Access Floors – The Beginning

In 1960, the first commercial access floors were introduced, and promptly used for the construction of the BBC Television and BBC News centre.

The centre opened on the 29th June 1960 and is located in Shepherd’s Bush. It was the BBC’s first purpose built centre for television production, and access floors are extremely suitable for this type of project. By using access floors, the BBC were able to easily store and maintain the masses of cables required for the various pieces of equipment.

The Development of the Building

The home of BBC Television and BBC News building was designed by Graham Dawbarn, who took inspiration from a question mark. Dawbarn was puzzled as to how to incorporate eight studios, production galleries, camera workshops, recording areas, dressing rooms and offices into a single building, and drew a question mark on the back of an old envelope. The building needed a separate area to bring in the audience and guests, as well as a more industrial area to allow access for the trucks bringing in the sets and props. He looked and the question mark, and realised that with its separate circular block, it would be the perfect design.

The BBC Television and BBC News building has a main circular block, separate from the studios. This is linked to the rest of the studios by a covered carriage way to enable easy movement of scenery around the studios.

Click here for more on Access Floors!

From then on, access floors have been used throughout the various industries. For example, at about the same time the BBC used access floors, IBM also used access floors for their new offices around the UK.

Designing and installing the perfect Access Floors is a task best left to the experts. Fieldmans Access Floors Ltd has been successfully installing Access Floors in the UK and abroad for 20 years. Quality and job satisfaction are always the highest priority. For more information, please call 0208 462 7100 or write to Enquiries@Fieldmans.com.