Television Centre, Southampton

Television Centre
Aerial photo of the studio complex
Location within Southampton
Alternative names	The Southampton Television Centre
General information
Type	Television studios
Location	On the banks of the River Itchen, adjacent to Northam Bridge and the A3024. Access to the site was from rear.
Address	Southampton, SO14 0PZ
Coordinates	50°54′49″N 1°23′18″W / 50.913729°N 1.388236°W / 50.913729; -1.388236
Construction started	1967
Inaugurated	19 August 1969
Demolished	Summer 2008
Cost	£2,500,000
Owner	Southern Television, Television South, Meridian Broadcasting
Technical details
Floor count	2

Television Centre, Southampton was home to the three ITV contractors for the South and South East region: Southern, TVS, and Meridian. It was also known as The Southern Television Centre, The Southampton Television Centre, and unofficially as The Northam Studios.

The studio centre was constructed in 1967, vacated in 2004 and demolished in 2008. The site lay empty until 2016 when a £40 million development scheme to build 350 flats began.

The site was built by the first ITV contractor for the South, Southern Television, as replacement facilities for their converted cinema studios. The new complex was located on the same site as the original cinema, on land reclaimed from the River Itchen. The new complex was state of the art and fully equipped for colour television, launched in the region in 1969. Southern moved into the new complex on 19 August 1969. The site had two large production studios, ready to produce many of Southern's programme productions for the ITV Network. It was from here that Southern's news operations were based also, with a separate studio for their news programme, Day by Day. The site also featured access to the river where Southern's motor boat Southerner, could be moored allowing for easy and quick access for a news team to take to the water.

One unusual feature of the site was the railway line that ran through the car park. This linked the British Rail sidings at Northam to Driver's Wharf where scrap metal was loaded into ships. It was operated by a venerable 0-4-0 diesel shunter. In 1984 the line fell into disuse as the scrap was now delivered by road. The tracks were then tarmacked over to provide extra car parking spaces. The line featured in the first episode of Saturday Banana with a steam locomotive, Bonnie Prince Charlie, from the Great Western Society at Didcot

During the 1980 ITV franchise round, the region was sought after, having the highest advertising revenues. Southern was replaced as ITV contractor by Television South, or TVS for short. In August 1981 TVS completed the purchase of the site but, prior to the new company taking control of the region, they had no office space within the buildings and so based operations in Portakabins located in the car park, while Southern continued their operation inside. This was mocked on the closing night of Southern, with the song 'Portakabin TV', performed by Richard Stilgoe, though the arrangement was later repeated by Meridian as they waited to take over from TVS.