Statue of Prospero and Aerial by Eric Gill. BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe.

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Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The main building is in Art Deco style, with a facing of Portland stone over a steel frame. It is a Grade II* listed building and includes the BBC Radio Theatre, where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience, and lobby that was used as a location for filming the 1998 BBC television series In the Red. As part of a major consolidation of the BBC's property portfolio in London, Broadcasting House has been extensively renovated and extended. This involved the demolition of post-war extensions on the eastern side of the building, replaced by a new wing completed in 2005. On the front façade of the original building are the statues of Ariel and Prospero, from what is thought to be Shakespeare’s last play, The Tempest. Ariel as a spirit of the air was felt to be an appropriate personification of broadcasting. The statues are by Eric Gill, completed in 1933.

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Size: 3704px × 4766px
Location: BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe.
Photo credit: © Stan Pritchard / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: aerial, bbc, broadcasting, eric, gill, headquarters, langham, place, prospero, statue