The Earls Court Development Company (ECDC) will welcome a ground-breaking new attraction: BBC Earth Experience featuring Seven Worlds, One Planet, opening from Spring 2023, at The Daikin Centre – a purpose built and demountable venue, on the site of the former Earls Court exhibition centre, one of London’s most strategically important development opportunities.
BBC Earth Experience offers visitors the chance to experience the extraordinary diversity of our seven unique continents, on the most epic scale featuring bespoke narration from Sir David Attenborough. BBC Earth Experience will showcase footage, including extended scenes to fully immerse the visitor, and music from the BBC Studios Natural History Unit television series Seven Worlds, One Planet, projected on multiple multi-angle screens using the very latest digital screen technology. This new London attraction offers a truly transformative experience that will allow audiences of every age to feel like they’ve stepped into the natural world, losing themselves in boundless wonder as they travel to far flung places. And the best bit? No passport required!
Visitors will take a majestic 360-degree audio visual journey as they marvel and explore iconic landscapes and connect with mesmerising animals on this epic adventure bringing environments to life. From fireflies putting on a spectacular light show in North America, to snub nosed monkeys huddling together to stay warm in Asia, and hungry hamsters fighting to keep their food in Europe, visitors will get to experience our seven continents in all their glory, like never before.
Since acquiring the site in December 2019, The Earls Court Development Company has invested heavily in cultural and community programmes, starting to demonstrate the vision to bring the wonder back to Earls Court. The BBC Earth Experience is the latest exciting attraction to call Earls Court home. Earlier this month, immersive experience theatre company The Lost Estate launched its festive interpretation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the former Mannequin Factory in West Kensington.
Speaking about the announcement, Rob Heasman, Chief Executive Officer at The Earls Court Development Company, said:
“Earls Court has been a natural stage for world-class innovation, discovery and entertainment since the 19th century, making it the perfect location for the BBC Earth Experience. Bringing culturally rich experiences to site is fundamental to our vision ‘to bring the wonder back to Earls Court’. With The Lost Estate also opening an immersive theatre and dining experience on site in the former Mannequin factory this month, Earls Court’s cultural offer is growing, and we look forward to welcoming people from across the UK and internationally onto site to experience these new attractions.
We have shared a priority to address the climate emergency, and as a company heavily invested in the future of the built environment, we are especially pleased to host the BBC Earth Experience, showcasing the natural beauty of our planet whilst drawing attention to the importance of biodiversity and sustainability.”
Seven Worlds, One Planet was BBC One’s most-watched factual TV show of 2019. The series took viewers on journey that not only celebrated the beauty of life on each of the seven continents, but also highlighted the many challenges faced by nature in a modern world. Over 1,500 people worked on the award-winning series, with 92 shoots across 41 countries, revealing an unseen wilderness of Earth’s diverse continents.
BBC Earth Experience
Venue: The Daikin Centre, accessed from Empress Place, London, SW6 1TT
Opening Times: Opens 30 March 2023 – 31 July 2023 10am – 7pm on Sunday – Thursday 10am – 9pm on Friday – Saturday
Tickets will be on sale from 10am on 2 December 2022 from £28.50 for adults and £22 for children via www.bbcearthexperience.com
About The Earls Court Development Company
The Earls Court Development Company is a new Earls Court-based business, responsible for driving the development of the Earls Court masterplan forward on behalf of Earls Court Partnership Limited. Earls Court Partnership Limited is the joint venture between Delancey (on behalf of its client funds and the Dutch pension fund manager, APG) and Transport for London (TfL).
What’s happening at Earls Court? Earls Court is London’s biggest redevelopment opportunity, and there is an opportunity to create something extraordinary on this 40-acre site. Ongoing consultation since 2019 has led up to the development of the draft masterplan, due to be unveiled to the public this winter. Earls Court Partnership recently completed the acquisition of the Lillie Bridge Depot and surrounding 15-acre site, unlocking major development at the west London brownfield site.
So far, ECDC has hosted 250+ attendees at 12 design workshops held to date, engaged 1,800+ people in conversations since 2020, reached 600k people through social media, shared community newsletters with 36k households, and had 500+ respondents to our surveys.
