Activision / Mediagenic / Activision Blizzard

15 Harley House, Marylebone Road, London, NW1

Good grief. No other company has sent me trekking so far around and about London and the outer reaches of the M25. I've occasionally thought I could organise these articles into nice walks. I could do you a trip around Liverpool, or Manchester, or along the line of Domark's southwest London offices. I couldn't do that for Activision. Just the addresses inside the M25 produce a walk 22 miles long. I didn't know true existential despair until I'd compiled all 13* addresses Activision UK used -and continue to use- in their long history. Even now I'm worried I've missed one**. If Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes through that could mean another move for the company. Oh god, no. No updates. No updates.

*Wrong. It's actually 16.
** I did.

CGL (Computer Games LTD) CGL House, Goldings Hill, Loughton, Essex, IG10

Activision have always been here. The first issue of COMPUTER & VIDEOGAMES carries a report on Activision's game Dragster, December 1981 page 24. In those far-off days Activision was a console only company producing games for the Atari VCS. Their titles were distributed in the UK by a company called CGL who specialised in importing and selling electronics from Japan and America. CGL also produced a quarterly newsletter called the ACTIVISION FUN CLUB. Issue 1 was released for Christmas 1982, issue 2 in Spring 1983, and issue 3 as you'd expect in summer 1983 but with a new contact address.

7 High Street, Maidenhead, Berks, SL6 & 5/7 Forlease Rd. Maidenhead, Berks SL6

The last time CGL is mentioned as Activision's UK distributor is in the Spring 1983 issue of Activision Fun Club, six months later, in September 1983, Activision Software Ltd is registered as a business name at Companies House. The gap between spring and autumn 1983 sees Activision use a couple of addresses in Maidenhead. The Summer 1983 edition of the Fun Club uses the 7 High Street address while this June 1983 C&VG review gives the 5/7 Forlease Rd address, care of a company called Ray Hodges Associates; who probably ran both Maidenhead addresses. Ray Hodges' Linkdin page describes the company as, "owned and built up multi-faceted PR and Direct Mail agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, from scratch - many big-name consumer leisure, business-to-business and high tech clients."

March 2023

The 7 High Street address was easy to find. It was less simple to find 5/7 Forlease Road.  It's a two minute walk from the High Street to Forlease Road but number 5/7 is long gone and the curse of urban renewal has screwed up all the building numbers. A Waitrose sits on the corner of Forlease Road and Moorbridge Road and the next building down Forlease Road on the Waitrose side is number 15. My best guess is that numbers 1-13 Forlease Road were cleared for the Waitrose site, so here's a free advert for the supermarket chain.

March 2023

Mmmmm! Waitrose. It just tastes better. Have you been shopping there today?

15 Harley House, Marylebone Road, London, NW1

A few isolated adverts for Activision games crop up in C&VG in late 1983 and summer 1984. Neither of them have a contact address. Geoffrey Heath, Activision's UK managing director, described the early days of the UK company to POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY (20-26 September 1984 page 12): "[Activision's] UK division was established at the beginning of this year as Activision prepared to move from producing cartridge software for Atari to establish material for a wider base of machines...The time between the idea and the actual launch this autumn has been taken up with setting up the UK base and writing the conversions for the other machines, particularly the Spectrum." This is all in the wake of the disastrous effect of the American console market crash on Activision's US parent company. Activision Inc saw its revenue drop from "$50 million in mid-1983 to about $6–7 million by the end of 1984" (Wikipedia). The company went through a period of desperate diversification away from consoles to home computers and I wonder if the crash -which didn't affect the UK market- focused Activision's thoughts on setting up a UK subsidiary. If the US market hadn't crashed Activision might have stayed with CGL or been another company who signed up with US Gold.

One significant action the company did take was to issue an injunction against Microdeal, a Cornish software company based in St. Austell, to stop them distributing a game called Trapfall. This was done on the grounds that Trapfall, which Microdeal licenced from Tom Mix Software in America, was a clone of Activision's game Pitfall. Geoff Heath told POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY: "We applied to the court for an injunction to prevent Microdeal selling Cuthbert in the Jungle... However, after reviewing the writ and our prosecution papers, Microdeal obviously felt our case was watertight because they didn't fight it." (26 July -1 August 1984 page 1). Geoff reflected on the case in his September 1984 interview: "We did the right thing, they did the right thing, and its all water under the bridge now... It does seem to have engendered a view that we are a giant 'nasty American' company, which is rubbish. Four years ago, [Activision] was a one-room set-up designing cartridge games for the Atari 2600."

