Camden News - RICHARD OSLEY Published: 27 November 2008
Rapper 50 Cent visits MTV's Camden Town studios
MTV EXPANDS CAMDEN TOWN OPERATION
MTV has been given permission to overhaul its iconic headquarters in Camden Town.
The entertainment company said it wanted to create extra office space to accommodate more staff.
It currently occupies a building designed by architect Sir Terry Farrell and which was originally the base for ITV's morning magazine programme TV-AM in the 1980s. Fans of the show would visit the canalside studios in Hawley Crescent to be photographed against the backdrop of blue and white egg cups lining the roof.
MTV's changes will see the construction of a new mezzanine level and its largest studio converted into three floors of offices.
Councillors passed a planning application at a meeting at the Town Hall on Thursday night.
Camden Town Conservation Area Advisory Committee had objected to the refurbishment and in a letter warned: “The Terry Farrell design is one of the first post modern buildings in London, it is a wonderfully witty and mannerist solution to a media building, iconic and 'of its moment'. The proposals destract from the Farrell centrepiece and are all far too vulgar.”