Summer: 3 - Portland Place and the BBC

As our Summer In The City journey continues, we start where we left off last time, at the north entrance to Portland Place.

This road is well-known for its large old town houses, now mostly embassies and office headquarters.

Particular buildings are highlighted, including RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects), the Chinese embassy with its huge shortwave antenna, the British Telecom tower in the distance, the luxurious Langham Hotel, and All Souls Church.

Portland Place is most well-known as the home of the BBC's Broadcasting House.  LondonArchitecture.co.uk describes this building as "reflecting the height of Art Deco architecture, it is something of a parody of itself with its transmission towers and wires. The broad sweep of Portland stone running along Portland Place gives an impression of strength and permanence." (for more click here )

Filming notes:
Several of you have contacted me about seeing colour aberrations in some shots of the Summer In The City journey episodes so far. Hands up, I bought an, ahem, inexpensive wide-angle lens ... and it sometimes shows up as slight red or blue colour fringing at the edges of the picture.

From episode 5 of Summer In The City (publishing in two weeks time) I will be filming with just the normal Sony lens - and with the tripod to get back the highly-detailed and rich pictures of my normal 'locked off and look' filming technique. Apologies to videophiles out there, I promise to get LLTV back as your source for the finest pictures of London ASAP.