Issue 10

Dispatches from Television Centre

The Set is open Bag a table on the forecourt for supper in the sun

Happy birthday, TVC White City’s iconic building celebrates 60 years

Green grass of home Open spaces nearby to relax, ramble or run transmission WELCOME WELCOME

Welcome back, White City

The evenings are still long, the days are still warm and ’s great outdoors has never looked so enticing. Visit the sales suite: 5 Television Centre At Television Centre, we’re delighted 101 Wood Lane to welcome visitors back onto The Set, London W12 7FW 020 8811 8720 where you can grab a drink or a meal Follow us on Twitter from Patty & Bun, The Allis, Kricket and Instagram: @thisistvc and others, then corner a table outside #thisistvc on the spacious forecourt. You can Live at Television Centre find tranquillity in Hammersmith Park, televisioncentre.com Cover image: people-watch in Exhibition Park or Tian Khee Siong spot birds flying at dusk on Wormwood transmission is written Scrubs common. It’s summer in the city and produced by dn&co. dnco.com Taylor Eleanor Illustration: and it’s good to be back.

2 3 THE SET THE SET

Lights, camera, action As lockdown restrictions ease in London, The Set brings Television Centre’s iconic forecourt back to life.

Photography by Tian Khee Siong

5 THE SET

The long-awaited return of the simple pleasure of VISIT THE SET a pulled pint is high on the list of things we may never take for granted again. The sun is out and we’re at last able to sit outside and enjoy it again. Food & drink from: At Television Centre, visitors can enjoy food and — Flying Horse Coffee drink at The Set, a large al-fresco meeting and dining — Kricket area on the forecourt. It’s an apt name for somewhere — Patty & Bun that feels a bit like being on an actual television set — The Allis with props like directors’ chairs, giant screens and — Homeslice clapperboards. — Bluebird Cafe (reopening soon) There’s no need to book as there’s plenty of space, and Kricket, Flying Horse Coffee, Patty The Set is open all day this & Bun, Homeslice and The Allis are all back to serve summer, with parasols and the dishes we’ve missed, along with a side of hand deckchairs out 11am–7.30pm. sanitiser. Patty & Bun and Homeslice also offer cosy Live music every Thursday and terraces of their own around the back of the Centre. Friday evening. Restaurant opening Yes, White City has begun to stir again, and hours vary, so check ahead. the relief is palpable. People no longer rush through the parks but take the time to sit for a bit, enjoying We’ll be keeping everyone safe a moment of respite. Outside the cafes, people at The Set with clear signs to enjoy a moment with friends, sitting at respectful make sure everyone is distanced distances from each other with their afternoon coffees. according to the guidelines, hand Music spills out from open doors as restaurants sanitiser freely available, and a are preparing for dinner service to start soon. It’s rigorous cleaning schedule. been a warm day and it will be an enjoyable one tonight. We really weren’t sure if it would happen, but 101 Wood Lane, W12 7FW maybe we will get a bit of summer after all. televisioncentre.com

Eat Out to Help Out: food comes 50% off when you eat on site from Monday to Wednesday throughout August at Flying Horse, Homeslice (evenings only), Kricket and Patty & Bun, up to £10 per head.

6 7 WHITE CITY A breath of fresh air Discovering a great new walk close to home is like being let in on a secret. Here are six spots in White City to stretch your legs and breathe deep.

1 Hammersmith Park 4 Breathe in the tranquillity of the A vibrant avenue of restaurants, Japanese garden, take the kids cafes and shops opens out onto to the play area or break a sweat the spreading lawns, with plenty on the tennis court — all tucked of spots for a picnic. behind Television Centre.

2 TVC forecourt 5 Shepherd’s Bush Green Outside Television Centre, The Fringed by eateries and Set invites you inside its white takeaways, this is the green heart picket fence to sample the delights of bustling Shepherd’s Bush and of different restaurants while safely the place to people-watch as the outside, or just relax on the grass. neighbourhood goes by.

