Lilian Baylis House (former Decca recording studios), including walls to Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, London

Summary

Former Crystalate and Decca recording studios, built as the Falcon Works in 1884. The site was converted to serve as West Hampstead Town Hall (1886-1928), then adapted for use as a recording studio complex in 1928. It was later extended with a third studio, processing rooms and offices added by Decca in the mid-C20.

Description

Sound recording studio complex, built as the Falcon Works in 1884. The building was converted to serve as West Hampstead Town Hall from 1886 until 1928, adapted for use as a recording studio complex by Crystalate and then later extended with a third studio and facilities added by Decca Record Company in 1961.
MATERIALS: red brick principal elevations to Broadhurst Gardens with simple engineering brick to parts of the later (1953 and 1961) side and rear elevations. Steel-framed mid-C20 extensions and corrugated roof coverings (replaced around 2010) to studios 1 and 3.

PLAN: there are two storeys and a basement level to Broadhurst Gardens (the northern part of the complex), with a stepped two and three-storey arrangement to the office and processing rooms to Exeter Mews and West Hampstead Mews to the rear of the site (to the west and south respectively). The building is arranged around the three studios: the first at ground level accessed from the lobby area from Broadhurst Gardens through a sound lock vestibule; the second set at lower-ground level behind studio 1 via a corridor running along its west side; and a third orchestral studio to the rear of this to West Hampstead Mews. A network of corridors and stairs connect the studios and their control rooms, serving to provide a degree of sound insulation from what were previously the adjacent processing rooms. There are two brick structures to the roof, originally used as echo chambers.

The main entrance to the building is from Broadhurst Gardens. This leads to a lobby, with a reception area, store and stairs (west side) and a WC and green room (east side). This area previously accommodated an artists’ room and a general office (west) side, alongside the WCs and a cloakroom (east). At first floor, there are a further five rooms, set-off the stairs and a central hall, with three facing Broadhurst Gardens (formerly Arthur Haddy’s room, an office, and the educational department, taken from west-east) and two rooms with rooflights set behind, formerly the laboratory (west) and echo room (east). At basement level (extending back from Broadhurst Gardens beneath studio 1), there are a series of storerooms accessed from a central corridor, including what were previously the studios’ wax stores, the wax shaving room, and the electricians’ workshop. Along the west side of the site is a narrow range, formerly 167 Broadhurst Gardens prior to amalgamation with the main studio complex in around 1950. This consists of a narrow corridor at each level with small rooms set-off to the west; these formerly being editing, transfer, and processing rooms, along with tape stores and technical workshops. The spaces here have since been converted by the ENO to offices, fitting rooms, prop stores, costume workshops, and hat stores (amongst other uses).

EXTERIOR: the red brick principal elevation to Broadhurst Gardens consists of two parts, with a three-bay classical façade of 1884 to the east and a simplified, contextual double-bay frontage added later to the west (around 1950). The eastern façade of 1884 is symmetrically composed with three window bays divided by four channelled pilasters, all with render-moulded Corinthian capitals. Above, a recessed entablature supports a pediment, with a relief panel with a coat of arms (associated with its former use as West Hampstead Town Hall) and brick corbels to the cornice. A set of central stairs lead to the entrance, which has a pair of part-glazed doors set-into the building. The later, eastern elevation is built to extend the arrangement of the 1884 elevation, with two window bays divided by matching channelled brick pilasters, except with simplified capitals. Concrete lintels are set above the windows and a matching recessed entablature is set above the first floor. The windows across the Broadhurst Gardens elevation are timber casements, with a boarded panel section between the storeys of the earlier, eastern bays.

The rear elevations to West Hampstead Mews (south) and Exeter Mews (west) were constructed in two phases by Decca, in 1953 and 1961 respectively. These are of engineering brick and red facing brick (the 1961 phase) with metal-framed windows and concrete lintels. The side and back elevations to studio 3 are blank, save for a loading bay to West Hampstead Mews.

