BBC Maida Vale Studios is one of the true birthplaces of *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*. It was here, in the late 1970s, that Douglas Adams and the BBC Radio team recorded the original radio series that would launch the entire *Hitchhiker’s* phenomenon.
SEARCH 51.5257064, -0.1902687 BBC Maida Vale Studios, 120-129, Delaware Road, Kensal Town, Maida Vale, London, Greater London, England, W9 2LG, United Kingdom
The first broadcast went out on **BBC Radio 4** in March 1978 — produced by **Geoffrey Perkins** and directed by **Simon Brett** — and it changed radio comedy forever. Maida Vale’s sound engineers, already experts at producing the surreal soundscapes of the *Doctor Who* radiophonic era, helped Adams build his “radio science fiction with jokes” universe, full of zapping doors, cheerful computers, and improbability engines.
The studio became synonymous with Adams’ creative breakthroughs: the first appearance of Arthur Dent, the voice of the Book, and the sound of the Vogons reading poetry.
Though Maida Vale is now decommissioned, fans consider it a sacred site in the *Hitchhiker’s* timeline — where the Guide first found its voice.