Ahead of the masterplan launch this winter, ECDC recently re-opened their dedicated consultation space, Conversation Corner. The space has hosted dozens of events for neighbours, community groups, and residents, designed to bring ECDC’s vision for the site to life. The latest consultation materials for Earls Court can be viewed online here.
Since acquiring the site in December 2019, The Earls Court Development Company has invested heavily in cultural and community programmes. This includes our partnership with London Design Festival (the first time LDF has ever come to Earl’s Court) and North End Road Festival, where we exhibited on Saturday 24 September alongside local musicians, street performers, and stallholders. Underbelly Festival has had two successful summers at Earls Court, transforming the site into a free public beach and open-air cinema alongside street food traders, pop-up bars and games for all ages, with over 160,000 people visiting the festival site over two years. Our vibrant pop-up high street on Lillie Road also offers food, drink, and shopping. One unit, called The Pop Up, is a free-to-use retail space, providing a pressure-free environment for new traders.
Our Artist in Residence programme will offer a paid three-month residency for a series of artists to create portraits of – or with – local people as well as run art classes for the local community. . Artists have now been selected and the first artist will be in residency in Q1 2023. We have also worked in partnership with Kensington + Chelsea Festival for two years, profiling the area’s creative spirit through temporary onsite art installations, including 2021’s The Pleasure Garden and this year’s takeover from Azarra Amoy – a 39-metre mural on Warwick Road entitled Stars of Earl’s Court. In November 2022, a temporary immersive theatre opened in the former Mannequin Factory in West Kensington. The theatre, operated by The Lost Estate, tells history’s greatest stories, with free tickets available for the community, as well as co-working space in the theatre for local creatives.
Our community fund of £180,000 is distributed amongst local charities annually, and we announced the selected charities for the 2022 fund earlier this year. 2021’s fund helped around 11,000 people, with many more set to benefit this year too. In June 2022, we opened a new Community Hub in West Kensington, a flexible space run by and for residents – hosting a range of mostly free activities and classes every week for local people.
Follow us on social media @earlscourtdevco and join in the conversation #ECDCWonder. For press enquiries, please contact press@earlscourtdevco.com
About BBC Studios BBC Studios is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group with profits (EBITDA) of £226 million on sales of £1.6bn (21/22). Able to take an idea seamlessly from thought to screen and beyond, its activities span content financing, development, production, sales, branded services, and ancillaries across both its own productions, and programmes and formats made by high-quality UK independents, with three-quarters of its revenues from non-BBC customers including Discovery, Apple and Netflix. Around 2,400 hours of award-winning British programmes made by the business are internationally recognised across a broad range of genres and specialisms, with brands like Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear, Bluey and Doctor Who. BBC.com, BBC Studios’ global digital news platform, has 139 million unique browser visits each month.
About BBC Studios Natural History Unit: BBC Studios Natural History Unit produces the world’s most iconic natural history programmes, such as Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II, which have been watched by more than a billion people globally. Ranging from technically challenging live shows and super-landmarks to long-running series and children’s content, The Natural History Unit programmes include The Green Planet presented by Sir David Attenborough to Dynasties, Blue Planet Live, Springwatch, Andy’s Aquatic Adventures and third-party commissions for Discovery, AppleTV+, NBCU, National Geographic / Disney+, Migu and BBC America. The Natural History Unit is part of BBC Studios.
About Moon Eye Productions: Backed by Leon Ramakers and John Mulder with an executive team comprised of Frederik van Alkemade, Jeroen Backx, Amy Farrant, Jeffery Hoegen and Tim McWilliams, Moon Eye Productions was born out of a desire to create the next big immersive event that could inspire and create positivity, with the scale to attract a wide audience. With years of collective event experience, the Moon Eye Productions team launch their debut show in London with the aspiration leave guests ‘moon eyed’ in wonder.
About Live Nation Entertainment: Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com.
About Daikin: Daikin UK is an eco-heating technology brand, leading the industry in providing innovative indoor climate management solutions to reduce environmental impact. With almost 100 years of history, Daikin launched the Altherma range in Europe in 2006 and continues to help homeowners to reduce their personal carbon footprint. Our innovative products and solutions are designed to improve people’s health and well-being and reduce the environmental impact of heating and cooling. By 2050 Daikin aims to be carbon neutral throughout the full value chain and the full life cycle of its products and solutions.
