THE Blue Peter garden became a fixture for millions after it was conceived by programme editor Biddy Baxter in 1974.
Now, more than 30 years on, the garden, planted by pipe-smoking television gardener Percy Thrower has been put up for listed status – along with the former Top of the Pops studios, and other iconic features of the BBC Television Centre in Wood Lane,
west London.
English Heritage, the building conservation watchdog, has "strongly urged" the government to recognise "the extraordinary cultural and architectural significance" of the building, opened on 29 June 1960.
It is requesting Grade II listed status for its scenery workshop, its 1960s canteen overlooking the Blue Peter garden, and the distinctive circular block housing offices and the main studios – the famous "doughnut".
The BBC plans to vacate TV Centre in 2012 – leaving behind the place where newsreader Nicholas Witchell fended off an invasion of militant lesbians in 1982, and comedies from The Two Ronnies to Little Britain were perfected.
Peter Beacham, protection director at English Heritage, said the building was not just architecturally important.
"As one of the first purpose-built television studios in the world, it represents the moment when Britain led Europe into the television age," he said.
"We all feel we know areas such as the Blue Peter garden and the studios where people have watched significant moments in broadcasting over the last 40 years – from early Doctor Who to Top Of The Pops, Terry Wogan and Children In Need."
Television Centre first took shape in a pub, where architect Graham Dawbarn, struggling with a 50-page brief for the new building, pencilled a question mark on an envelope. Its curve became his inspiration.
The former BBC Scotland controller, John McCormick, said: "It became the iconic TV building in Britain, and became very special to generations of people to work in because of its unique design."
Any listing could complicate the BBC's current plans to sell the building after vacating in favour of a refurbished Broadcasting House and a major new site in Salford.
"The big problem now is it's future," said Mr McCormick. "Do you build for the digital era, or do you adapt the current premises?"
A BBC spokesman said yesterday the corporation was "happy to discuss" any proposal with English Heritage. Meanwhile the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport will rule on the application.
What it takes to make it on to the exclusive listENGLISH Heritage is requesting that parts of the BBC Television Centre and its grounds – including the main studios and the Blue Peter garden – be granted Grade II listing by the UK government.
There are some 370,000 architecturally important buildings in England which have listed status, and 97 per cent are Grade II.
In Scotland, there are three categories of listed buildings, A, B, and C, with listings overseen by Historic Scotland.
A 2006 survey showed about 46,600 listed buildings in Scotland, with 8 per cent in Category A, 56 per cent in Category B and the rest in Category C.
Category A in Scotland includes buildings of national or international importance, either architectural or historic, or little-altered examples of a particular period, style or type.
Category B includes buildings of regional or more than local importance, or major examples of some particular period, style or building type which may have been altered. Category C is buildings of local importance and lesser examples of period or style.
In England all buildings built before 1700 which survive in anything like their original condition are listed, as are most built between 1700 and 1840.
After that date, the criteria become tighter with time, because of the increased number of buildings erected and the much larger numbers which have survived.
As a result post-1945 buildings have to be exceptionally important to be listed.
Buildings less than 30 years old are only rarely listed, if they are of outstanding quality and under threat.
The full article contains 672 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