June 2023

June 2023

CRASH
August 1985 page 73

The UK subsidiary was based in Harley House. When ZX COMPUTING visited in early 1986, for an interview with David Levine, of Lucasfilm Games, they described it as: "a highly desirable terrace of Victorian houses." That's understating it. Harley House is a huge sandstone-coloured block of mansions running down the north side of Marylebone Road. The block is ideal for millionaire hypochondriacs because Harley Street is just a short hobble across the road; although if you've got the £4 million plus needed to buy an apartment in the block you can probably pay doctors to make house calls. I know London was less expensive in ye olden days but this must have always cost a packet to rent. It's a statement address. And that statement, despite Geoff Heath's comment to POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY, was that Activision are here. They have money to burn. They are giant nasty American company.

Activision Ltd did have money to burn. The end of 1984 saw the release of Ghostbusters, a phenomenally successful game with reported sales in excess of 300,000 by the end of summer 1985. At an RRP of £9.95 that's a lot of cash. The Harley House days from 1984 to 1986 cover a period when the company was still diversifying away from consoles and releasing innovative games like Hacker, Alter Ego and Little Computer People. Activision also held the rights to distribute early LucasArts titles (when the company was still called Lucasfilm Games); Rescue on Fractalus! (with the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad versions converted by Dalaili Software), Ballblazer, Koronis Rift, and The Eidolon. 

Summer 1985 saw Go To Hell sneak on to the shelves. An odd game by John George Jones with deliberately gruesome and over the top graphics; gibbets, people on racks, skulls being sawed through, heads squashed in vices. A heavy-metal vision of the underworld rendered in garish 8-bit graphics. The game is credited to a company called Triple 6, or possibly 666, at a PO BOX in Maidenhead. Despite Activision's best efforts to remain anonymous the game has been linked to them. Not least by CRASH, who immediately blew the secret with a caption in their August 1985 review.

"A rather green Alice Cooper Look-alike on the front screen of GO TO HELL. Activision's anonymous attempt at the bad taste bandwagon."

The Maidenhead address makes me wonder if the game was released via Ray Hodges Associates. If you want to know a little more about the game and it's author then watch RoseTintedSpectrum's excellent video on Youtube. September 1985 saw Activision sign up Electric Dreams, a new company from ex-Quicksilva managing director Rod Cousins. Electric Dreams was described as a "division of Activision" but it had a high degree of autonomy and its adverts and games always carried their Southampton address.

23 Pond Street, Hampstead, London NW3 

Activision left Marylebone in early 1986 and headed north. It's not really Hampstead, just Hampstead adjacent; north Belsize Park at best. A lovely, listed, three-story (plus attic and basement) Georgian house, with a Victorian drill hall on one side; that's now a gym. I try to avoid taking pictures of people's houses so here's a photo from YOUR SINCLAIR of the Activision staff standing outside their new office.

YOUR SINCLAIR
July 1986 page 14

Units 3 & 4 Lloyds Close, Finedone Road Industrial Estate, Wellingborough, NN8

A new address appears on Activision adverts from September 1987. The company hasn't moved out of London, the new address is primarily for mail order. Over at the Spectrum Computing forum user PeteProdge, who lived in the area, remembers: " I don't think it was a hub for programming, more like admin. The skip outside it used to have many returned cassettes, regularly raided by kids from the nearby council estate. You'd see a lot of children with Hacker badges." September 1987 also saw System 3 begin a close working relationship with Activision, that lasted for about two years. The assorted Activision/Electric Dreams/System 3 adverts that run in ZZAP!64 over the autumn of 1987 sometimes give the Wellingborough address, while some list Pond Street, some carry both, and some have no address at all. Alas for consistency.

POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY
12-18 FEBRUARY 1987 page 6

The point of the move from Harley House to Pond Street, and splitting mail order off to another part of the country, was presumably to control costs because across the Atlantic the news from Activision HQ was not good. There's a history of Activision at gamedeveloper.com which notes the damage the 1983 videogame crash continued to inflict on the American parent: 

"The company was strong enough to weather the crash,” [David] Crane remembered. “We had kept tight controls on cash, and so we were in OK shape. [CEO] Jim Levy’s strategy was to come up with the best estimate of what the business would look like in one year, and then downsize the company to match that target. Every year he was just a little too optimistic, and the business took years to recover."

Activision's version of Predator was released at the end of 1987 and it carries a revealing message hidden in the game code. It's too long to quote in full -you can see it here- but these are some highlights:

"This program was written in an incredible two months in Leeds and the last week in a hell-hole called Southampton - nothing against the people that live in Southampton, but we did see only three other people the whole time we were there!

...many thanks to 'Eddy' for giving the team so much notice for coming to Southampton (ie: 12 hours) and to 'Ray' for giving us so much money to spend while we were here (in other words - sod all).

Also many thanks to 'Stuart' at Activision, without who we would never have had the chance to visit such a crap place as Southampton...

And what a game! (it was designed by System 3 who are the biggest load of bodgers around.)"

In May 1988 Mediagenic was born! What is a Mediagenic you ask? It was a rebranding of Activision Inc following a reorganisation by chief executive Bruce Davis. Activision Ltd existed at the whim of the American parent and for the next few years what happened on the other side of the Atlantic would affect the British company more than any success it might generate in the UK . The Companies House record indicates that Activision Ltd never formally changed its name to Mediagenic although it diligently included the name on adverts for the remainder of 1988 which led to the slight non-sequitur of adverts for Activision branded games with an address of Mediagenic, Activision House, 23 Pond Street. 

I don't currently have a picture of Units 3 and 4 on the Finedone Road Industrial Estate, I've been run ragged just trying to get pictures of the other offices. Watch this space.

September 2023

UPDATE: October 2023. Don't watch that space. Watch this space. I got to Wellingborough last month on a Friday afternoon. I pulled up and sat in the car and surveyed Lloyd Close. It was a Friday afternoon and there was a bloke in a Hi Vis jacket pottering around the forecourt of Unit 4 in a little forklift truck. I waited until he'd gone in and then I got out of the car and walked up Lloyd Close. It's an unremarkable access road which does nothing except give access to the six brick and grey metal units in this corner of the estate. I stood at the other end of the road where I could take a picture of Units 3 and 4 and the sign. I took one picture. Didn't much like it. Took another picture. Job done. I started to walk back to the car when I realised the bloke in the Hi Vis was walking towards me. "Why did you talk a picture of the building?" he asked. My heart sank. I prefer to go out on weekends to avoid conversations like this. I literally blabbed the first thing which came into my head. "I'm writing an article about a company who used to be based here." Which was the truth; if you can call this an article. It turned out to be the right thing to say. It was obviously such a random and unexpected reply that I couldn't be lying. The bloke turned out to be the site supervisor and it also turned out that the company Genteel Associates occupy all  six units, so there's no through traffic down this road except visitors to the company. I hadn't realised it but I stood out a mile just by driving down the road and parking. I offered to show him my two pictures, he wasn't that bothered. What I was worried might be an awkward conversation actually ended on a nice friendly note. Checking later, I realised Hi Vis bloke is standing in the door to Unit 4 watching me in photo 1 and I've cropped him out of photo 2 where he's visible walking towards me across the forecourt.

Blake House, Manor Farm Estate, Manor Farm Road, Reading

Activision moved out of London in November 1988. A cost saving measure? Maybe. Rival US company Electronic Arts also moved away from London in 1988, to the Langley Business Centre near Slough, Atari had been based in Slough for years, and Commodore moved slightly further down the M4 corridor from Slough to Maidenhead. It's possible Activision just wanted to relocate among other technology and software companies. 

