please empty your brain below
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Ah, Kingswood Warren. My only visit -- as a journalist then working for Electronics Times -- was around 1979-80 for a demonstration of Nicam digital stereo, having seen (heard?)it a shortly before at a broadcasting conference in Brighton.
I remember the house wonderfully tucked away from civilisation with lovely wood panelling inside -- the sort of place that justified the name 'backroom boys' for the engineers who worked there.
Other organisations tended to tuck their research centres well away from the world-- IBM near Winchester, the IBA (which then regulated ITV) also near Winchester, Plessey in Northamptonshire, STC in Essex somewhere. Only GEC, as far as I remember, had an urban research centre, in Wembley. Most of them have now gone for housing, though not all of the Kingswood Warren class.
Alan Burkitt-Gray | 05.10.14 - 11:33 a.m. | #
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I used to work for the BBC and went to Kingswood Warren several times, partly for meetings, and partly because it was a popular venue for off-site all day meetings and workshops. In an era before every BBC executive had an iPhone glued to their ear, it was a perfect place to force people out away from their emails and computers.
There was indeed some fantastic wood panelling inside - no doubt now ripped out - although other parts of the place was horrendously corporate. Dour corridors painted in BBC generic grey and blue for example. Still, one of the outbuildings had a small bar, and it had its own croquet lawn. The BBC never really appreciated what they had. Well, until, no doubt, when they sold it and got all the cash.
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 05.10.14 - 2:03 p.m. | #
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I hope you got to see Reigate Priory school, the state primary that must be unique in being set in an ancient stately home. With it's own museum. Or ?Reigate Castle? Or the caves.
To say nothing of Redhill. Actually, it's better to say nothing of Redhill . . . .
Ian Brooker | 05.10.14 - 2:35 p.m. | #
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I work around the corner from Kingswood Warren, but have never ventured up the drive. I understand a Middle Eastern family are interested in buying the pile, proposing only to use it during Derby week - it's just a mile and a bit from Epsom Downs. Unsurprisingly, the locals are not too happy about this.
Waterhouse | 05.10.14 - 7:22 p.m. | #
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Luxury apartments. *sigh*
How can anyone be allowed to do that - buy en masse and set up perimeter fences, especially for just one day a years use?? Disgraceful.
CornishCockney | 05.10.14 - 11:44 p.m. | #
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