The Blue Peter garden in 1983 with presenters (l-r) Simon Groom, Janet Ellis and Peter Duncan and pets. Photograph: BBC
A piece of Britain's cultural heritage is one step closer to becoming a permanent memorial this week as English Heritage nominates the Blue Peter garden for listed status. That hallowed turf (and fish pond), tucked behind the studios of BBC TV Centre in London's White City, has been witness to some of the most memorable moments in British children's television. In the 34 years it featured as part of the popular programme, the garden has been a sanctuary for wildlife and homemade bird feeders, and even the victim of villainous vandals.
Remember the horrific and needless ransacking in 1983? Hooligans ran amok with a sledgehammer and a can of diesel, laying waste to Percy Thrower's carefully tended urban paradise. Janet Ellis barely contained her fury as she gently broke the news to the show's young viewers. A few years ago, footballer Les Ferdinand is said to have admitted and then denied his involvement in the garden attack.
Although long-since unearthed, two Blue Peter time capsules once lay beneath the lush green lawns, crammed with important items like Blue Peter annuals, photographs of Peter Purvis and Valerie Singleton (now somewhat tainted since Singleton's revelations about their "fling") and a recording of the show's theme tune arranged by that hip young scenester, Mike Oldfield. A third capsule lies beneath the millennium dome, awaiting rediscovery in the year 2050.
If the Blue Peter garden disappears under the developer's rubble, what will become of the statue of Petra? Or the vegetable patch? Or the wall mural depicting every presenter and pet in the show's illustrious history? Whither swim the fish in the sunken Italian garden pond? You can't just displace wildlife, bulldoze history and turn it into luxury flats. Can you?
English Heritage isn't just hoping to list the famous garden, but also other parts of the BBC's studio complex including the architecturally striking "doughnut" - scene of the Record Breakers mass tap-dancing record attempt, and the infamous BBC canteen, often censured by Wogan on his thrice-weekly BBC chat show.
Are we being overly sentimental about bricks, mortar and turf here, or should we hang on to these last traces of a more innocent time and preserve them for posterity?