The System 3 deal ended around autumn 1989 (probably, see the System 3 article for more details). AMIGA POWER later wrote about what was described as a "doomed partnership" (November 1991 page 11): " A sales and marketing deal with Activision in 1989/90 went sour (for the usual business reasons). System 3 wanted out but were under obligation to write a couple more games for Activision -one of which was Last Ninja II. In the end Cale and his crew left Activision, who simply wrote Ninja II themselves and released it in System 3 packaging. It was not a success." ACE magazine visited Activision's HQ in July 1990 for one of their regular reader's conferences. The article was printed in the September 1990 issue which was ironic because the month previously, in August 1990, Mediagenic announced the UK subsidiary would be all but closed down; reducing from a business which employed 50 people down to a two-person operation by 1991.

NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS
25 August 1990 page 3

The NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS news story was a page three shocka. Activision would ignore the growing market for Amiga and Atari ST software to focus on PCs and consoles. 

"Mediagenic has all but closed down its UK subsidiary Activision. That firm was responsible for such hits as Ghostbusters, RType, Super Hang-On and, more recently, Powerdrift. It says the future is not with home computers such as the Amiga and ST but with games consoles and DOS machines.

Activision UK, which last week employed 50 people, will only be a two person operation by next year. More than half of the employees had already left by the beginning of this week

Insiders say there is a feeling of extreme bitterness at Activision's Reading headquarters, especially since the UK operation had been a success."

"Industry watchers are suggesting that Activision has become the ‘sacrificial lamb’ of Mediagenic’s misdeeds. The company, while not spectacularly successful, has been trading profitably in Europe and its products are regarded highly by gamers.

But a series of poor moves and unfortunate events in the States have left Mediagenic in a sticky position:

* Mediagenic lost $19 million last year. Its performance has rarely been impressive since the middle of the 1980s."

"* Mediagenic recently lost $6 million in a drawn-out court case against MagnaVox for infringing copyright of a cartridge design in the early ‘80s.

* An attempt to break into the serious software market was not successful with Mediagenic making little headway with a series of utility programs.

* The company is up for sale but apparently offers have been thin on the ground. Only one company is thought to be interested and a deal is not likely for months."

March 2022

On a gloomy Sunday in March I set out on a ludicrously ambitious drive which took in all (no, not all, stay tuned) of Activision's out of London addresses; among other companies, no spoilers! For logistical reasons my trip began inside the M25 and worked west along the M4 corridor. It was after 2pm when I arrived at Blake House, on a day when I'd started out at 8am; I told you this trip was ludicrously ambitious. The car park was closed. Blast! Fortunately I was a seasoned traveller at this point and it was going to take more than two flimsy barriers to stop me. I popped a quick u-turn and drove back down the road to a modern housing estate called Kennet Island. The incongruous join between this estate and the acres of warehouses was like crossing the line between industrial and residential zones in Sim City. I parked,  walked back up Manor Farm Road, slipped round the barriers and snapped my picture. Easy. Blake House still looked pretty much exactly like the photo printed in the September 1990 issue of ACE.

ACE
September 1990 page 29

What happened next? NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS explained the short term impact: "More than half of the employees had already left by the beginning of this week..." that's grim reading as is a line from a CU AMIGA report (October 1990 page 126) that "Mediagenic have already sold off computers and cars from the Reading-based company." Activision Ltd would no longer support 8 and 16-bit computers but it couldn't afford to write off money that had already been spent on those formats. All four 16-bit games previewed at the ACE reader's conference saw release over the next few months; Time Machine, Atomic Robokid, Deuterus, and Dragon Breed. Plus, Hunter and Spindizzy Worlds. That last game was an Electric Dreams title. Activision's ending of support for UK home computers seems to have done for Electric Dreams, Spindizzy Worlds was their last game. Time Machine was by Mev Dinc's company Vivid Image. He later described the game to AMIGA POWER (April 1992 page 12): "While we were finishing the Time Machine project there were rumours that Activision were going under, which caused problems with marketing and distribution, and subsequently turned out to be true! That's when we signed with Mirrorsoft and look what happened to them!" Activision threw a little advertising money at Time Machine but someone forgot to add the Activision logo, which left the adverts anonymous

Unit 4, First Base, Beacontree Plaza, Gillette Way, Reading, RG2

There's one single page advert in the March issue of ZERO which advertises four games. It has a fire sale feel to it because in 1991 this isn't how new games are advertised. Check out the double-page advert for Gauntlet II on the inside front cover or the Last Ninja 3 advert on page 10. That's how you promote premium products. It's hard not to suspect that in happier times Activision would have advertised Dragon Breed, Atomic Robokid, Spindizzy Worlds and Time Machine with individual full-page adverts. Instead here they are trying to extract maximum marketing value for minimum spend and cramming four games on to one page as if it was 1983. There's a new address as well. It's an easy five minute walk from the company's old address at Blake House. Except I didn't walk it because until last Sunday I didn't know it existed.

