Bush House
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Bush House is a building between Aldwych and The Strand in London. It is primarily home to the BBC's World Service department, which occupies 4 of the 5 wings. The fifth, south-west wing, is used by HM Revenue & Customs.
The different sections of the building were completed and opened over a period of 13 years:
- 1923 - Centre Block
- 1928 - North-West wing
- 1929 - North-East wing
- 1930 - South-East wing
- 1935 - South-West wing
The building's opening ceremony was performed by Lord Balfour on July 4, 1925 - America's Independence Day. It included the unveiling of two statues at the entrance made by American artist Malvina Hoffman. The statues symbolise Anglo-American friendship and the building bears the inscription ‘Dedicated to the friendship of English-speaking peoples’. Built from Portland stone, Bush House was in 1929 declared the "most expensive building in the world", having cost around £2,000,000 ($10,000,000).
After a landmine damaged Broadcasting House on December 8 1940, the BBC's European Service moved into the south-east wing of the building; the rest of the Overseas Service followed in 1958.
The BBC's lease with Kato Kagaku (the Japanese company who owns the building) expires in 2010. The BBC plans to move World Service to Broadcasting House following its ongoing expansion and renovation programme, known as the W1 Project. In October 2005 the BBC announced that a new Arabic language television service would begin broadcasting from Bush House in 2007.
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