The Basement

Much of the studio tower in the basement housed the upper parts of studios BA and BB. A corridor (below) led to the balconies of both studios - BA at the far end and BB the door on the left.



The Listening Halls


The decoration of these underground rooms was meant to create a feeling of space and height. In one (above) a mural by Eastland Fortey formed the centre-piece. It was lit from below and gave "a sense of aerial perspective so that one would seem to be on a skyscraper rather than underground" as the Architectural Review put it. The back of the room is seen right.





Battery Room and Echo Room

below - Storage batteries for the emergency lighting supply. This lighting was permanently switched on to enable the performances in the studios to be continued in case of failure of the mains powered lighting.



right - One of the echo rooms. Programme from the studio was reproduced on a loudspeaker in a resonant room. The output of a microphone (a Type A in this 1938 photo) was sent to the Control Room, where it was mixed with the programme coming direct from the studio.



above - An example of the hand painted signs, the lettering based on an design by Percy Delf-Smith (right). The warm-white letters were on a medium-tone green ground with black edges.

The Restaurant and Kitchen