Lilian Baylis House (former Decca recording studios), including walls to Broadhurst Gardens

This sound recording studio complex was built in 1884 as the Falcon Works. It was converted to serve as West Hampstead Town Hall from 1886 until 1928, then adapted for use as a recording studio complex by Crystalate. Decca Record Company later extended it with a third studio and additional facilities in 1961.

Materials

The principal elevations facing Broadhurst Gardens are of red brick, with simple engineering brick to parts of the later side and rear elevations (1953 and 1961). The mid-20th-century extensions are steel-framed with corrugated roof coverings to Studios 1 and 3, which were replaced around 2010.

Plan and Arrangement

The complex has two storeys and a basement level facing Broadhurst Gardens to the north, with a stepped two- and three-storey arrangement of offices and processing rooms facing Exeter Mews and West Hampstead Mews to the west and south respectively. The building is organised around three studios. The first studio is at ground level, accessed from the lobby area off Broadhurst Gardens through a sound lock vestibule. The second studio is at lower-ground level, positioned behind Studio 1 and reached via a corridor running along its west side. The third orchestral studio lies to the rear, facing West Hampstead Mews. A network of corridors and stairs connects the studios and their control rooms, providing sound insulation from what were previously adjacent processing rooms. Two brick structures on the roof were originally used as echo chambers.

The main entrance is from Broadhurst Gardens, leading to a lobby with a reception area, store and stairs on the west side, and a WC and green room on the east side. This area previously accommodated an artists' room and a general office on the west side, alongside WCs and a cloakroom on the east. On the first floor, five rooms are arranged off the stairs and a central hall. Three rooms face Broadhurst Gardens: from west to east, these were formerly Arthur Haddy's room, an office, and the educational department. Two rooms with rooflights are set behind: formerly the laboratory to the west and the echo room to the east.

At basement level, extending back from Broadhurst Gardens beneath Studio 1, a series of storerooms are accessed from a central corridor. These include what were previously the studios' wax stores, the wax shaving room, and the electricians' workshop.

Along the west side of the site runs a narrow range, formerly 167 Broadhurst Gardens before its amalgamation with the main studio complex around 1950. This consists of a narrow corridor at each level with small rooms set off to the west. These were formerly editing, transfer and processing rooms, along with tape stores and technical workshops. The English National Opera has since converted these spaces into offices, fitting rooms, prop stores, costume workshops and hat stores, among other uses.

Exterior

The red brick principal elevation to Broadhurst Gardens consists of two parts. To the east is a three-bay classical façade from 1884, and to the west a simplified, contextual double-bay frontage added around 1950. The eastern 1884 façade is symmetrically composed with three window bays divided by four channelled pilasters, all with render-moulded Corinthian capitals. Above, a recessed entablature supports a pediment containing a relief panel with a coat of arms (associated with the building's former use as West Hampstead Town Hall) and brick corbels to the cornice. A set of central stairs leads to the entrance, which has a pair of part-glazed doors set into the building.

The later western elevation extends the arrangement of the 1884 elevation, with two window bays divided by matching channelled brick pilasters but with simplified capitals. Concrete lintels are set above the windows and a matching recessed entablature sits above the first floor. The windows across the Broadhurst Gardens elevation are timber casements, with a boarded panel section between the storeys of the earlier eastern bays.

The rear elevations to West Hampstead Mews (south) and Exeter Mews (west) were constructed by Decca in two phases, in 1953 and 1961 respectively. These are of engineering brick and red facing brick (the 1961 phase) with metal-framed windows and concrete lintels. The side and rear elevations to Studio 3 are blank, save for a loading bay to West Hampstead Mews.

Interior

The Broadhurst Gardens studios evolved over three decades, and this is evident from the internal arrangement, with numerous level changes and an interlocking network of corridors connecting distinct studios and processing areas belonging to separate phases. The offices, processing rooms and workshops detailed in the plan section remain largely as configured when Decca's last major phase of adaptation took place in 1961, although no equipment associated with the previous functions of these rooms remains. Some acoustic panels survive in select rooms, including the former sound laboratory on the upper floor adjacent to Studio 1.

The doors and joinery vary across the complex. Four-panel doors, possibly dating to the 1905 phase of adaptation, survive in the basement beneath Studio 1. Several heavy acoustic doors and simple part-glazed office doors appear to be associated with Decca's interventions from the late 1930s (the front rooms to Broadhurst Gardens and areas around Studios 1 and 2), the 1950s (the range to Exeter Mews), through to the early 1960s (the Studio 3 extension to West Hampstead Mews). The stairs and steel banisters survive throughout, again corresponding with the respective phase of development depending on their location. Some acoustic panelling survives in parts of the corridors adjacent to the studios.

The Three Studios

Studio 1: This is the main double-height studio from the time of the initial conversion by Crystalate in 1928. It has a rectangular floor plan of approximately 1,800 square feet, with a stage to the south end and its entrance to the north via double doors from the main lobby. Pitch pine flooring is fitted throughout, with acoustic panels to the walls and ceiling. These include a series of adjustable damper panels with acoustic tiles set into the side walls, hung on hinges to allow the reverberation within the studio to be manipulated (shown on 1948 Decca plans). An acoustic baffle panel is suspended above the north entrance. Some of the other fitted acoustic tiles are later replacements. There is a stepped, convex join between the walls and the ceiling, which is arranged in a concertina form, with further fitted acoustic panels to the flat surfaces. The control room is positioned at first-floor level with a rectangular window overlooking the studio from the south side, above the stage. It is separately accessed from the corridor and stairs running along the west side of the studio.

Studio 2: Converted from the former minor hall of West Hampstead Town Hall, this smaller studio (approximately 800 square feet) is set at lower-ground level and is accessed from the central basement corridor via a sound-lock vestibule. The room is rectangular in plan, though it has a tapered south wall which cuts across the room to integrate the control room within the lower part of the studio, an adaptation of around 1963. The floor is of pitch pine boards and the upper parts of the studio walls and ceiling have a convex, concertina form, matching the arrangement of Studio 1. Acoustic panels are fitted to the walls and ceiling. The control room has a broad rectangular window onto the studio.

Studio 3: This is the largest of the Broadhurst Gardens studios at approximately 4,100 square feet, with a ceiling height of 38 feet. Studio 3 was added by Decca in 1961 as the principal orchestral studio for the company, capable of accommodating 100 musicians. A three-tier orchestral riser is set to the south end of the rectangular studio, with part of the steel balustrade retained to the stairs at the west end. The entrance is positioned in the centre of the west wall. Adjacent to this is the control room, which retains its window onto the studio, though it has been opened out to connect with a formerly distinct artist's room. The flooring is of pitch pine (presently with a rubber covering), with perforated baffles and acoustic panels to the walls and shallow-pitched ceiling, some of which are later replacements. The air handling system fitted to the ceiling was introduced by the English National Opera. There is an access corridor for the loading bay from West Hampstead Mews integrated into the corner part of the orchestral riser, a later adaptation dating from after the 1970s.

Subsidiary Features

Red brick walls and piers with stone caps and cast-iron bar rails to Broadhurst Gardens.