The Full Score
State-of-the-art studios will provide a new base in Stratford, East London
BBC Symphony Orchestra relocation plans revealed
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is set to move home. In a recent announcement, the BBC’S director general Lord Hall revealed plans for brand new music studios that will provide a purpose-built base for the London-based ensemble, along with the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers.
The new ‘music legacy’ site, which will be built by the London Legacy Development Corporation in the Stratford Waterfront development in East London, will include state-of-the-art music recording and rehearsal studios and, as well as its resident BBC ensembles, will also be used regularly by the BBC Concert Orchestra. The move to the new building from the current studios in Maida Vale is currently planned for 2022/23.
‘As well as being state-of-the-art and purpose built – unlike Maida Vale, which was originally a skating rink – the new studios will be situated in a cultural enclave, surrounded by cultural partners,’ explains Alan Davey, controller of Radio 3. ‘The area where it will be also has one of the youngest and most diverse populations in the country. The building will have facilities for community engagement to take place in, both in the studios and in the park outside – it will allow the BBC’S music legacy to really connect with the community around it. And by siting a major symphony orchestra in East London, we can forge a new future there for classical music as a whole.’
When the removals vans arrive at
Maida Vale, the BBC SO will be leaving behind nearly 90 years of history. It was in 1934 that the ensemble and its conductor Adrian Boult first started to give concerts there, many of which were recorded.
When the Third Programme launched in 1946, it became a regular venue for orchestral broadcasts, and its complex of surrounding studios have hosted a wide range of BBC programmes and performers.
Davey, though, says that the much-loved building does have its limitations. ‘The ceiling of the Maida Vale orchestral studio is six metres too low for comfortable use. In Stratford, the orchestra will be able to let rip and do anything it wants, and we can create a new “Stratford sound”. We can create a new tradition there, and within a very few years Stratford will have a legacy every bit as special as Maida Vale’s.’