The Companies House record shows Activision leaving Blake House on 11th June 1991 for a place in London called Inveresk House. There is no interim address. Either someone forgot to tell Companies House about the move, which is a breach of regulations, or Activision was still based at Blake House and also operating from Beacontree Plaza which seems unlikely for a company which was supposedly a two person operation at this point. I don't know. All I do know is I stumbled on the ZERO advert and cursed my luck. I'd been relying on the Companies House records when I was researching Activision. I'll go and take a picture in the unlikely event I find myself back in Reading, but don't hold your breath.

September 2023

Update October 2023. Breath holding can now end. I passed through Reading last month. There's a big Morrisons at the end of Gillette Way and I parked there and took a quick walk down the road to Beacontree Plaza. It is, as you'd expect, an unremarkable office complex. It was a Monday and this expedition took place after my conversation with Hi Vis bloke in Wellingborough so I didn't want to walk onto the plaza, especially not as access seemed to be controlled by a security guard sitting in a little box next to the way in. I stood on the other side of the road and pantomimed taking a photo of the "Units available sign," and tried to look like a busy professional estate agent/eccentric millionaire sign photographer. I also carefully stood where the top of the Beacontree Plaza sign blocked my view of the security guard. This obviously just made the guard more suspicious. If you look carefully in the photo he's come out of his box and is staring dubiously at me; so I've concealed his identity.

Activision Ltd was now winding down, except... "Activision returns" was the headline in the 18 May 1991 issue of NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS: "Since the death of the UK branch, Activision's parent organisation has settled its European operation in Paris." The June 1991 issue of AMIGA POWER gave a little more detail: "Activision UK is no longer a going concern, and their 'doings' are now in the hands of The Disc Company Europe, the Paris based wing of the American Disc Company which now owns a sizeable portion of Activision's parent Mediagenic. (Follow that?) What this means as far as we're concerned is that Activision's product line will now come from Activision Europe (ie The Disc Company) and not from Activision UK." AMIGA USER INTERNATIONAL (June 1991) filled in the final details: " Long time Amiga software company The Disc Company has made a surprising but successful raid on the erstwhile world Number One in entertainment software Activision. It captured 25% of Mediagenic, Activision's parent company, and forced a change of control of the company. Effectively, the Disc Company, led by Howard Marks and ex-Activision staffer Thomas Ormond, based in France, have as in some computerised business game, swallowed up Activision. the tottering giant." They also reported a bit of gossip: "Rod Cousens, for some years a leading figure in the U.K. software industry, appears already to have bowed out of Activision U.K. of which he was boss and that now seems to have been rapidly disappeared. There are numerous rumours that Cousens is suing for the fulfilment of his lucrative contract, which he was once photographed waving cheerfully, to scotch rumours that he was leaving the ailing Activision."

It was all happening on the other side of the  Atlantic. The Mediagenic takeover was led by Bobby Kotick whose role was explained in a Forbes profile: "Kotick engineered a deal to fully pay off the company's senior creditors in a prepackaged bankruptcy while persuading other creditors to swap their claims for equity. With an investment of only $440,000, Kotick, Wynn, Marks and a fourth partner named Brian Kelly wound up owning a third of the company. Kotick, the new chief executive, held 9% of the stock." 

Inveresk House, Aldwych, London, WC2B
June 1991 to June 1993

June 2023

Activision Europe was now running the business from Paris but Activision Ltd didn't close down. The Companies House record is an unbroken run from 1983 to 2023 (in fact, seeing it written down like that I've just realised Activision Ltd turns 40 this year). Inveresk House, or One Aldwych as it's known today, is a very posh listed building which looks straight down Waterloo bridge. As an address it's in the Harley House league and, I think, too expensive for a two person operation. I suspect Activision Ltd was in the care of a firm of solicitors or chartered accountants who filed the necessary documents and kept the company sleeping but ready to awake when business returned from over the Channel. THE ONE produced a three page article called Software Landmarks of the UK in October 1991. Activision doesn't rate a mention because the company had become irrelevant. 

