Political Warfare Executive Studio, Milton Bryan, Beds

Broadcasting Studio at Milton Bryan

This broadcasting studio was designed by Sir Edward Halliday for the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) and built in 1942–43. It is a steel-framed structure with brick walls laid in Flemish Bond, concrete floors and ceilings.

The plan comprises a rectangle with a central projecting section to the south and a small irregular wing to the north-east. Apart from this wing, the building is symmetrical: a central three-storey block is enclosed on three sides by two storeys stepped down to one storey. The upper two storeys are also stepped inward to the east and west on the north side. All roofs are flat, creating a series of rectangular planes in each elevation. The north-east wing is single storey.

The main elevation faces south. The central block contains a wide doorway flanked by plain pilasters and surmounted by a wide projecting lintel with two deep horizontal grooves. Above the door is a tall window, the lower third of which has been filled in, and two small windows flank it. A second wide entrance gives access between the main building and the north-east wing. All windows have Crittall frames. Apart from those flanking the central entrance, windows are uniform in size, regularly spaced in rows set a fixed distance below the eaves and inset from the corners.

Internally, the plan appears unaltered from its original arrangement. An enclosed reception area lies to the east of the entrance within the tower block. A corridor runs around all four sides of the building at ground floor level, dividing outer rooms from a central block of four inner rooms. The outer rooms on the south side vary in size; a memoir by a former PWE member (held in the Imperial War Museum archives) recalls the larger south-east corner room as home to the music section, with editors, writers and a Hellschreiber installation occupying rooms to the west of the entrance. Shower rooms and toilets are positioned on the east and west sides of the corridor; the western shower room retains its original shower cubicle and drain, while the eastern room has a drain but only the footings of its cubicle, though modern showers have been added to the west. Narrow rooms with thin vertical bars across the windows lie to the south of the eastern shower room and toilet. To the north, the corridor opens from both sides into a space with rooms flanking it; the east side links the main block to the north-east wing, which contains a series of small rooms said to have included offices for Delmer and his secretary.

The central enclosed block contains a rectangular room entered from the south corridor. Remains of hollow clay building blocks suggest this room was once partitioned lengthwise. The memoir states that access to the disc jockey's record rack was to the left of the entrance. A door on the north side of this room opens to a central room, with a door to the west leading to a second room and a window to the east opening onto a third room, which is accessed from the east corridor. The central room has window openings to both outer rooms. The memoir identifies the central room as the operations room and the east room as a recording studio.

A brick-built staircase on the west side of the entrance lobby has tiled treads and a black glazed-tile upper surface to the solid brick balustrade. A hatch above the landing provides access to the upper level of the tower and the water tank. From the top of the stairs, a corridor runs from the south front to the rear of the building; the remainder of the first floor was not examined.

Ground-floor details include apertures of varying shapes and sizes just below ceiling height, possibly serving as ducts for wiring and services. A metal pipe runs a short distance along the ceiling of the south corridor, curving across it. Extensive evidence remains for soundproof tiles on the corridor ceiling and those of the outer rooms, though none appear in the inner rooms. Most of the original four-panelled doors remain in place.