Sir Terry Farrell, Architect of TV-am’s Iconic Camden Studios, Dies at 87
Sir Terry Farrell, the visionary architect who gave TV-am its unforgettable Camden Town headquarters, has died at the age of 87.
Farrell, one of Britain’s most influential postmodern architects, passed away on 28 September 2025. Across his long career he reshaped skylines in London, Hong Kong and Beijing, but for TV-am he created something far more intimate: a playful, theatrical home for breakfast television.
“Eggcup House”
When TV-am launched in 1983, viewers quickly became familiar with the bright canal-side façade in Hawley Crescent, topped with giant rooftop eggcups and bold lettering spelling out “TVAM.” Inside, Farrell designed a central atrium where guests and presenters mingled before heading into the studios. The Japanese-style green room, the sweeping staircase, and the east-to-west journey through the building mirrored the sunrise and gave the network a visual identity as fresh and lively as its programmes.
Presenter Nick Owen once described the Camden base as “part theatre, part newsroom, and part playground… it felt alive, even at 4am.” Anne Diamond recalled guests being “delighted and slightly bemused” by the eggcups, while Chris Tarrant quipped that they were “the only bits of breakfast that never ran out.”
An Award-Winning Landmark
The building, nicknamed the Breakfast Television Centre, won a Civic Trust Award in 1985 and became a listed landmark of 1980s postmodernism. Though TV-am went off air in 1992 and the site later passed to MTV, the outline of Farrell’s design remains visible, with several of the famous eggcups still intact.
A Lasting Legacy
For the presenters, producers and staff who worked there, the building was more than bricks and mortar—it embodied the spirit of a pioneering broadcaster. As one former floor manager put it, “Terry gave us a building that was fun to go to work in. It looked like breakfast, and it felt like television.”
Sir Terry Farrell will be remembered internationally for the MI6 headquarters and major projects across Asia, but for the TV-am family, his Camden creation will always be his most personal gift: the building that launched Britain’s breakfast television.
