Bush House - History

History

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 was commissioned, designed and originally owned by American individuals and companies. Irving T. Bush gained approval for his plans for the building in 1919, which was planned as a major new trade centre and designed by American architect Harvey Wiley Corbett. The construction was undertaken by John Mowlem & Co. At least one stonemason is known to have died during the construction, but overall the building had a very good safety record.

The building's opening ceremony was performed by Lord Balfour, Lord President of the Council, on 4 July 1925. 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 ‘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).

In January 1930, during the Bush House excavations for the South East Wing, a marble head was uncovered from a pile of rubble. The head is an elderly, balding Roman man carved from Carrara marble. He has a finely chiseled face and a rather grim irritated expression. The point of his nose has been broken off, and his ears have been damaged. There are various ideas to its origin. It could be a remnant from a Roman bath or villa outside the walls of Roman London, or it could have been an Italian copy imported in the 18th Century and used as a garden ornament. Old maps of the area show a large house occupying a site close by. The marble head is now on display in the Centre Block of Bush House.

It has frequently been suggested that the building is haunted; there have been several reports of a hazy female figure drifting around the basement, an area which used to house the BBC bar and gym.

After two Luftwaffe 800 pound bombs damaged Broadcasting House on 8 December 1940, the BBC European Service moved into the South-East Wing of the building; the rest of the Overseas Service followed in 1958.

In 1944 Bush House suffered external damage from a V-1 flying bomb dropped on Aldwych. One of the Bush House statues lost an arm. The statue remained damaged until 1970 when an American visiting his daughter at the London School of Economics, which is nearby, saw the damaged statue. He worked for the Indiana Limestone Company and persuaded the company to send a new arm and a stonemason to attach it in time for the Silver Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.

The North West Wing was formerly occupied by BBC Online until they relocated to the BBC Media Village in 2005, with some studio and office space being retained until 2008. Following its ongoing expansion and renovation programme known as the W1 Project, the BBC also moved its World Service to Broadcasting House. The final broadcast from Bush was the 1200 BST bulletin on 12 July 2012. All subsequent bulletins now come from Broadcasting House.