The Langham

The Langham in Portland Place is a sight as familiar to me as Broadcasting House itself.  Completed in 1865, and having once been the grandest hotel in London, it was actually owned by the BBC between 1965 and 1986, having previously been leased by the Corporation since just after World War II.  Mum and Dad took me to see an exhibition there about the BBC's history when I was a schoolgirl in the early 1970's, and I remember queuing up outside it and looking across the road to Broadcasting House, which the general public was not then allowed any access to, and wondering what it was like in there.  Little did I know that just a few years later, in July 1977, I would start working for the BBC as a secretary at the tender age of 17.  I had a preliminary interview with someone from Appointments, and then took a lengthy shorthand and typing test in a large room on the 5th floor of The Langham.  There were about twenty other girls and we took dictation at increasingly fast speeds then typed it back.  As each candidate failed to keep up and type their shorthand notes accurately they were eliminated.  At the end, only myself and two other girls were left in the room.  We each had a further interview and were offered contracts there and then.  My shorthand speed at the time was 120 words per minute, and I could just about manage 65 words per minute on the typewriter (manual, and not even any electric ones in those days!).

In 1985, a year before the BBC sold the building, I was back in The Langham again - this time for part of my training as a Radio Studio Manager (sound engineer).  There were several training studios around the building containing different types of mixing desks and other equipment which we would be using for our work, and we were put through our paces in them for weeks on end before being let loose in the real ones at Broadcasting House and Bush House, then the home of the World Service.

As well as housing training studios and offices, part of the 3rd floor in The Langham was also used by the BBC as overnight accommodation for staff working shifts.  Many reported seeing ghosts there, particularly in Room 333.  I used to work with the late James Alexander Gordon, a much-loved newsreader and announcer who read the football results on the radio.  "JAG" was renowned for telling his own tales of Room 333 and, asked what he would do if he saw a ghost again, said he would "run like hell" - a wry remark when you bear in mind that he had two false legs!

The Langham became very dilapidated during its time as a BBC building, so it was good to go there for Afternoon Tea when it re-opened as a 5-star hotel, and to see it restored to a more sumptuous standard and in use once again for its original purpose.