Bush House

Bakerlite.co.uk

Photo Album-The swinging 60's

The 'Beeb'

(as I knew it in October 62)

BBC Bush House, the Aldwych.

I came across your website whilst having a general browse.

I worked at OSE 8 & 9 Skelton 1961-3 as a TA. Duties involved either minding a pair of senders carrying East European languages or riding a bike around the aerial farm. This was often in the night and sheep liked to sleep on the concrete paths.

I was on an early intake that was being fast tracked to Grade C engineer with courses at Wood Norton and a correspondence course. Working shift in the summer in the Lake District, Guess what didn't get done!

I soon got a job as a civilian radio technician at RAF Sealand (Nr Chester) overhauling airborne radio and radar and later the test equipment. Our pay was equated to BBC Grade C engineers.

Best wishes

Jim Maxwell

Many new BBC employees found themselves working at Bush for a time. I was there for two years, from my first day in the BBC: October 1st 1962. I joined as one of the first batch of sixth form recruits that the BBC had made. How did I get to this point in my life? The gritty detail is in 'more about me'

Previously, most had come from the Services. On that fateful day Mike Felton, Les Falla, Dave Finlow and John Taylor joined 'C' shift with me. George Petty was the T.O.M. (Technical operations Manager) and I believe Len Rumens (nickname Sifta Sam!) was the Recording Supervisor. Roger Carey was the A.T.O.M. The shift pattern, as I remember it was:

4 evenings (4 till 10)

4 days (9 till 5)

4 long days (10 till 10) or four nights (10pm to 9 am)

4 days off

My comment for what it's worth as I only spent about 6 months in Bush and that was in 1965. I remember Bob Tanner well and he was based in Bh when I knew him. H2 was a channel in the sub basement next to studio S2. I thought Bush channels had a different code letter but can't remember what it might have been. As a TO at BH (and outside studios) between 1962-1965 we had a lot of those channels exactly like that. I have one of those faders at home here and quite a few meters. Thanks for your site.	robin2
Dear Mike, Just discovered your site. Crikey, we must have been contemporaries, though your name doesn't ring a bell. I joined the Beeb as a trainee SM in mid to late 1964, did my course at The Langham, spent a few months at BH (which included an attachment to Leeds - the easiest few weeks of my life, i.e. I did virtually nothing!) then moved to Bush. Wartime OBA8s were still in use! Loved every minute of it. Our "boss" was E St Clair Hobbins ("Hobbie"), announcers/newsreaders - all great characters - included Peter Bolgar, with whom I stayed in touch for quite a few years & his wife Angela Piper ("Jennifer Archer"), Ian Fellowes-Gordon, who wrote a very funny novella, clearly based on Bush - wish I could remember the title and/or find a copy. And many others, whose names I have forgotten. Fellow SMs included Sue Mayne, Maureen Bebb (?) and Ronald Farrow, who became the Rev. Ronald Farrow - heard him once do the Daily Service - but who sadly died, very prematurely, quite a few years ago. He once contrived to import a harmonium into the SMs' common room, which provided much entertainment but was finally ordered by "the management" to be removed. Spoilsports! And I'm still in touch with a TO from that time, Neil Rosen (now Rosen-Webb, with the addition of his wife's name). I left pretty soon, in 1966, to use my languages - French & German - as I never managed to get the attachment I wanted, though I continued to moonlight on weekend night-shifts for another 3 or 4 years. One was occasionally lucky to be allocated a bed for the 3-4 hour break, though getting to sleep was never easy, with the "clunk" every minute from the slave clock in the corridor outside. Neil and I both have an uncanny sense of the passage of time, which we ascribe to the years spent staring at second-pulsing clocks! My spell at Bush included a 6-week attachment to the Arabic Service, whose (2-3 hour?) night-time transmission started with a reading from the Koran, on a 17" (really!) 33rpm, coarse- (i.e. 78rpm-) groove disc, the trick being a) not to fall asleep and b) to fade it out on a signal from the studio! Kind regards,	Phil Evison	London
Dear Mike Thanks so much for your Bush House pictures. It seems to me that archives such as yours provide an important historical record since corporations such as the BBC, surprisingly, often provide a somewhat patch record of their own history. I was an SM at Bush in the late 70's / early 80's and am intrigued to discover how much had changed since your 1960's record; the replacement of the BTR 2's with Levers Rich machines for example. Very Best Wishes	Hugh Snape
hello Mike, Fascinated with all the info you have on Bush. I worked there late 1960 to late 1961 as a TO - I was assigned AX13. Reported to Reggie Bullen but can't remember the shift TOM or ATOM. Great memories working there and interested in more from the period I was there. I did take a few colour photo slides - Green Pres and a few recording rooms. I'll have to look them up and refresh my memories. I worked at Quartz Hill, the NZBC equivalent to Tatsfield and was amazed to see many of my reports filed neatly away in Bush when I started work there. [pictures below] cheers	Barry Warner, (retired)	Wellington, New Zealand
I came across your website whilst having a general browse. I worked at OSE 8 & 9 Skelton 1961-3 as a TA. Duties involved either minding a pair of senders carrying East European languages or riding a bike around the aerial farm. This was often in the night and sheep liked to sleep on the concrete paths. I was on an early intake that was being fast tracked to Grade C engineer with courses at Wood Norton and a correspondence course. Working shift in the summer in the Lake District, Guess what didn't get done! I soon got a job as a civilian radio technician at RAF Sealand (Nr Chester) overhauling airborne radio and radar and later the test equipment. Our pay was equated to BBC Grade C engineers.	Jim Maxwell
Hello Mike I too was in that cohort of oiks back in 1962 but was on a different shift to you. You have put up a great site though the nostalgia is a little tinged for me since my dad died that November and I went into a slow and steady decline into depression. The shift system certainly didn't help (what a killer) and I was the only one on my shift who would catch the Eastbound train, so social life became increasingly sporadic and I left after only a year. But oh those BTR2s! What a warm comfort on those long night shifts. I have a pin-up photo of a pair in my study here! :o)) Hoping my producer buddy can source one for his mono studio so I can experience once more those sensual delights.. All the very best	Brian Clark.	U.K.
I'm looking for an EMI BTR2. Any information and offers are welcome. [can anyone help?]	Phuc Tran Dai
Mike Just come across you website - what a gem. I joined as a TO in September 1965 and worked in Bush Control Room. Memories of night shift on EMX and in VOA came flooding back. I was on D Shift with Freddy Wiles as TOM. The number of times the Skelton circuits went down at night, having to run down to the studio from a Control Position to show the SM where the Clean Feed Key was. The night the operator in MCP got all the networks somehow moved one position to the right so that the Hungarians got the German & the Germans the French & so on. It took ages for the penny to drop. Then I was "converted" to an SM at Bush, a Producer there and ended up as Head of Radio 2 Production. I took early retirement in 2001 & now live an idyllic life in Suffolk.	Brian Stephens	Suffolk
Found your site whilst looking at the web for BBC bush house. I was there a few years later, 1966 I think. Do you remember the "studio" somewhere in the "lower regions" where you could hear the trains and the gear was an OB set with the strap still attached? Studio 17?? Somewhere else still had disk cutting things. 700 watts amps, [Presto if my memory serves me well] it was always warm down there. Spent much time in Green Continuity, switched to purple for cleaning in the morning, don't mess with that switch or you will have to run down the corridor to get it back! Wow those BTRs were something weren't they. Hey who knows now how razors and crayon makes the "truth", although I believe the Beeb's ethics were sound. I was a TO what ever that means now, [Technical Operator: me too] and then became a SM. Your names for the control room sound familiar. I believe scrabble was the game of the night. I now live in the US for the last 28 years but remember the Bush days with fondness. I wish you well, a fellow comrade of Bush House.	David Crowley	U.S.A.

