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BBC Television Centre closes its doors to commercial property developer

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BBC Television Centre closes its doors to commercial property developer

The BBC Television Centre celebrated closing its doors on Friday (March 22nd), after having been sold to a commercial property developer.

The iconic building celebrated its closure by a special concert which saw ska band Madness perform both old and new tracks. The gig was transmitted live in a special show on BBC Four, that also saw interviews with Sir David Attenborough, Sir Terry Wogan, Ronnie Corbett and Sir Michael Parkinson. The two-hour show, which attracted over 1.5 million viewers, was hosted by former BBC chairman Michael Grade.

In a statement, Madness said: "We've played at some exciting places in London lately but the closing of [the] BBC TV centre, well, that is close to our hearts. As a band we grew up there. Those walls have plenty of Madness tales to tell; a sad day, the end of an era. Oh, but what a celebration."

The site in west London has been the home for various classic TV shows such as Blue Peter and Top of the Pops. It was sold last year for £200 million and will now be renovated into new flats, a hotel, a cinema and further commercial property space. The actual television studios will be kept and refurbished so that they can be leased out to production firms from next year. The last news bulletin went out from the centre on Sunday March 17th.

The building, which is known as the ‘doughnut’ was designed around Helios, the Greek God of the Sun, in order to represent how television light can be radiated across the world, with both ‘sound’ and ‘vision’ being the two relining figures at the bottom.

The TV centre, which was opened back in June 1960, will officially be closing its doors on Easter Sunday (March 31st).


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