Yalding House

Yalding House

The entrance

Yalding House is a building at 152–156 Great Portland Street, London, United Kingdom owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which from 1952 until 2013 housed the corporation's music department.^[1]

The BBC Central Music Library was located on the ground floor and basement: the building's former role as a car showroom made it ideal for the heavy shelving required to store the collection. The BBC Third Programme, later renamed Radio 3, was also based at Yalding House.

It became the home of BBC Radio 1, together with Newsbeat, in 1996 when the Radio 1 studios were moved from Egton House.^[2] BBC Radio 1Xtra was launched at Yalding House.

On 14 December 2012, Radio 1 broadcast its last ever show from Yalding House which was The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw.^[3]

History

A previous building on this site had been occupied in the 1890s by Charles Deville Wells, best known as the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo. From this address, which he used as offices and workshops, he operated a scam involving what he claimed to be valuable patents. He succeeded in swindling approximately £30,000 (£3 million in today's values) from his many victims.^[4]

Studios

Yalding House contained five studios which were used to broadcast shows on Radio 1 and 1Xtra.

• Studio Y1 - used mainly for production.
• Studio Y2 - used by The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw, The Official Chart with Reggie Yates, Scott Mills and Greg James.
• Studio Y3 - used by Fearne Cotton, Zane Lowe and Huw Stephens.
• Studios Y4&Y5 - used mainly by 1Xtra, but occasionally by Radio 1, as needed.

References

External links

• Egton House and Yalding House information at Radio Rewind

Coordinates: 51°31′15″N 0°08′34″W / 51.52074°N 0.142822°W / 51.52074; -0.142822