3 Exhibition Park 6 Wormwood Scrubs Sit and watch the fountains play Head north to this historic in this pleasing new piazza behind common to find 200 acres of Wood Lane station, connected woodland, grass and scrub that’s to Westfield shopping centre by perfect for birdwatching, football

Illustration: David Doran David Illustration: regenerated railway arches. or flying a kite.

9 HERITAGE HERITAGE

From British TV’s most distinctive character to a building transformed for today’s White City: a broadcasting legend celebrates 60 years.

This year, a central character in the nation’s cultural Over the years, a distinct culture emerged. There was heritage turns 60. A million stories about Television a swimming pool in the basement and the building had Centre live in our collective memories. If you grew up a hairdresser on the premises, a travel agent, a florist, watching Blue Peter, chances are that even if you had and a branch of WHSmith. There was a wine cellar on no idea where the building was, you knew that letters the fifth floor, stocking the drinks trolleys that clattered should be sent to W12 8QT. along the circular hallways to serve the luminaries of Today, this is the beating heart of White City, broadcasting as they held meetings behind closed somewhere people come to live and work and doors, deciding what Britain would be watching next. spend time with friends. But the building itself was Like all the greatest stars, Television Centre has historically its own self-contained world, and one a compelling origin story. Legend has it that when perfectly adapted for its purpose. When it opened architect Graham Dawbarn was given the task of 60 years in 1960, BBC Director Gerard Butler described it drawing up the building in 1949, he took to the pub as “the largest, best equipped and most carefully to contemplate his task, and drew a question mark planned factory of its kind”. on the front of an envelope. Corridors on the sports floor were painted as a It’s a design as practical as it is elegant: running track, the Blue Peter garden became the final broadcasting houses have to be flexible and of Television resting place for the programme’s beloved pets, and adaptable, and the rounded shape made it easy the legendary canteens and cafeterias that fed over to move equipment from one studio to the next. 4,000 people every day became the building’s own We still have that envelope (above), but no one knows agora for mixing ideas and stumbling upon inspiration. if the doodle was the true inspiration for the final Everything happened at Television Centre; design or just an expression of his concept — or even Centre Library Photo BBC Images: with every need catered for, why go anywhere else? Dawbarn’s bafflement at the BBC’s design brief.

10 11 HERITAGE HERITAGE

In more ways than one, the building is a distinct MAKING character in the BBC’s history: it was where the news THE NEWS was read out live on the air, where general elections were analysed and declared, it was ground zero for telethons and charity events, and the place where screaming teens waited hours to catch a glimpse of their favourite pop stars. Iconic programmes like Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, and Only Fools and Horses were filmed here. Shows like Monty Python’s Flying Circus and French & Saunders even used the building itself as a set piece. Television Centre’s 60th birthday has prompted a wave of nostalgia for its history as a creative force through the years. But if anything the building’s function has broadened rather than diminished in recent years, with studios for both the BBC and ITV on site. 1960 “This used to be a place where shows were The production line at the ‘factory made only for the BBC, but it’s been modernised and for television’ begins to roll. diversified,” says Peter Allen, sales and marketing The first show to be broadcast, Television Centre today is more open than it’s ever director at Stanhope, who managed the reimagining appropriately enough, is First Night been, with restaurants, of Television Centre. “TVC has gone from making TV featuring music by R&B vocal homes and a route through just for the BBC to making shows for anyone, making it harmony group The Silhouettes to Hammersmith Park. more relevant to how we consume entertainment now.” and high-wire acrobatics. Being a separate world with its own culture once awarded Television Centre a unique history, but it 1966 1988 also meant the building had an air of exclusivity. Only “They think it’s all over! It is Activist group The Lesbian people who worked there could step past the austere now.” Commentator Kenneth Avengers invade the 6 O’Clock facade facing White City tube and into the forecourt Wolstenholme’s famous line News live on air to protest Section to enjoy the brilliant green and red mosaic — work seals ’s World Cup victory. 28, a law that banned ‘promotion’ that still surrounds the towering statue of the Greek of homosexuality. god Helios, a symbol of the light of television being 1967 broadcast around the world. A Wimbledon match becomes 1988 “Now, anyone can take a walk around Television the first programme in the UK Comic Relief hosts the first Red Centre, hang out on the forecourt and go have a drink broadcast in colour, with David Nose Day, raising £15 million for or a bite to eat,” says Allen. “TVC was the soul of the Attenborough as BBC2 controller. people in need. area, but locals couldn’t really share in it; it was a It was enjoyed by the few gated estate in a mostly industrial area back in the day. households with colour TV 2001 The reimagining of TVC has opened it up, and brought sets and described as ‘vulgar’ A car bomb by the Real IRA enjoyment and new purpose to the wider area.” by some people without. briefly disrupts programming, Being the architect of such a powerful building causing superficial damage to in a nation’s imagination is a feat many would envy, 1974 the facade and injuring a London but Graham Dawbarn actually wrote that a building The Blue Peter garden is dug Underground worker. of this significance “should avoid on the one hand behind the centre, famously the a pompous heaviness and on the other... too much final resting place for George 2012 ephemeral fancy and self-conscious trickery”. the Tortoise and other star pets. The BBC sell the building and Perhaps the architect might have preferred Television temporarily vacate the premises, Centre’s new atmosphere, now that it has opened up ready for renovation. to become not just a private city, but part of a London neighbourhood. 2018 Television Centre opens once Immerse yourself in the history of this remarkable more as a place to live and work, place with Thinking Outside the Box: Reimagining as well as continuing to produce Television Centre written by Jonathan Bell. Available small-screen favourites such at artificebooksonline.com Loose Women and This Morning.

