[James2001]

Just to give some perspective - when ITN were based in Wells Street (1969 to 1991) - they only had one main studio, which was 2,000 Sq Ft in space with a smaller 700 Sq Ft studio - so they literally had to cram as much into such a small space - wide angle lenses and a carefully constructed set ensured ITN's election nights from Wells Street were decent, but could never match the near 11,000 Sq Ft size of Studio TC1 at BBC Television Centre, or even the other four medium sized studios which were 8,000 Sq Ft each in floor space.

In 1991 when ITN moved into Grays Inn, they then had two slightly larger main studios in the basement, both are the same size, around 2,500 Sq Ft floor space each, so only slightly bigger than their main Wells Street studio - this is the reason why for 1997 and 2001 they used the vast atrium of Grays Inn for their election studio, and even in 2005, with VR backdrop to the set was the atrium.

Makes me wonder what they did when they were building the election set in studio 1, presumably they'd have had to do everything in studio 2, which by the sounds of it wouldn't have really been bigger for much more than a desk and a simple backdrop.

According to the TV Studios history site, they used to hire out studio 2 for other things before Channel 4 news started and they needed the space all the time. I know a few years ago, an ITN VT clock appeared before the Lonely This Christmas video on one of the MTV channels, so that must have been made there.