INTERIOR: the Broadhurst Gardens studios evolved over three decades and this is evident from the internal arrangement, with numerous level changes and an interlocking network of corridors which connect distinct studios and processing areas belonging to separate phases. The offices, processing rooms and workshops detailed above in the ‘PLAN’ section remain largely as configured when the last major phase of Decca’s adaptation of the site took place in 1961, although no equipment associated with the previous functions of these rooms remain. Some acoustic panels survive in select rooms, including the former sound laboratory, situated on the upper floor adjacent to studio 1. The doors and joinery varies across the complex, with four-panel doors, possibly dating to the 1905 phase of adaptation in the basement beneath studio 1. Several heavy acoustic doors and simple part-glazed office doors appear to be associated with Decca’s interventions from the late 1930s (the front rooms to Broadhurst Gardens and areas around studios 1 and 2), the 1950s (the range to Exeter Mews), through until the early 1960s (the studio 3 extension to West Hampstead Mews). The stairs and steel banisters survive throughout, again corresponding with the respective phase of development depending on their location. Some acoustic panelling survives in parts of the corridors adjacent to the studios.

There are three studios at Broadhurst Gardens, each with dedicated control rooms, these are individually described in turn below:

Studio 1: the main double-height studio from the time of the initial conversion of the building by Crystalate in 1928. This has a rectangular floor-plan (approximately 1800 square feet) with a stage to the south end and its entrance to the north via double doors from the main lobby. Pitch pine flooring is fitted throughout, with acoustic panels to the walls and ceiling, including a series of adjustable damper panels with acoustic tiles that are set into the side walls, hung on hinges to allow the reverberation within the studio to be manipulated (shown on 1948 Decca plans). An acoustic baffle panel is suspended above the north entrance. Some of the other fitted acostic tiles are later replacements. There is a stepped, convex join between the walls and the ceiling, which is arranged in a concertina form, with further fitted acoustic panels to the flat surfaces. The control room is positioned at first-floor level and has a rectangular window overlooking the studio from the south side (above the stage). This is separately accessed from the corridor and stairs running along the west side of the studio.

Studio 2: converted from the former minor hall of the West Hampstead Town Hall, the smaller studio (approximately 800 square feet) is set at lower-ground level and is accessed from the central basement corridor via a sound-lock vestibule. The room is rectangular in plan, though has a tapered south wall which cuts across the room to integrate the control room within the lower part of the studio (an adaptation of around 1963). The floor is of pitch pine boards and the upper parts of the studio walls and ceiling have a convex, concertina form, matching the arrangement of studio 1. Acoustic panels are fitted to the walls and ceiling. The control room has a broad rectangular window onto the studio.

Studio 3: this is the largest of the Broadhurst Gardens studios at approximately 4100 square feet, with a ceiling height of 38 feet. Studio 3 was added by Decca in 1961, built as the principal orchestral studio for the company, capable of accommodating 100 musicians. A three-tier orchestral riser is set to the south end of the rectangular studio, with part of the steel balustrade retained to the stairs at the west end. The entrance is positioned in the centre of the west wall. Adjacent to this is the control room, which retains its window onto the studio, though has been opened-out to connect with a formerly distinct artist’s room. The flooring is of pitch pine (presently with a rubber covering), with perforated baffles and acoustic panels to the walls and the shallow-pitched ceiling, some of which are later replacements. The air handling system fitted to the ceiling was introduced by the ENO. There is an access corridor for the loading bay from West Hampstead Mews integrated into the corner part of the orchestral riser, this being a later (post-1970s) adaptation.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: red brick walls and piers with stone caps and cast-iron bar rails to Broadhurst Gardens.

History

The present 165 Broadhurst Gardens was established as the Falcon Works in 1884, built by local business owners Messrs Bate and Bailey as shared workshops for woodworkers, plumbers, painters and locksmiths. Rate book records show that this was a short-lived enterprise, with the building lying vacant only a year later in October 1885 (Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre: Broadhurst Gardens, H728.3). The site was sold in 1886 and was subsequently converted to serve as a town hall (a private venue rather than a municipal centre) hosting events, concerts, lectures and entertainments for the growing population of suburban West Hampstead. Early works to convert the building were undertaken in 1886, followed by a more thorough remodelling including the addition of a minor hall to the rear in 1891 (Weindling and Colloms, pp62-63). Plans of 1905 show the full-height main hall and the lower-set minor hall adjacent, with a vestibule, cloak rooms, and first-floor sitting rooms connecting to a private box gallery to the front to Broadhurst Gardens and furniture stores and an artistes’ dressing room at basement level to the rear of the site.