First floor, Sheraton House, Lower Road, Chorleywood, Hertfordshire WD3

March 1993 to June 1995

June 2023

Activision Ltd is woken from it's corporate slumber in 1993. The US parent had come out of bankruptcy in 1992 and changed its name back to Activision Inc. A proper UK office was opened in 1993 in Chorleywood a lovely little town to the northwest of London, just outside the M25. I ended up in Chorleywood by accident. My plan was to go to Turnham Green and walk up to Long Island House -see the next entry- but I was travelling on a Sunday and the District line and Piccadilly Line were both closed. Rail replacement bus service? No thanks!

The previous evening I'd been idly reviewing the itinerary for the trip (Long Island House, Inveresk House, and a return trip to Harley House because I'd managed to photograph the wrong bit). (These things matter, to me). I'd already captured all of Activision's outer London addresses on my March road trip. But, as I looked down the list of addresses, I wondered why I couldn't find a photograph of Sheraton House? Because I'd missed it. This was my first disappointment of the weekend. The second would come the next day, when I'd discover the existence of the Beacontree Plaza address. I had to rule out including Chorleywood on my Sunday jaunt. It just wasn't practical. I couldn't get there by train without going into London. The alterative, driving there and back, would take three hours.

Then. as I listed to the announcement on the District line platform at Victoria Station I was faced with not getting to Long Island House as well. What to do? I dithered. Then I went for a cup of coffee. Then I dithered some more. For the first time this blog felt like a chore. I worked out that if I dashed to Marylebone Station I could
A) Get photos of the correct bit of Harley House.
B) Get a Chiltern Lines train to and from Chorleywood.
C) Dash down to Inveresk House.
D) Get back home in time to keep my promise to mow the grass before the end of the day.

The turnaround in Chorleywood was tight. My train arrived in Chorleywood at 12.24 and I needed to catch the one leaving at 12.48. Fortunately Sheraton House is barely five minutes walk from the train station and my mission was successfully accomplished. And the grass got cut.

Long Island House, Suite 3A 1/4 Warple Way London, W3
June 1995 to January 1997

June 2023

This update will be ready on Sunday 11th June and this photo was taken on Thursday 8th. So this entry is certified fresh. As all the cool kids say. Don't they? Fortunately I had the opportunity to nip down to London again in the week and tick Long Island House off the list.

These entries are going to get pretty scrappy from now on. The corporate history gets less and less interesting as Activision Ltd's situation improves and the company gets more and more successful. To the point today where Activision Blizzard strides the gaming world like a colossus, etc, etc.  Still, don't just look at the pictures. There's a good bit coming up where I have a conversation with a security guard. My first one ever.

Gemini House, 133 High Street, Yiewsley, Middlesex UB7
January 1997 to December 2000

March 1993

This isn't the good bit with the security guard. This is a picture of the boarded up wasteland where Gemini House used to stand. It was taken at 9.35am on a gloomy Sunday morning in early March. The only other person around was a bloke loading things into the boot of the blue car in the distance. It was bleak, cold, and quiet is what I'm getting at. Gemini House can be seen in the first round of Streetview pictures taken in August 2008. It's an unremarkable late seventies/early eighties red brick office, and it's abandoned and boarded up. The building is still hanging on in October 2012 looking more derelict. It's gone by 2014.

Gemini House gets namechecked in the August 1999 issue of OFFICIAL UK PLAYSTATION MAGAZINE. The address is listed in a half page directory of UK companies. If you want a stark demonstration of how the British software industry changed across the 1990s then compare this list to THE ONE's article and map from 1991.

1991 vs 1999

Parliament House, St Laurence Way, Slough, SL1
December 2000 to January 2006

March 2023

Activision UK was always on the move. The longest they stayed put, after their 1993 return, was the three years they were based at Gemini House. The company relocates from outside the M25 to inside, and then back out again. Whatever they were looking for in an office they found it in Parliament House because they stayed here for six years.

