Channel 4 Leeds

LEEDS, WEST YORKSHIRE
PHOTOGRAPHED IN 2023

Since 2022, Channel 4 News has been co-presented from ITN studios in Leeds and London.

In October 2018, it was announced that Leeds had been chosen as the location for Channel 4’s new national headquarters, to operate in conjunction with its existing London HQ at 124-126 Horseferry Road in Westminster.

May 2019 saw the broadcaster move into its first temporary Leeds base at Platform on New Station Street, before relocating to West Gate off Grace Street in September of the same year and finally settling in its permanent home, floors 3-5 of the Majestic, in September 2021.

^{View of the Majestic from City Square in 2019 ©Channel 4}

Meanwhile, ITN – the producer of Channel 4 News – established a nearby temporary news bureau in Suite 2 on the second floor of 7 Brewery Place at Leeds’ Brewery Wharf development. This consisted of a newsroom with a small studio built in the corner of the leased office suite, first transmitting on 22 March 2022.

^{Before and after conversion of Suite 2, courtesy Twitter/@cathynewman}

^{A wider angle of the studio before and after ©NovaLoca / University of Leeds}

At the same time, a permanent studio and newsroom were being built opposite on the first floor of 1 Brewery Place, which first appeared on air on 2 May 2023. You can see this building in the background of the above photos.

^{Early stages of the fit-out, taken just inside the space that would become the studio ©East On Media Solutions}

^{A later stage of the fit-out, with the studio’s ‘MIC LIVE’ and ‘RECORD’ lights visible just above the studio doors. Photo taken from the newsroom entrance.}

^{The completed permanent Leeds studio ©Channel 4}

The studio has no control room in Leeds as everything is operated remotely (including the cameras) from production control room 6 (PCR6) at ITN Gray’s Inn Road in London, where Channel 4 News is co-broadcast from Studio 6. Remote control capability is set up in such a way that the Leeds studio can also be controlled from any other location, should Gray’s Inn Road be unavailable.

^{PCR6 at ITN Gray’s Inn Road ©Densitron}

The Leeds site consists of the main studio (72 sq m), a green screen studio (18 sq m), the newsroom, two edit suites, a kitchen, toilets with shower, a make- up/dressing room, comms room, and store rooms. These are pictured below.

NOTE: The following photos are the property of East On Media Solutions and have been compiled here for reference only.

The temporary studio has since been decommissioned, with equipment donated to the University of Leeds’ School of Media and Communication.

^{The temporary studio premises post-closure}

^{New (left) and old (right) ITN premises}

Old (temporary) studio photos

Steph’s Packed Lunch

Just up the road was another Channel 4 studio housed in a former restaurant/ bar at 7 The Boulevard, Leeds Dock, with production offices next door at no. 6.

After some COVID-related delays, the programme launched from the new studio on 14 September 2020, having been briefly broadcast from presenter Steph McGovern’s Harrogate home (as The Steph Show) several months earlier.

^{Steph’s Packed Lunch studio, viewed through its dockside windows}

The new studio included a kitchen, dressing room, audience waiting area, toilets, and stores alongside it; with office space, additional dressing rooms, a make-up room, green room, and technical facilities on the mezzanine floors above.

Sadly, the programme came to an end in December 2023 and the studio and associated facilities have since been stripped: