“News is only the first rough draft of history.”(c)

Bush House is a building between Aldwych and The Strand in Central London at the southern end of Kingsway.
The BBC World Service broadcast from Bush House for 70 years (Winter 1941 - Summer 2012) until the final BBC broadcast from Bush House, the 1200 BST English bulletin on 12 July 2012.
The building was commissioned, designed and originally owned by American individuals and companies. Irving T. Bush gained approval for his plans for the building in 1919, which was planned as a major new trade centre and designed by American architect Harvey Wiley Corbett. The construction was undertaken by John Mowlem & Co.
The building's opening ceremony was performed by Lord Balfour, Lord President of the Council, on 4 July 1925. It included the unveiling of two statues at the entrance made by American artist Malvina Hoffman. The statues symbolise Anglo-American friendship and the building bears the inscription ‘To the friendship of English speaking peoples’. Built from Portland stone, Bush House was in 1929 declared the "most expensive building in the world",[3] having cost around £2,000,000 ($10,000,000).
Author and journalist George Orwell worked in Bush House between 1941 and 1943 and the building is said to have given him the idea, when writing 1984, both for the nightmarish Room 101 and the almost equally awful canteen at the Ministry of Truth.