3 Roundwood Avenue, Stockley Park, Uxbridge, UB11

January 2006 to August 2015

March 2023

It's eerie driving round a business park at 9.15am on a Sunday morning. I'd deliberately chosen to set out (very) early because I knew I was going to be touring a lot of places which don't traditionally welcome idiots rocking up and asking "mate, can I photograph your building because a software house was based there 20 years ago." I felt it would avoid a lot of awkward conversations. (This still isn't my security guard encounter, that's the next address). Driving round Stockley Park that morning was the closest I hope I get to knowing what it's like to survive an apocalypse. You're in a well-maintained place normally filled with people but there's no one else in sight. My biggest worry was clipping one of the Canada geese who were taking advantage of the lack of traffic to wander the roads by the lake.

Whatever Parliament House had, Stockley Park had it moreso. Activision stuck around for nine years. This included the 2008 merger with Vivendi which created the company called Activision Blizzard. Activision Ltd formally changed its name the following year. 

Ditton Park, Riding Court Road, Datchet, Slough Berkshire SL3
August 2015 to April 2021

March 2023

Right from the planning stage of this update, I always knew Ditton Park was going to be the trickiest address to photograph. It's a private business park just outside Slough and almost as soon as you turn off Riding Court Road there's a security gate with a barrier across the road. I'd spent ages studying the area on Google Maps and I couldn't work out what to do. Driving was the only practical option but I couldn't work out where I was going to park. Could I stop on the short access strip between the junction and the gate? I didn't want to stop on Riding Court Road itself. Still, nil desperandum, and all that. The only thing I could do was try it and see what happens.

Riding Court Road is weird. It parallels the M4 and is separated from it by a narrow strip of concrete and a crash barrier. Driving down it with the M4 traffic coming towards you is unsettling. It was approaching 10.30am when I arrived and I crossed my fingers. At this time on a Sunday, with luck, the security hut would be empty. It wasn't. Damn and blast. I'd already committed to the right turn off Riding Court Road so I trundled towards the gate knowing my first plan was already a non-starter. I couldn't just park. There is a cut through just in front of the security hut, for anyone who has made a wrong turn, so, trying not to make eye-contact with anyone and assembling my features into an expression of imbecility, I drove through, hopefully in the style of someone who is lost and is stopping to work out where they are.

I fumbled for my phone, hoping I could take a quick photo of the sign and leave, but while I was unlocking it there was a knock on the window. Looking up, I saw a security guard and wound down my window.

Me: [trying to look like a harmless idiot which, frankly, is my superpower] Hello! Can I take a photo of the sign?

Security Guard: All this [gestures] is private. You can't stop here.

Me: Okay.

Reader. At the first sign of authority I folded like a paper napkin. I could have argued my case. I could have pointed out that there's clearly a stretch of the junction and access road which isn't private property. I could have ignored the guard. I could have done a lot of things but I didn't. I started the car and stopped just round the corner on what couldn't possibly be claimed as private property. It wasn't very safe and it's not a manoeuvre of which I'm particularly proud but it was the best I could think of under the circumstances. I jumped out of the car, hoped none of the occasional 40mph cars whooshing down Riding Court Road would plough into the back of me, took a very hasty picture (see above) and left.

The Ampersand Building 178 Wardour Street London W1F
April 2021 to date

May 2023

Photographing the Ampersand Building was an anti-climax. I walked there, stood on the corner of Noel Street and Wardour Street and clicked my camera. The biggest frustration was waiting for the perpetual crowd of tourists to thin a little. Activision Blizzard keep a low profile and the only clue to their presence is in one of the second floor windows.

The Microsoft takeover of Activision Blizzard is still rumbling on in the background. The UK Competition and Markets Authority has blocked the takeover and Microsoft has lodged an appeal. So, I'm leaving this here just in case:

Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6

March 2023

Do you have a picture of First Base, Beacontree Plaza? I can't begin to describe how much of a chore it was putting this article together and I really can't be bothered to slog down to Reading again. If you do have a photo, send it to shoutingintoawell@yahoo.com. Or let me know if I've got something wrong. Perhaps you worked at Inveresk House, or you're the security guard I talked to, in which case "hello." Why not follow me on Twitter @shammountebank -everyone, I mean, not just the security guard.