City Road, Tyne Tees Television Studios

In 1957 Tyne Tees Television started broadcasting from a former Egyptian cotton warehouse (see HER 10582) on City Road. The communications tower with disc relay aerials 50m above the ground, was designed by Peter Yates as a column of light and was built in 1968. The structure which supported the weight of the tower was an all-welded Virendeel (rectangular trusses with rigid joints which removes the need for diagonal trusses) parallel box square cantilever 27m high. Its sides were supported on a splayed angle base. Access ladders, to which trunking for continuous fluorescent lighting was attached, ran along the diagonals of the structure. Virendeel trusses had already been used by Ryder and Yates at the Engineering Research Station at Killingworth in 1967. In 1969 Ryder and Yates designed thr control room and Studio 1, and in 1981 Studio 5 and car park. New production space was needed when Channel Four was created. Studio 5 was built on a steeply sloping site behind the Egypt Cottage Public House (HER 10581). It was accessed via a canopied entrance covered by a glazed barrel vault. There was a pair of Minoan horns (like those used at Norgas House in Killingworth) in front of the entrance doors to the studio. 'The Tube' music television programme was named after the entrance walkway. The entrance to Studio 5 was a glass cube with supporting white columns. Inside the foyer there was a reception desk like that at Norgas House. Tyne Tees Television Studios were demolished in 2011.