BBC Radio Theatre

About

The BBC Radio Theatre (originally named The Concert Hall) is a theatre situated within the BBC's Broadcasting House complex. It is used for live broadcast and audio recordings.

History: Originally named The Concert Hall, the theatre was designed by George Val Myer as part of the BBC's new Broadcasting House building. The hall is 106 feet (32 m) long, and tapers from 48 feet (15 m) wide at the rear to 36 feet (11 m) wide behind the stage. The room's height is 31 feet (9.4 m), taking up three storeys of Broadcasting House. Upon original specification, the hall had a reverberation time of 1.7 seconds. Broadcasting House was opened on 14 May 1932 by Queen Mary. The theatre's first performance was held on 15 October 1932; at this time the hall's capacity allowed a large orchestra and an audience of 550. On 10 March 1933, the hall hosted a memorial concert to the BBC's former Director of Music, Percy Pitt. In 1933, the BBC Yearbook described the hall's acoustics and architecture:

In the design of public concert halls a difficulty frequently encountered is the variability of the reverberation time according to the size of the audience, owing to the sound-absorbing properties of the latter...