The EMI Control Room and Control Gallery

The Marconi/EMI Control Room has survived much as it was originally designed. As you can see from the photograph taken today, the metal gantry (above and middle images), which runs along one wall of the room, is quite intact (above and below). At the end of this gantry was the Control Gallery (see bottom images). The engineering staff sat, for the most part in the Control Room itself - as seen in this contemporary photograph (see middle images) - where they would view the pictures from the studio relayed through monitors. Any adjustments could then be made directly in the Control Room and the results viewed instantly.

Though the equipment has of course long since been removed - and can now be seen at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford, where it forms part of the 'Turn On, Tune In - The Story of British Television' exhibition - the fittings, cables and even much of the junction boxes and electrical attachments are all still to be found in the room. The metal gantry which runs along the upper right hand side of the room is intact an still safe to walk along, though the doorway through to the production office is now closed and locked.

The importance of this building as a national heritage site cannot be underestimated. While funding from many sources, such as the lottery, is liberally thrown at buildings such The Dome, which has no heritage value whatsoever, Alexandra Palace, and the site of the world's first regular television broadcasts, continues to fall further and further into disrepair.