BBC Studios Comedy Productions unveils boutique office in Chinatown

For its new Chinatown home BBC Studios Comedy Productions’ tapped HOK’s London Interiors team to lead on design – the studio presented with a 4,000 sq ft space at The Dryden, 45 Gerrard Street, formerly the home of England’s first poet laureate, John Dryden. The historic building has been restored and remodelled to create a new Grade A workspace, which still retains much of the existing charm and original, honest features. The bijou space is intended to provide an environment for BBC Comedy’s creative writers, directors and actors to collaborate and foster new ideas.

Occupying two floors and spanning two adjacent buildings, HOK had little opportunity to modify the base-build. Access to the building was relatively constrained, meaning that all furniture needed to be carefully specified to ensure access. Noise pollution from the street was also mitigated by the installation of a secondary glazing system, now sitting in parallel to the period Crittall windows. The studio strove to match modifications with the existing fabric, to provide a fully accessible space, with level changes across the two buildings.

Although the overall footprint was limited, HOK was still able to create a range of space typologies: the first floor provides inclusive, client-facing creative spaces, while a large conference room opens its folding Crittall partition to the wider floor, providing a versatile, multi-use space for events and functions. The office also incorporates lounge-style spaces dedicated to meeting and writing, with shared desks that further encourage open collaboration.

HOK fostered a feeling of home and familiarity by selecting vintage mid-century furniture, and balanced these with the raw, unfinished base-build walls that reveal the building’s storied history. However, much mid-century furniture does not meet today’s fire regulations, meaning that the HOK team had to be highly mindful when choosing certain pieces – often re-upholstering to ensure safe use. The second floors of both buildings focus primarily on desk-based work, while still offering an eclectic range of meeting spaces and focus booths, ensuring that the space is geared towards both work and socialising. These individualised spaces are further brought to life with an array of BBC Comedy artwork, memorabilia and awards, dating from the mid- to late-20^th century.

“The design aligns with BBC Studios Comedy Productions’ aim to create a best-in-class workspace to attract and retain top level creative talent,” explains Luke Henry-Powell, Interior Designer at HOK. “It is less a corporate office (in the traditional sense) and more a collaboration hub, where the country’s leading writers, performers and producers generate new entertainment ideas for global television and streaming.”