12 13 INTERIORS Photography: Guy Archard Guy Photography:

Soul and “There seem to be no rules in Hoodless’ world – just amazing pieces of furniture and design that each work in their own right, but which somehow also work brilliantly together,” writes Tamsin Blanchard in The Observer. serendipity Suzy Hoodless has created interiors for this apartment by Coffey Architects that are Suzy Hoodless brings her comfortable, with just a hint of the surreal. eclectic eye to a unique duplex Her unerring choices pay close attention to the building’s midcentury heritage, but they don’t apartment by Coffey Architects. exactly follow it around with a notebook — her work is much more timeless than that. Coffey designed the space to follow natural light throughout the day, finished in fresh shades of white such as marble and terrazzo. Combine this with the refreshing spontaneity of Hoodless’ eye and the result is the illusion of effortless style, and the freedom of a place like home.

H.713 is a two-bedroom duplex in the Helios; for more information call 020 8811 8720 or visit televisioncentre.com.

14 15 NEWS NEWS

Imperial College launches Scale Space What’s new If you’re a small business with no intention of staying that way, Scale Space may be for you. in White City Digital venture builder Blenheim Chalcot have partnered with Tuning into the latest Imperial to provide innovative news from W12. technology, life science and digital businesses with the space, resources and connections they need to grow. Located on Imperial’s campus, those who join benefit from an exclusive community of like-minded businesses.

scalespace.co.uk

The Place for plant-based Pop into Potager at White Historic Bush Hall Bioscience startups City Place for vegan delights preserved by public combat Covid-19 with a Greek flavour. Punters Bush Hall is a gothic fairy Tech startups at Imperial at this new coffee spot have tale of a venue, built in 1904 College’s White City Incubator praised the cold-pressed juices, by a wealthy publisher as a have been pivoting their freddo espresso and traditional dancehall for his daughter. Since innovations to tackle the spanakopita. There’s a tempting then, it’s ridden out history as a pandemic. Life sciences counter of patisserie, as well as WWII soup kitchen, a dingy 90s company MediSieve are healthy lunches. Customers can snooker hall and now a music adapting their work filtering eat in beneath a leafy green wall venue famed for picking out the harmful substances out of or out on the spacious central finest in emerging talent. But can the blood to treat cytokine avenue of White City Place. Bush Hall ride out lockdown? storms, a rare but dangerous Open Monday to Friday. Its fans are determined to see Covid-19 reaction. Meanwhile, that it does so, and have recently FreshCheck are working on a instagram.com/potageruk raised £30,000 through donations spray that changes colour when and bookings to see it through. a surface is contaminated.

