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Qustion of the day: Who would live in a house like this?

kudocitiespremium

Posted by kudocities about 1 year ago
Last active about 1 year ago 16 responses

So the BBC is selling Television Centre, its question-mark shaped west London base. That dripping sound you hear in the background is the sound of luxury flat developers salivating. But even if you can afford a converted TV studio, there are some pretty compelling reasons not to buy, according to our undercover White City correspondent …

Rats – the place is infested. Particularly bold rodents run across TV sets. Even the toughest producers have been reduced to tears by the tooth-gnashing vermin army. And that’s just the men (the producers that is, not the rats. Or sometimes both. Oh just forget it).

Food – TV Centre’s kitchens are notorious for producing all sorts of nasties. In the off-air words of one radio presenter: ‘I once ate an egg that was so bad, I was sick before I had even swallowed.’

Things look bigger on telly – Yes, it’s true. If the local Foxton boys have any smarts at all, they won’t do viewings, they’ll just show reruns of Top of the Pops.

You will get lost – The building is known both for its strange numbering (which can be changed), and its confusing, disorienting and at times dizzying layout (which can’t). People who have worked there for decades frequently go missing when trying to find a new bit.

White City – Proof that sporting events are utterly rubbish when it comes to urban regeneration, the surrounding area is still dodgy and dowdy 99 years after hosting the Olympics. Shepherd’s Bush has been gentrifying for a while, but the creeping prosperity hasn’t quite made it north of the Uxbridge Road ie, you still have to walk a mile south to get to a pub where you won’t get stabbed if you’re not wearing QPR blue and white. The massive shopping centre they’re plopping down across the road may shift things a bit, but more likely will create a rich ghetto within the poor ghetto, sort of like Canary Wharf.

It’s just grim – Last and least, it’s old and dirty. Pop stars do naughty things in odd corners in the back, wizened journalists with bad diets pull all-nighters in the newsroom, producers under threat of redundancy self-medicate with predictable knock-on effects on the grubby carpets. The newest, shiniest thing in there seems to be the Tardis in the lobby, and you can bet they’ll be auctioning that off long before anyone moves in.

Here at Fridaycities we like to take a stab at balance, so we must dutifully inform you of one of the building’s good points: The Blue Peter Garden.

After reading that comprehensive analysis of the pros and cons of living in the lap of lunacy, the decision is down to you. Would you shell out the big bucks to live in the dilapidated TV Centre? Just how much are you willing to shell?

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16 responses

iSleepDiagonal

It’s near a tube station

Posted about 1 year ago by iSleepDiagonal

BraveNewMaldenpremium online

Surely it’s the site that’s valuable, not the building. Unless it’s got a Grade Xll Preservation Order on it, TVC will be bulldozed the moment John Humphries is prised from his seat.

Posted about 1 year ago by BraveNewMalden

Morals

Petra will be spinning in her grave. Quite literally one assumes if the bulldozers are sent in….

Posted about 1 year ago by Morals

mydogminton

I couldn’t possibly comment… but the lifts are quite fast.

Posted about 1 year ago by mydogminton

pottytimepremium online

What’s a qustion of the day?

Posted about 1 year ago by pottytime

leguape

And I seem to recall that H&F council have it down as under a perservation order as they want to maintain the period features of TVC and White City station as part of the redevelopment/regeneration of the area. Which would make any planning application rather challenging. What people seem to forget is that on the side of the building you can’t see from Wood Lane it’s largely prefabs bolted onto the building and service access road which runs all the way round the back of it. Oh and it suffers from a damp problem in the basement. It’s one of those properties no one could shift if they tried.

EDIT – and the lifts are broken half the time.

Posted about 1 year ago by leguape

Gizzard

It’s actually only 10 mins walk to a decent pub. That should add an extra few grand to the price, by my property standards.

Posted about 1 year ago by Gizzard

SeeSee

10 minutes?

I refuse to even consider any property that doesn’t have at least three drinking establishments within a 5 minute radius.

Posted about 1 year ago by SeeSee

Subtle

It is a listed building, so I doubt they’d be able to knock that much of it down…

So far the only people to have expressed an interest in buying it have been Pinewood Shepperton (film studios). So chances are, much of it will stay as TV studios.

And even then – the BBC aren’t planning to move out until 2012 (and they say that now – it’ll probably end up being 2020), so the threat to the Blue Peter garden isn’t too pressing, thankfully

Posted about 1 year ago by Subtle

BraveNewMaldenpremium online

Potty, I asked precisely the same question and it was REMOVED by the MODS as it was evidence of INTOLERABLE INSURRECTION!!

Or it might have been a bit anal.

Posted about 1 year ago by BraveNewMalden

CarmenMpremium

Potty presumably knows full well what a question is, BNM.

It’s the qustion he’s asking about.

Wonderful, wonderful cock-up – truly anal in the highest order.

Posted about 1 year ago by CarmenM

Morals

I can see where this is headed…. Bonus points if you can link anal sex to the BBC….

Posted about 1 year ago by Morals

leguape

Subtle, the notion that it is a listed building is not true AFAIK. It’s only protection is that the council want to keep the area around TVC/White City station as a notable local feature. I can’t find the exact thing but I think the line is something not disimilar to arguing that keeping it adds significance to the area in terms of being of interest.

Posted about 1 year ago by leguape

BraveNewMaldenpremium online

Potty presumably knows full well what a question is, BNM. It’s the qustion he’s asking about.

Yes. That was the subject of my earlier post, the one that got deleted. The spelling thing. Not that important when set against 2,000 job losses and the proposed destruction of a much-loved building but, you know.

Posted about 1 year ago by BraveNewMalden

CarmenMpremium

but, you know.

Umm, can’t say that I do – but I guess my pedantry’s not much of an excuse for ignorance.

Posted about 1 year ago by CarmenM

Knid

oops wrong log in

Posted about 1 year ago by Knid