LB Hammersmith & Fulham have joined the campaign to list the iconic BBC TV centre.
In a letter to Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Councillor Mark Loveday, Cabinet Member for Strategy, says the council supports English Heritage in its bid to give parts of the complex grade II listed building status.
These include the famous Blue Peter garden, the canteen building, scenery workshops and the distinctive circular drum that houses studios and offices. These areas have 1950s design and architectural features including a mosaic from prolific artist John Piper, a gilded sculpture of the Greek sun god Helios and the well-known studded wall, with its circular discs.
He said: “Hammersmith & Fulham Council has always recognised the importance of BBC Television Centre and we have done as much as our powers allow to conserve it. We are pleased that English Heritage is now supporting our position.
“The BBC has been part of this borough’s heritage for well over 50 years, even before Television Centre was built, when the corporation used Shepherds Bush Empire and Riverside Studios to record their programmes.
The calls to save key parts of the Wood Lane structure in White City come amid fears that the borough could lose one of its most iconic buildings after 2012 once the BBC transfers staff to its other offices in London and Salford, Greater Manchester.
The complex is already on Hammersmith & Fulham’s local register of buildings of merit and stands in the Wood Lane Conservation Area, designated by the council in March 1991.
