If you like the idea of living in one of Britain’s most famous broadcasting buildings, now’s your chance. On Saturday the developers transforming BBC Television Centre into a residential and retail site will open their show homes to the public.
However, the chance to live overlooking the spot where the late Roy Castle once performed with 500 tap dancers for All Star Record Breakers doesn’t come cheap.
Prices range from £495,000 for a 375 sq ft studio to £2.5m for a three-bedroom, 1,750 sq ft flat. A series of duplex premium apartments – including four penthouses at the top of the old media centre in the BBC’s former White City complex – will be released at a later date and are likely to be priced at between £3m and £7.5m.
They will be next to a Soho House rooftop pool and bar, overlooking a cafe-lined public piazza the size of Trafalgar Square at the front of the building.
This weekend nearly 40 studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom flats will go on sale in the first phase of the development being released to the general public, for occupation in early 2018. But if buyers miss out this time, there will be other opportunities as 950 residential properties planned for the site come up for sale in batches.
Nearly half of the residential properties planned for the Television Centre redevelopment will be inside the central “doughnut” building, which when viewed from the air is shaped like a question mark. The doughtnut’s central courtyard, where Castle performed his tap-dancing stunt, is being restored and will again feature the Helios statue which is being refurbished.
After a preview event in September, in which UK residents who had registered an interest were given first refusal, 175 flats have already been sold; 130 went to British buyers. They included a former BBC producer who has bought a flat in the space that once housed his production offices. The rest went to buyers based in Los Angeles, Hong King, Switzerland and the Middle East. This weekend is the main UK public launch, where anyone can contact the sales centre.
Developer Stanhope bought the 14-acre site for £200m in 2012 on a 999-year lease, after the BBC decided to save money (an estimated £33m a year) by selling off most of the site – attracting criticism that it was deserting its “spiritual home”. The BBC will move back to the site to use its studios once they have been renovated.
Stanhope is marketing the residential units in partnership with Japan’s Mitsui Fudosan and Canada’s Alberta Investment Management Corporation. Alistair Shaw, the managing director of the Television Centre redevelopment, said: “This is not just a housing development – we are doing something very different here to create a vibrant new neighbourhood in White City.
“The BBC’s heritage has a vital role to play in the future of Television Centre and we will be retaining the iconic Television Centre atomic dots, the John Piper mural and cantilever staircase – which are all integral to what we are creating at Television Centre.’’
