Had an exciting day today - I went to the BBC!
Someone I know from Hospital Radio works for the World Service, and so Charlie and myself managed to get a little tour of Bush House (the home of the World Service) - well I say little, we got there at about 10am and stayed until 3pm :-)
So it was of course an early start with the alarm set for 7am, and arriving at Chelmsford train station at 8:30am. The 8:42 train arrived pretty much on time and 45 minutes later we were in London Liverpool Street (we were lucky enough to get one of the flash new trains on the way).
By the way, I think the approach into London is the most miserable depressing sight ever. Graffiti everywhere, charred black bricks, little sunlight - sometimes I'm glad I don't live in the city.
Anyway, once we had arrived, it was time to travel like sardines, on the Tube for the 3 stops to Holborn and then a five minute walk down the road into Bush House.
It's quite a big building and definitely has a museum feel about it. As you walk in, a plasma screen on the right screens 'BBC World' which I think is a bit of a cheek since us Brits aren't supposed to watch it!
So once we were in we had a look around various studios used by the World Service. They all appeared to be quite old with a lot of use, but the phrase 'built like a tank' came up once or twice.
One thing that is odd about their studios (and I understand it to be a BBC thing) is that the faders are in reverse - i.e. closed when up, and open when down. That would take some getting used too.
We also saw one of the drama studios - a large room that when the door shuts behind you becomes eerily quiet considering the size of it. There was barely the whisper of any air (even the air conditioning was barely audible).
So after the tour of the studios, we took a walk across what is 2/3 stops on the Underground but a good 20min walk by foot to Great Portland Street (nr Oxford Circus) and paid a visit to Broadcasting House (the home of stations such as Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio 4). Broadcasting House is currently surrounded by a building site as work is being done to extend BH to bring more of the BBC there including TV News.
After our long, hot walk we paid a visit to the BBC Canteen where they only serve hot food on a weekend - no sandwiches (shouldn't that be the other way around). I bought a Sprite and a packet of Fruit Pastels and we all headed up to the roof (not the very top of the building, but not far off on the 7th floor). There is some nice views up there (although the building site does spoil some of them). You can see for miles!
Once we had eaten what would have been our lunch - if we had sandwiches, we were briefly shown around the building. Unfortunately we couldn't go into any of the studios so we just peered through the windows.
We then headed back to Bush House (using the Underground this time from Oxford Circus) and were allowed to stand in a small studio and watch an Albanian news programme being broadcast (yes it was IN Albanian too - couldn't understand a word). All good fun.
At 3pm, we all headed back home (on an old train without air conditioning mind you), arriving in Chelmsford at about 4:10pm
Charlie popped over on the way back to pick up some Cat-5 cable I'm not using so I said he could have it, and then I popped over to his when taking him back home to pick up one of my CDs (The Zutons) and to collect a CD of up to date Magic adverts that Charlie kindly burnt for me.
Overall I think it's been a very productive day (and hot and tiring).
(photo's available in photo album section)
Someone I know from Hospital Radio works for the World Service, and so Charlie and myself managed to get a little tour of Bush House (the home of the World Service) - well I say little, we got there at about 10am and stayed until 3pm :-)
So it was of course an early start with the alarm set for 7am, and arriving at Chelmsford train station at 8:30am. The 8:42 train arrived pretty much on time and 45 minutes later we were in London Liverpool Street (we were lucky enough to get one of the flash new trains on the way).
By the way, I think the approach into London is the most miserable depressing sight ever. Graffiti everywhere, charred black bricks, little sunlight - sometimes I'm glad I don't live in the city.
Anyway, once we had arrived, it was time to travel like sardines, on the Tube for the 3 stops to Holborn and then a five minute walk down the road into Bush House.
It's quite a big building and definitely has a museum feel about it. As you walk in, a plasma screen on the right screens 'BBC World' which I think is a bit of a cheek since us Brits aren't supposed to watch it!
So once we were in we had a look around various studios used by the World Service. They all appeared to be quite old with a lot of use, but the phrase 'built like a tank' came up once or twice.
One thing that is odd about their studios (and I understand it to be a BBC thing) is that the faders are in reverse - i.e. closed when up, and open when down. That would take some getting used too.
We also saw one of the drama studios - a large room that when the door shuts behind you becomes eerily quiet considering the size of it. There was barely the whisper of any air (even the air conditioning was barely audible).
So after the tour of the studios, we took a walk across what is 2/3 stops on the Underground but a good 20min walk by foot to Great Portland Street (nr Oxford Circus) and paid a visit to Broadcasting House (the home of stations such as Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio 4). Broadcasting House is currently surrounded by a building site as work is being done to extend BH to bring more of the BBC there including TV News.
After our long, hot walk we paid a visit to the BBC Canteen where they only serve hot food on a weekend - no sandwiches (shouldn't that be the other way around). I bought a Sprite and a packet of Fruit Pastels and we all headed up to the roof (not the very top of the building, but not far off on the 7th floor). There is some nice views up there (although the building site does spoil some of them). You can see for miles!
Once we had eaten what would have been our lunch - if we had sandwiches, we were briefly shown around the building. Unfortunately we couldn't go into any of the studios so we just peered through the windows.
We then headed back to Bush House (using the Underground this time from Oxford Circus) and were allowed to stand in a small studio and watch an Albanian news programme being broadcast (yes it was IN Albanian too - couldn't understand a word). All good fun.
At 3pm, we all headed back home (on an old train without air conditioning mind you), arriving in Chelmsford at about 4:10pm
Charlie popped over on the way back to pick up some Cat-5 cable I'm not using so I said he could have it, and then I popped over to his when taking him back home to pick up one of my CDs (The Zutons) and to collect a CD of up to date Magic adverts that Charlie kindly burnt for me.
Overall I think it's been a very productive day (and hot and tiring).
(photo's available in photo album section)