Maida Vale Studios

[2] The BBC plans to vacate the premises by 2025,[3] moving into a new development which is part of the Olympic Park, offering high-tech facilities and two spaces for public concerts.

As a schoolboy, conductor Vernon Handley learned some of his technique by watching Sir Adrian Boult conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra here.

Some premieres of British classical music were recorded in studio MV1, including works by Robert Simpson, Arnold Bax, Nicholas Maw, Alan Rawsthorne and Sir Arthur Bliss.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the radio programme Movie-Go-Round was broadcast from here, in which Peter Haigh played sound clips from major films.

[13] The studios have been under regular threat of closure by BBC management: the building is in need of constant maintenance and due to its location in a residential area there are limits to the hours of operation and access.

In July 2007, the BBC announced that the studios were "wholly unsuitable for the 21st century", and it was reported that it would be sold to property developers as part of cost-cutting measures.

[20] The studios were subsequently sold to a partnership between Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, and Hans Zimmer & Steven Kofsky for £10.5 million.

At first, a number of other venues around London were also used, such as the Playhouse Theatre in Charing Cross, but as these ceased to be used by the BBC, the sessions increasingly centred on Maida Vale 4.

[citation needed] With the introduction of Radio 1 in 1967, programmes such as Top Gear embraced this concept, with sessions from such stars-in-waiting as David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.

[citation needed] Robin Dallaway of The Cravats remarked that recording at Maida Vale was like stepping back into the 1940s: "blokes in brown stockmen's coats scurried around fixing stuff and plugging our gear in.

"[22] When Broadcast made their Peel sessions, Trish Keenan wrote "There was a sense of initiation on entering the Maida Vale studios.

We came across abandoned tape machines and Shostakovich posters in the hallways... We hovered outside the locked Radiophonic room, a little disappointed by what we could see through the window.

We contemplated unscrewing the Radiophonic Workshop name plate from the door and making off with it, but knew the stern-faced security guard from earlier would have been on to us.

The White Stripes included their version of the Dusty Springfield classic "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself", recorded for The Evening Session in MV4 by Miti Adhikari on their album Elephant.