Full-colour crossing bushhallmusic.co.uk imperial.ac.uk/news by Camille Walala Why did the chicken cross the road? Perhaps because Harrods Outlet he was mesmerised by the comes to Westfield deep reds and yellows of this The historic Knightsbridge psychedelic intersection. Camille department store has just Walala’s installations are famed opened its first ever outlet branch for adding exuberant geometries in White City. Shoppers can to urban landscapes. Her White choose from over 100 brands, City artwork, Les Jumeaux (“The displayed over two floors, and Twins”), comprises two crossings all at a discount of at least 40%. over South Africa Road and Browse clothes, homewares and Wood Lane, north of White City accessories across this roomy station, and seven murals livening space, and don’t forget to pick up the front of The WestWorks. a bear in the Harrods Gift shop.

camillewalala.com harrods.com

17 ADVERTISEMENT

Lockdown luxury lunches It’s a small but distinct pleasure to be able to eat your favourite dishes, even when the world has turned upside down. Bento boxes from Endo at the Rotunda became a sought-after luxury during the lockdown, at least if you were able to get your hands on them. Patty & Bun’s DIY burger kits came with four beef patties, brioche buns and cheese, cooking instructions via Instagram, and even a custom playlist. You couldn’t have been closer to the real thing until returning to the Behind restaurant in person. They called it the home pattyandbun.co.uk closed doors endoatrotunda.com of British television. The streets of White City were quiet during lockdown. But behind closed You can call it home. doors, local businesses made this difficult time that little bit easier with thoughtful, Invest in a piece of history at the cultural heart of generous and creative responses. White City, W12. New apartments, live TV studios, restaurants, hotel, gym and club by Soho House.

Food for the frontline No “end scene” for TVC Those of us working for the If food was one key comfort NHS have had a very different during lockdown, television was lockdown. And several White City surely another. While Covid-19 restaurants stepped up for key forced the recording of many workers by bringing food directly favourite programmes to be paused, I O N I S C E to doctors, nurses and paramedics filming never stopped at Television V N E T L R at their places of work. Waka, the Centre, producing Good Morning E E purveyor of Japanese-Peruvian Britain, Loose Women, and Peston. T VIEW This dual-aspect 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom F NOW specialities at White City Place, “We had to come up with new E Y seventh floor apartment offers 1,755 sq ft A T T R delivered hot bowls to NHS workers ways of doing things,” explains U E open-plan living and three stunning terraces. R P E D P R O at Nightingale and other London David Simms, communications Available to view now. £2,500,000* hospitals. Meanwhile, at Soho executive at BBC Studioworks. House Group’s White City House, It was a bare-bones operation, with over 1,000 meals were made fresh stars doing their own make-up and every day and delivered to frontline mics. Says Simms, “People have workers at local hospitals. really pulled together and learned to work in a different way.” waka-uk.com televisioncentre.com sohohouse.com bbcstudioworks.com 020 8811 8720

*Prices correct at time of publication 18 TV GUIDE TV GUIDE

There’s a clank of Wellness & retail The lineup at coffee machines and OPEN White City House the gentle buzz of The latest addition to the Soho conversation: yes, House family. The adjoining Television Centre Television Centre is hotel offers 45 cosy bedrooms in the historic Helios. back. Guidelines are evolving, so check Open now, check website for details and facilities Food & drink with retailers before whitecityhouse.com you visit and follow us OPEN The Allis on Instagram OPEN BLANC A cocktail concept by the Soho An eco-friendly dry cleaner House Group. It may originate @thisistvc. offering laundry and alterations from Chicago, but we hear they using innovative technology. make a mean Manhattan. Opposite page: Kricket. Pick up service available This page: Homeslice, The Allis. Open now blancliving.co thealliswhitecity.com OPEN Soho Fit House OPEN Kricket The place for pumping, spinning, A hybrid of British ingredients and a touch of ommm. Open prepared using traditional to Soho House members, hotel Indian techniques and spices. guests and residents only.

