Wolff cranes play key role in redevelopment of BBC Television Centre

Wolff cranes working at BBC Television Centre in West London (Photo: Ben Pipe Photography)

Since coming to the end of its role as the heart of the British Broadcasting Corporation (or BBC), Television Centre, which is located in West London, has been gradually converted into a mixed-use development featuring private homes, hotels, restaurants and public areas.

Phase 2 of the redevelopment work has been going on since 2024 under the direction of developer Mitsui Fudosan UK.

For this, the company has brought in five jib cranes to work on the site. The first four cranes are all Wolff 355 B (TC1) models, erected between July and August 2025. The fifth crane is a Wolff 630 B (TC1A), erected to a free-standing tower height of 77.2 metres.

The cranes have been involved with construction of two residential towers on the site. The first is The Ariel, a 23-storey building which will have 167 apartments and the second is Scenery House, a nine-story building which will have 180 apartments.

Three of the first four cranes have been responsible for lowering building components. The additional fifth crane was brought in to slipform the concrete core.

“Although tie-ins on the tower could have been an option, it would have led to downtimes, which is why the customer opted for the freestanding version, which we implemented using a tower combination of the 3.3-metre TV 33 tower element and four TV 20 tower elements,” said Gerard Saville, senior Sales manager at Wolffkran.

The site is located next to the Hammersmith and City line of the London Underground. Because of this, all cranes had to be located at the rear of the build site, which has its own special requirements for crane deployment.

As all the cranes are located within a defined safety zone they must be reduced to 75% of the regular lifting capacity. Additionally, the crane foundation needed to be 33% stronger than standard.

Even at 75% capacity, the 11.6-ton 40-metre jib cranes can complete all lifting tasks. The steep jib position and low park radius of the Wolff 355 B jib crane made them the ideal choice for this job as the cranes did not slew over the railway tracks when in operation or in parked position.

Once commissioned, the Wolff 630 B (TC1A) was tasked with dismantling the adjacent Wolff 355 B (TC1), before being used to complete the reinforced concrete tower.

Other complications included the close proximity to other residential apartments completed in Phase 1. This meant that due to strict noise and environmental restrictions, work could only take place at the weekends.

The cranes will be disassembled using mobile cranes. This will be another complex task, as located on a curved road it will be more difficult to assemble the mobile crane’s full luffing jib. For this, the luffing jib will be assembled in the piked – or raised – position.

“These framework conditions significantly limited the pool of available providers,” said Saville. “Wolffkran was capable of responding quickly and assembling a viable crane and logistics concept. Not only was the available crane fleet critical, but also in particular the processes involved, the experience of the team and close coordination with all project participants.”