BBC Cymru Wales opens its new headquarters to the public as it begins a programme of public tours. To mark the opening, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall (before he acceded to the throne as King Charles III and Queen Consort in September 2022) visited the site and were given a tour of the broadcasting facilities. While on their tour of Central Square The Prince of Wales met sports presenter Catrin Heledd on the set of Scrum V, some of the presenters of BBC Wales Today including weather presenters Derek Brockway and Sabrina Lee before recording an extract from Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood from the Dylan Thomas radio studio with actors Owen Teale and Alexandria Riley. As well as ensuring that the building is fully accessible to people with physical disabilities, Central Square is the first BBC building to have cognitive accessibility considered from the early design stage.
On 13 February 1923 at 5pm, BBC broadcasting in Wales began when the British Broadcasting Company - as it then was - opened its Cardiff station. That first broadcast took place in Castle Street, Cardiff when Mostyn Thomas sang the famous ballad Dafydd y Garreg Wen. BBC Cymru Wales relocated to Central Square during 2020 from Broadcasting House in Llandaff, Cardiff.
Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBCBeing able to welcome the public into Central Square is a special moment in a hugely significant year for the BBC – and we’re thrilled that The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall [King Charles lll and the Queen Consort] could mark the occasion with us. I’m really excited that, from today, audiences will be able to experience this fantastic new broadcast centre and see for themselves the extraordinary capacity and potential it has to deliver for audiences in Wales and elsewhere."
Delegates can visit for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of BBC Cymru Wales’ broadcasting centre at Central Square, Cardiff. The behind-the-scenes tour includes a visit to the state-of-the-art news, sport and radio studios to discover the secrets of making BBC programmes. Designed by award-winning architects Foster + Partners, delegates will visit one of the largest BBC newsrooms, packed with cutting-edge technology including augmented reality, virtual reality and robotic cameras and have a sneak peek at TV galleries and other broadcast facilities.