Open now Open now, booking required kricket.co.uk sohohouse.com

OPEN Flying Horse Coffee Coworking Entertainment Flying Horse roast and deliver sustainably sourced OPEN Soho Works BBC Studios beans from around the world. Workspace designed to Three TV studios host live and inspire, with large lounges recorded audience programmes Open now and dedicated desks. throughout the week. flyinghorsecoffee.com Open 7am to 8pm weekdays Audiences expected mid August OPEN Homeslice Endo at the Rotunda sohoworks.com bbcstudioworks.com Regularly hailed as Endo Kazutoshi, the world- London’s best pizza, renowned sushi chef, has Electric Cinema with unorthodox toppings opened an exclusive 16-seat This is cinema like you’ve and prosecco on tap. restaurant in the Rotunda. only dreamed of: armchairs, The restaurant was awarded cocktails, blankets and all Open now its first Michelin star in October. the finest releases shown. homeslicepizza.co.uk Watch this space Opening early September OPEN Patty & Bun endoatrotunda.com electriccinema.co.uk Patty & Bun is so much more Food comes 50% off when than the two ingredients in Bluebird Cafe you eat in from Monday to ITV Daytime Studios Tour the name suggest. The ultra- Modern European dining Wednesday throughout For the first time ever, the doors to stacked burgers are among from the White City outpost August at Flying Horse, the home of ITV Daytime are open. London’s favourites. of a Chelsea landmark. Homeslice (evenings only), Kricket and Patty & Bun. Not open yet, but register your Open now Watch this space Up to a maximum discount interest to be first in the queue pattyandbun.co.uk bluebirdcafe.co.uk of £10 per head. daytimestudiostour.co.uk

20 21 WHITE CITY PLACE WHITE CITY PLACE

Returning soon

White City Check websites for the latest opening information

Place Coco di Mama Oliver Bonas Healthy pasta dishes and fresh Clothing, jewellery and Favourite faces are returning to salads from the purveyors of the accessories for the home Wood Lane’s creative campus, and City’s best coffee. – the perfect fix for the last- minute gift. we’re even welcoming new ones. cocodimama.co.uk Guidelines are still evolving, so check Shop online with retailers to see who’s back. Crussh oliverbonas.com This juice bar has been blending whitecityplace.com and cold-pressing their natural Shola Karachi Kitchen drinks around London since 1998. Homestyle Pakistani dining by rising star chef Aida Khan. Home delivery available crussh.com Home cooking recipes instagram.com/sholakitchenuk Mother Clucker Buttermilk-soaked, twice- W12 Studios battered chicken that elevates a A robust cocktail selection tasty treat into something special. with rotating music and street Open now food vendors. Delivery and DIY kits available OPEN The Athenian OPEN Starbucks motherclucker.co.uk w12studioslondon.com From the streets of Athens to Seattle’s most reliable fix the hungry diners of White City, of coffees, light snacks Waka The Athenian brings souvlaki and signature lattes. Taking Sushi, tiradito, ceviche and more. Taking part in Eat Out part in Eat Out to Help Out. – the fusion of Japanese Clockwise from above: to Help Out, with 50% off food Butterscotch, and Peruvian cuisine is when you eat in Monday to Open now The Athenian, Starbucks. delicious indeed. Wednesday throughout August. starbucks.co.uk Delivering via City Pantry Open now OPEN Tesco Express waka-uk.com theathenian.co.uk Every convenience at White City Place’s go-to grocer. OPEN Butterscotch An imaginative cafe with Open now afternoon tea, cakes, Allpress tesco.com coffee and even a build-your- own porridge bar. Taking part in OPEN Huckletree Eat Out to Help Out, see above. A workspace accelerator for tech businesses and Open now entrepreneurs. butterscotchbakery.co.uk Open now OPEN Potager huckletree.com Fine pastries, cold-pressed juices, healthy lunches – and OPEN F45 all plant-based. High intensity training with expert instructors. Open now potagerlondon.co.uk f45training.com

22 23 ADVERTISEMENT

THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION CENTRE

A collection of completed 2–3 bedroom apartments and penthouses from 1,750–2,900 square feet, situated atop the reimagined Television Centre in West London.

Amenities include concierge, gym with pool, secure car parking and residents’ cinema. Prices from £2.5–£5.2m*.

Call 020 8811 8720 for an appointment televisioncentre.com

*Prices correct at time of publication