	Well, here's one of yours truly that I've borrowed from another site: www.oldsms.co.uk/gear/ The black hair has gone grey (white?), and I now wear specs!
	The Voice of America suite at BBC Bush House. A semi circular bank of Leevers Rich tape machines clunked into action at the whims of (I believe) the M.S.U. which also switched studios to the appropriate transmitters at the (usually) correct time. I dare say others will have many stories of when things went wrong; I would be happy to hear of them! This area was funded by the VOA as it was part of a system for re-broadcasting its programmes to the Far East. This and following pictures were taken in Autumn 1964 during 'C' shift; probably on 'Nights'. This was Bob Berry in charge.
	This is Bob Hughes doing a 'squeak' line up on a BTR2 line-up as part of maintenance duties. Bob moved over from Operations into engineering and persuaded me to do likewise. Bob has retired to Eire, I believe. The hand and arm belong to one Les Falla, who is currently working for Central TV at Nottingham.
	EMX, or Engineering Manual Exchange, was the hub of Broadcast operations at Bush House, manned 24 hours a day to co-ordinate the 35 different languages being switched to umpteen short wave Transmitters or senders around England en route to THE WORLD. From left to right, Bob Berry, Christina Van Embden and John Norman were, I think, on duty at the time of taking. (7 minutes and 25 seconds past one in the morning!) The huge monitoring loudspeaker to the right of frame was an LSU10. I seem to remember it had a 15" cone and was driven by an integral valve amplifier. KT66's and all that.
	CTR2, I think, again in the middle of the night, was the scene of multiple tape copying for 'The World'. Sometimes also for the staff. Dave Eckles here, I think. He was on 'C' shift) along with the rest of us.
	And here they all are, numerous EMI BTR2 1/4inch tape recorders. Built like tanks, they were an operators dream, more user friendly than any of their successors, although they probably used more power than a toaster with their many valve amplifiers which normally hid behind those green doors. They were all painted in two shades of green. When I visited Cyprus in 1986, they were still in use as office editing machines. I think the operators name was Ricky (Doug Ricketts)
	R.P. library (recorded programmes) was the main store for all the programmes recorded on 10.5 inch NAB spools of 1/4 inch tape. Just as well that the storage media has got smaller. There was something rather nice about doing analogue recording and editing, though, splicing blocks, safety blades et al.
	'A splendid photo (Roger Wilmut) of E 10 editing channel: looking just as I left it, complete with editing tape on the handle of the nearside BTR2 tape recorder. A four second exposure, so a rather blurred second hand.' More from Roger below...
	C shift arriving for work. Dave Spoors (leaning on speaker), Alan Haynes, Bob Mills, Les Falla (I think), Rex Pitts.
	George Harries (seated), Eddie Clarke, Mike Turner, Alan Haynes (obscured), Geoff Bliss, Christina Van Embden, Barry Moncrieff, Rod Lewis.