West Hampstead Town Hall remained until the late 1920s, when it was purchased by Crystalate for their recording department, thus beginning a period of over 50 continuous years use as a sound recording facility. The Times of 2 February 1928 reported that ‘West Hampstead Town Hall has recently been purchased and equipped as a modern recording studio’, with remodelling undertaken by Crystalate notably including the addition of a recording control room above the minor hall to the rear of the building, shown in plans of the building from this time. Crystalate continued to operate from Broadhurst Gardens through until 1937, when Decca Record Company acquired the business, including its Broadhurst Gardens studios, for £200,000 (Weindling and Colloms, p17). By the mid-1930s, Decca had become one of the largest record companies in the world, with separate American and UK divisions overseen by company founder Edward Lewis. With the acquisition of Broadhurst Gardens, Decca relocated their entire London recording operation from their existing facility on Upper Thames Street. Several changes were made to the complex by Decca, with plans by E R Burnham dated 1948 outlining the arrangement of the two earliest studios, with distinctive elements such as the stage and control room in studio 1, and the pitch pine flooring and coved, concertina-form ceilings in both studios by this stage. A range to Exeter Mews along the west side of the site was approved in 1953 and the Broadhurst Gardens extension was built by around 1956, providing additional offices and record-production facilities. Studio 3 and its attendant rooms (including an additional floor above studio 2 and an addition to the Exeter Mews side of the building) were built in 1961 and two brick echo chambers were added to the roof in 1962 to complete the Decca complex.

Over its long period as a recording facility, Broadhurst Gardens produced and engineered recordings by many renowned artists and performers. Under Crystalate (1928-1937), early releases for the label’s budget imprints focussed on popular singers and novelty artists, including notable performers of the period such as James ‘Jay’ Whidden, Sandy Powell, Master Joe Peterson, and Charles Penrose, best known for the popular comedic song ‘the Laughing Policeman’. Vera Lynn, the most enduring of the Crystalate artists, made her first recordings at Broadhurst Gardens, including the single ‘When the Poppies Bloom Again’, released in 1936 on Crystalate’s Crown imprint. Under Decca, from 1937, the roster of artists and musical styles expanded to include classical, big band, and jazz styles, with most records produced at Broadhurst Gardens. Django Rheindhart and Stephan Grappelli had a series of early sessions in studio 2 in August-September 1938, with further sessions after the war. The main studio was used primarily to larger ensembles, including sessions for records by the Ted Heath Band, Mantovani’s Orchestra, and Bing Crosby (with the Alan Cohen jazz orchestra). In 1954, Lonnie Donegan’s ‘Rock Island Line’ - the song regarded to have begun the skiffle craze in Britain - was, as a plaque on the façade commemorates, recorded in studio 2. This was an important influence on John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison in their early years as The Quarrymen and they would come to the same studio in which it was recorded on 1 January 1962 as ‘The Beatles’ for their notorious failed Decca audition; a pivotal moment in popular musical history which ultimately contributed to a period of ascendency for Decca’s main rivals EMI, whose Parlophone label they signed to six months later. Decca did sign other major artists of the 1960s, including David Bowie who recorded his first single ‘Liza Jane’ (under the name Davie Jones and the King Bees) at West Hampstead, which was released in June 1964 on Decca’s Vocalion Pop label. The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Marc Bolan, Tom Jones, and Lulu also made some of their earliest recordings at Broadhurst Gardens, principally in studio 2 which was preferred by rock and pop groups. Into the later 1960s, the studios (along with the adjacent ‘Klooks Kleek’ club at the next door Railway Hotel) became strongly associated with the British blues boom, with artists including Moody Blues, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, and Ten Years After producing seminal recordings of the period at Broadhurst Gardens.

