Bush House Centre Block with flanking colonnades
Bush House Centre Block with flanking colonnades, Aldwych WC2 and Strand WC2
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1066492
- Date first listed:
- 13-Sept-1976
- List Entry Name:
- Bush House Centre Block with flanking colonnades
- Statutory Address:
- Bush House Centre Block with flanking colonnades, Aldwych WC2 and Strand WC2
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-06-30
- Reference:
- IOE01/06513/23
- Rights:
- © Miss Patricia Philpott. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1066492
- Date first listed:
- 13-Sept-1976
- List Entry Name:
- Bush House Centre Block with flanking colonnades
- Statutory Address 1:
- Bush House Centre Block with flanking colonnades, Aldwych WC2 and Strand WC2
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- Bush House Centre Block with flanking colonnades, Aldwych WC2 and Strand WC2
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- City of Westminster (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 30742 81008
Details
This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement to amend the name, address, text and sources on the 23 August 2022
TO 3080 NE
60/21 and
3081 SE
73/5
CITY OF WESTMINSTER
ALDWYCH, WC2 (South side)
Bush House Centre Block with flanking colonnades
13.9.76
G.V.
II
Headquarters offices. 1925-35, by the American architects Helmle and Corbett. Portland ashlar on steel frame, slate roofs. Monumental composition "big-business classicism" closing Kingsway vista. Six storeys and attic. Three windows wide. The centre bay is taken up by a full height, coffered semi-dome, giant niche, screened by two huge Corinthian columns carrying an entablature surmounted by symbolical figures of England and America sculpted by Malvina Hoffman. Plain outer bays with flat arched recessed metal casement windows. Broken pediment and recessed attic storey above. Three bay colonnade-screens flank the centre block. The Strand elevation is a more restrained design with deep, central, straight-sided recess beneath the pediment, similar flanking colonnades.
Bush House was the headquarters building of the BBC World Service from 1940 to 2014, housing all the BBC’s foreign language services. Since the early C20, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has grown into a public service broadcaster of international repute. Aiming to inform, educate and entertain, the BBC plays a prominent role in British life and culture. The BBC was formed on 18 October 1922 as a Company, with the responsibility to provide a public radio broadcast service in Britain. It is the world’s oldest national broadcaster. The BBC’s first broadcast was a news bulletin on 14 November 1922. At first the daily six hours of news and entertainment programmes reached perhaps only tens of thousands of listeners.
The Company’s growing national importance was recognised when it became a public corporation by Royal Charter on 1 January 1927. Expansion of the BBC’s transmission station network, continuing increases in airtime and growth in the number of people owning a radio set licence meant that, by 1939, BBC programming was listened to in about 75% of British households. The BBC began broadcasting the world’s first regularly-scheduled high-definition television service on 2 November 1936. By the time of the BBC’s centenary in 2022, its radio, television and online services were being used by on average five million adults every minute of the day and night.
Listing NGR: TQ3074281008
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 208533
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Hendy, D, The BBC. A People’s History London: Profile Books, (2022)
Websites
BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21, accessed 2022 from https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/reports/annualreport/2020-21.pdf#page=6
BBC 100 History – Broadcasting House London, accessed 2022 from https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/buildings/broadcasting-house/
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 19-Jun-2026 at 15:18:21.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.