35 Marylebone High Street

35 Marylebone High Street, former home to the Radio Times and BBC Radio London, was originally a library and bookseller, becoming a boarding school in 1745. By 1832, Oxford House, as it was then known, was advertised for sale and was acquired by Edward Tilbury and Company, a furniture storage business.

By 1931 the original building had been demolished and had become the headquarters of building firm Bovis, but by 1936 ownership had passed to the BBC.

BBC Publications, the Radio Times and The Listener were the first BBC occupants, but development of the building didn’t stop there. A concert hall was added on the fifth floor, and warehousing to the rear was converted to a music library and rehearsal rooms.

A casualty of the Blitz in 1940, the damaged building was not fully repaired until 1949 with BBC Publications returning only in 1950.

The BBC then expanded into numbers 33–34 Marylebone High Street and the nearby Beaumont Mews. New departments started to move into the expanded site from the early 50s, with the Radio Times Hulton Picture Library being one of the newcomers.

Eventually a BBC shop was added selling the full range of BBC publications and other programme related merchandise.

From the 1970s, BBC Radio London moved its studios into No. 35, becoming BBC GLR in 1988, and from 2000 expanding yet further to become the combined radio, television and online service BBC London.

The BBC finally left the property in 2009.