The complex was also the site of a series of technical advances in sound recording and engineering over the course of Decca’s occupation from 1937. During the Second World War, Decca’s research teams contributed to developing new military technology and devices, requiring the West Hampstead studios to maintain an armed guard throughout the conflict. A major development of the period involving engineers at West Hampstead was of the system known as ‘The Navigator’, created by a Decca team led by the engineer Harvey Schwartz. This used radio signals for navigation purposes, ultimately being deployed by the Admiralty as a means for locating and clearing mines ahead of the D-Day landings. It was subsequently carried forward for commercial purposes in the post-war years, under the subsidiary Decca Navigator Company Ltd. The lead recording engineer at Broadhurst Gardens, Arthur Haddy, also had a role in the war effort, being assigned to record German fighter-plane radio transmissions, overseeing the cutting of up to a hundred wax discs at West Hampstead during bombing raids (Dr Tony Wakeford, ‘Decca and the Second World War’ in Decca The Supreme Record Company, p56). Haddy’s team would remove static and improve quality to allow operational RAF teams and decryption experts at Bletchley Park to be able to make use of the intercepted signals. The most significant technological breakthrough to come from the war in recording terms was Haddy’s development of a lateral disk-cutting head and process to reproduce full frequency range of 14,000hz on record, which allowed German U-Boats to be recorded and ultimately led to development in the post-war years of advanced Full Frequency Range Recording (Wakeford, pp59-60). Into the post-war years, advances were made by Haddy at Broadhurst Gardens in the field of multi-channel stereo and ‘binaural’ recording, with the earliest experimental stereo recordings undertaken in studio 1 in December 1953 at a Mantovani orchestra session (Michael Gray, ‘The Story of Decca Sound, from Shellac to Stereo’ in Decca The Supreme Record Company, p75). The development of FFRR, stereo recording and other subsequent technical developments led by Haddy from Broadhurst Gardens established the company’s reputation as the leading innovator in high-fidelity sound recording and production in the mid-C20.

Decca Record Company continued to operate from Broadhurst Gardens until 1981, when it was purchased by the English National Opera (ENO) and renamed Lilian Baylis House. The building continues to be used for rehearsals and by the staging and costume departments of the company. Recording equipment has been removed since Decca left the building, the roof coverings to studios 1 and 2 have been replaced (around 2010), and some new partitions have been introduced, although the broad plan arrangement of the complex including the three studios and their control rooms remains.

Reasons for Listing

Lilian Baylis House (the former Decca recording studios), 165 Broadhurst Gardens, London Borough of Camden, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the studio layout and designed features, including the early arrangement of studios 1 and 2 with their distinct control rooms, some fixed acoustic features, pitch pine flooring, and the coved, concertina-form ceilings. These areas, together with Studio 3 and other Decca extensions, demonstrate the arrangement of a major multi-studio commercial recording facility at an early stage in the development of this building type.

Historic interest:

* as the earliest surviving commercial recording studio complex to be established in Britain, originally fitted-out by Crystalate and then Decca Records to facilitate the fast-developing process of sound recording and record production. The changes and additions to the site over the mid-C20 reflect the expansion of Decca as it became one of the world’s leading record companies and demonstrates the growing range of production spaces and studios required of a major recording facility into the 1950s and 1960s;

* as one of a small number of surviving buildings of note to be closely associated with the growth of British music industry in the mid-C20, largely in the same configuration as when Decca completed the complex in the early 1960s and standing as an important exemplar of a major national industry and an area of significant cultural achievement;

* for its important place in musical history, as a renowned studio which from the 1920s until closure in 1980s captured and produced seminal recordings of some of the world’s most celebrated artists and performers on the Crystalate and Decca labels;

* for its role in important technical advances under Decca, with major innovations in stereo and full frequency sound recording, along with development of the ‘Navigation’ system to utilise radio signals to locate vessels; breakthroughs which ultimately stemmed from the building’s particularly significant role in the war effort.

Group value:

* with other broadly contemporary late-C19 buildings along Broadhurst Gardens within the South Hampstead Conservation Area.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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