100 years since the 'birth' of television took place in Soho

100 years ago today, inventor John Logie Baird successfully showed the world's first demonstrations of living, moving scenes on television. Credit: PA Media

A small room in Soho is being marked as the birthplace of television, 100 years after inventor John Logie Baird showed moving images onscreen for the first time.

The building where the experiment took place is now home to Bar Italia, a popular late-night coffee shop.

Today, John's grandson Iain Logie Baird unveiled a World Origin Site plaque at the cafe, to mark this moment in history. He also officially opened a new 'Baird Room' which is dedicated to telling the story of where television first began.

In January 1926, John invited a small audience into his workshop at 22 Frith Street, to see his latest invention. Here, he showed that pictures could be sent and received using a system of spinning disks, light and electrical signals.

This was a groundbreaking moment that many historians now see as the point when television moved from a bold idea to reality.

John Logie Baird with his first TV apparatus which he presented to the science museum. Credit: PA Archive

Television historian, Professor Graeme West explains how the process worked:

"You had a spinning disk would focus a light on the subject. Then essentially what you’re doing is your assessing the intensity of that light spot and then turning that into an electrical signal.

"That was then turned into a radio wave and then transmitted across to a display unit or a television”

Prof Graeme West is a television historian who works at the University of Strathclyde.

Following John's discovery, London continued to play a central role in television’s development. A decade later, Alexandra Palace in North London became the home of the world’s first regular television broadcasts.

Kirsten Forrest is the Curatorial & Interpretation Manager at Alexandra Palace. She told ITV News London that Baird unfortunately did not win the "competition" for broadcasting live television.

Kirsten Forrest spoke to ITV News London about the role Baird played in laying the foundations for the oldest television transmission site.

She said: “There was a delay of about 54 seconds so it wasn’t truly live. The pictures that they transmitted on the Baird system were very good but it was this element of them not being live that became the issue.

“The engineers were quite frustrated with it. They said it was like sending a telegram when you knew that there was a telephone in the next room.”

However, she agrees that Baird's discovery was "fundamental" to the first days of television.

In 1936, the BBC began broadcasting from the site, allowing people to watch television in their own homes for the first time. Alexandra Palace is set to mark the 90th anniversary of those broadcasts later this year.