Following the formation of Channel 4 in 1981, the successful new television station rapidly outgrew its cluster of rented office buildings in London’s West End and decided to commission a new headquarters building to accommodate all 500 of their staff. Despite the glut of empty office buildings that appeared on the market as the result of the slump in the property market at the time, Michael Grade and Sir Richard Attenborough, the chief executive and chairman of Channel 4 respectively, felt that nothing on the market met the station’s very particular requirements. The decision was taken to build a new headquarters, one that would be conducive to the art of making creative television programmes, for which the channel is renown.

A suitable site was found on Horseferry Road in central London that had been derelict for two decades, and permission was granted by Westminster City Council to build an office building in exchange for a commitment to provide a housing development alongside. Channel 4 then staged an architectural competition in order to ensure that their working practices were properly reflected by a building of high quality. The commission for the Channel 4 building was won by RRP after a two-stage competition held towards the end of 1990. Following the award of the commission, the requirements for the highly technical broadcasting areas were developed in a series of regular workshops held with Channel 4’s technical team.