in perhaps the busiest editorial year in our history with the Olympics, Paralympics and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

But we did it – we managed the seamless on-air transfer of 3x24 hour television news channels, 3 network radio stations, 26 international language radio services, all of the main Radio 4 and World Service news programmes including Today, World at One and PM as well as other live programmes such as Newsnight, The Marr Show, Sunday Politics and the main One, Six and Ten O’Clock TV news bulletins.

Accepting the trophy on behalf of the BBC, Director of Operations, Dominic Coles told the audience of professional project managers that new Broadcasting House “will be a lasting legacy of this success, as will the quality of the programming produced in this state of the art building.”

So do come and visit your stunning new Broadcasting House and while you are here, be sure to admire the shiny new trophy displayed in the main reception - testament to the hard work and collective efforts of all those involved in this 10 year major project.

Andy Baker is W1 Manager at the BBC

 

Discover more on the W1 Project on the Broadcasting House website. 

BBC Shows and Tours offer members of the public the chance to visit the building, learn about its architecture and how some of the output is made. 

In his last blog for About the BBC, Andy reflected on his first 100 days in his job as W1 Manager, including the visit by Her Majesty the Queen to formally open Broadcasting House. 

During my first 100 days in this job managing the BBC’s W1 operations, it’s been interesting to watch the new building operating at full capacity with teams from News, Television and Radio all working together for the first time, creating a thriving, creative community across W1. It’s also been satisfying to see such a diverse range of BBC programmes and services situated in such close proximity, enabling more collaborative working. With Radio 1 and the Today programme broadcasting live from the building, it is no longer so unusual to see presenters, politicians and pop stars rubbing shoulders in the lifts. And there will be more to come, I’m sure when, later this year, BBC One’s flagship programme The One Show joins the ‘W1 Village’, broadcasting live from its new ground-level studios in Broadcasting House.

I’ve also been really pleased to see so many visitors enjoy the array of new public facilities now on offer here. The newly opened café on the World piazza is fast becoming a popular destination to enjoy a coffee or lunch break, and the Media Café with its vista directly over the central newsroom, is full most evenings with Radio Theatre audiences.  Since BBC Tours began operating in March, over 18,500 visitors have booked onto one of the daily tours to see their BBC in action, and to have a go themselves at being in front of the camera – as news presenters, weather forecasters and radio actors.

My proudest moment over the last 100 days was welcoming Her Majesty The Queen to officially open the major new extension to Broadcasting House last month. Her visit marked the completion of a 10 year project to transform the iconic home of the BBC into a cutting edge centre for the digital future. 

Like many other W1 staff, I’m also able to keep a watchful eye over the building from a distance, as the images of the newsroom are beamed into our living rooms every evening at the start of the BBC News bulletins. It remains a thrilling sight.

Despite the inevitable teething problems associated with moving into a new home, we are well on our way to creating a new and vibrant destination in London W1 that our audiences, visitors and staff can enjoy. 

Andy Baker is W1 Manager.

• Visit the Broadcasting House website for more information.
• Or see the BBC Tours website to book a tour of the building.
  

Over on The Editors blog, head of news at BBC World News Andrew Roy writes,

"We're calling our new location The World's Newsroom because it truly reflects the world we report. We now work with colleagues from 27 language services who report for us from far flung bureaus and in London, allowing us to celebrate their unique expertise - something no other broadcaster can offer."

Read the rest of Andrew's post on The Editors blog. 

Since I last wrote in March, New Broadcasting House is fast filling up, with nearly three quarters of the building now full. The Andrew Marr Show, Sunday Politics, NewsWatch, Hardtalk and Newsnight are all now broadcasting from their new studios, and the first of the Radio 1 programmes have also now started to broadcast from their new home on the top floor. 

These programmes are making the most of the new technology and studios in New Broadcasting House demonstrating the creative High Definition benefits of their new home to audiences across the UK and the World. 

Over the remaining few months we will be preparing for the move of the BBC News Channel, the BBC One News bulletins and BBC World News when the new BBC newsroom will be in full view. However, for a sneak preview of what’s still to come, watch this two minute film showing a day in the life of New Broadcasting House as it goes about its business of making great programmes for a global audience.

Andy Griffee is Project Director, W1 Programme

The time-lapse photograph in this post was produced by Simon Kennedy. 

Radio 1 Producer Cara O'Brien blogged earlier this month about Radio 1's first programme from New Broadcasting House here. 

A slideshow of photographs featuring Broadcasting House in the 1930s is on Flickr

Presenter Oleg Antonenko. Picture Credit: Alistair Beavis, BBC World Service

In actual fact, this wasn't the first broadcast the Russian Service had made to Russia. The first TV broadcast went out in March from Bush House - home to the BBC Russian Service for more than 75 years.

For me - someone who has spent almost 15 years of my professional life on the radio as a DJ, talk show host, reporter, and a news and current affairs presenter - it was a new chapter and a new challenge too.

My colleagues still keep asking me how it feels to present a TV bulletin. "It feels really good," I reply, "and years of live radio experience has really helped too." But what I appreciate more now is that I have to think of more than just my voice.

As someone said to me recently, "clothes and manners do not make the man, but, when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance".

