Not Thames Television

After work I hopped on a train and went to the South Bank were I was meeting Julian and James for some beers in the Mulberry Bush. I used to walk this street everyday when I worked near here but I now feel like I haven’t been here for quite a while. 

As I walked past the London Weekend Television Tower on the South Bank I stopped and did I bit of a double take.  The complex is slowly being demolished after ITV decided not to refurbish it and make it their central London home. At the time I was disappointed that I would not get to work in such an iconic building but in the post-pandemic world, with increasing amounts of remote hiring that we are doing, it now looks to made sound business sense. 

However, through the scaffolding I noticed the words Thames Television which made me go back and look again.  Until fairly recently in UK TV history, the London advertising market was considered to be so big that it should be split across two franchises.  For most of my life that was either Thames Television or Carlton Television for the weekday service and London Weekend Television for weekends.  I recall the weekend started at about 5:15pm on a Friday! 

I think when Carlton won the franchise from Thames they did share a news service - and maybe some other things - with  LWT but they didn’t share buildings.  In particular, Thames was on Euston Road near where I used to work for SMS and LWT was here.  It did not make sense to me that, even during the demolition, Thames signage would be reflected.

Jules and I sat in the pub talking about this until James appeared and told us that it was done last year for a Sex Pistols biopic that was directed by Danny Boyle. Thus, the mystery was solved.