I would add make-up to that list. Honestly, before I started presenting TV I only had a theoretical knowledge of what stylists and make-up artists do. Now I can talk for hours about the best methods for removing make-up. Not only that, I now have to shave every day of my life.

On a serious note however, this story is really about team work. Our crew - the directors, cameramen, and producers are all learning together as they produce the programme.

Our programme covers international events and reflects on how the international community, including Britain, reacts to significant news from Russia. Each bulletin only lasts ten minutes and although it seems small, I am really pleased to play a part in making history with this first Russian TV broadcast for the World Service.

Seventy years ago Broadcasting House suffered its worst bomb attack ever. A mere eight years after its Art Deco glory had been revealed to an expectant UK - 'the new Tower of London' gushed the press of the day. In fact, this beacon of white Portland stone had been covered with streaks of green-grey wallgrease to make it less of a visible target for the predatory Luftwaffe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/bh4.jpg

But in spite of this, hit it did - with all the force of a 500lb delayed-action bomb. Smashing in at a seventh floor window, it came to rest in the music library two floors below, killing seven members of BBC staff - but barely disrupting the unflappable news reader Bruce Belfrage. He gave a slight cough as the ceiling fell around him, then continued courageously with his reading of the 9pm news bulletin.

One of the BBC staff, describing the aftermath of the bomb attacks on Broadcasting House, called it 'a scene from Dante's Inferno' (obviously a member of the Arts department!), but the BBC was only sharing what the rest of the UK was experiencing: the horror, the danger, the arbitrary nature of the Blitz, where one street survived, another next to it fell to the ground. Who lived, who died, was all a matter of chance.

But of course, broadcasting was identified early in the war as one of the obvious targets - hence its green-grey camouflage. Whole teams of broadcasters were evacuated to less urban parts of the UK, and strategies were put in place to ensure - whatever the eventuality - that broadcasting would carry on. Eventually in 1942, a bunker (or 'stronghold' as it was sometimes referred to) with walls 17 inches thick was built under the extension of Broadcasting House, so that vital broadcasting could persist.

Broadcasting House is not the only BBC London building to have been the target of bomb attack. More recently, Television Centre was hit in 2001 by an IRA bomb, leaving the front facade in mangled pieces. And nowadays the BBC, as many other public bodies, has to tread that difficult path between wanting to keep its buildings open and accessible to the public who pays for them, and protecting them from invasive attack, come when it will.

Robert Seatter is Head of BBC History

See and hear the full story on BBC History's audio slideshow.

It was to be a big event, and we had to make every effort to get it right. President Sarkozy et Madame Bruni would be paying us a visit, and I was to do the honours in French. Not just because I was a native French speaker, or happen to be "Controller, Languages" in BBC Global but, I strongly suspected, because my size (5ft nothing) helped a great deal. I could look President Sarkozy in the eye.

Monday - I meet Robert Seatter, Head of BBC History, and quickly realise he hasn't left anything to chance. Robert has done his homework thoroughly. He tells me it will be a whirlwind visit - all of 10' from the moment le President et Madame set foot through the door of Broadcasting House. And it will be timed to the nearest second. I have a minute and a half to do my piece, and so does Jean-Louis Cremieux-Brihlac, the 94 year old resistance fighter who witnessed it all and will talk about what the broadcast meant to him and his compatriots.

Robert and I agree on the gist of my talk - a couple of words about BH and the circumstances in which De Gaulle made his appeal, exactly 70 years ago on 18 June 1940. I will explain that the British government at the time was not terribly keen but Winston Churchill put his foot down and made it happen. A grateful De Gaulle wrote in his memoirs: "Winston Churchill put the BBC at my disposal".

For the next 4 years, at 20.30 every single day, from a small studio on the 4th floor of BH and then from Bush House, the "Resistance" would speak to France through the BBC French Service. And 70% of the population of France would be listening. (The French Service - where I incidentally started my BBC career- is still in very good health, broadcasting to Francophone Africa where our audiences are in the millions.)

Friday - when he arrives, at 0945 precisely, President Sarkozy seems in a great hurry. Much more so than Carla Bruni who's calm and collected.

Led by the BBC chairman and the DG they step with their retinue into the main area where a display of BBC archive pictures had been organised.

I greet them, try to capture their attention (much easier with Madame Bruni then the President), say my bit, and as I'm about to introduce Jean Louis, I notice M Sarkozy focusing on the tapestry behind me. So I explain that it was a gift from the French government to thank the BBC for its help and support during the war, that it was permanently on display and that it was inspired by Eluard's poem Liberte. Upon which Mr Sarkozy smiles broadly and recites to himself the last verse: "Je suis né pour te connaître pour te nommer Libérté". (I was born to know you, to name you, Freedom).

Anyone who's been through the French education system will know this poem off by heart. So I whisper it to myself too then handover to Mr Cremieux-Brihlac who declares that without the BBC there would have been no Resistance and the course of French history would have been altered. Applause. Our 3' are up. President Sarkozy is ushered into the main entrance with dozens of photographers fighting to get an angle whilst he and his wife are being introduced to World Service staff.

And then it's all over. The visit did indeed last 10', and we're left discussing the the beautiful Madame Bruni, and whether President Sarkozy enjoyed touring the heart of British Broadcasting.

Liliane Landor is the BBC's

Controller, Languages