The Newsroom

BBC Coat of Arms

(August 2006)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
KE
Kellow
Do the BBC still have their Coat of Arms and why were they granetd it?
LO
Londoner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_coat_of_arms
NH
Nick Harvey Founding member
Kellow posted:
why were they granetd it?

It's not always cut into granite.

At some locations, including the front of Broadcasting House, it's a somewhat softer stone.
SP
Spencer
Nick Harvey posted:
Kellow posted:
why were they granetd it?

It's not always cut into granite.

At some locations, including the front of Broadcasting House, it's a somewhat softer stone.


It was done in concrete at BBC Leeds old Woodhouse Lane HQ. Wink
BS
brotherton sands
Kellow posted:
Do the BBC still have their Coat of Arms and why were they granetd it ?


Kellow, do you really suppose that the BBC's coat of arms was "granted" to them? (e.g. by the government or similar)

Come on... the BBC is a broadcasting company, not a town/county or family surname, etc!!! (which are the types of things that usually have "officially recognised" coats-of-arms).

Indeed, the first sentence of the Wikipedia article says that it " ...was adopted... [by the BBC]" which is what I suspected was the case.

Actually, in light of the above (i.e that something like a company/corporation seems likes a very unworthy candidate to bear such a thing as a coat-of-arms, given that coats-of-arms tend to imply things like "noble" (etc) connotations), then it's an incredibly pretentious thing for the BBC to have done, IMHO.

Companies/corporations/businesses/organisations (etc etc) might well have a logo but surely not a coat-of-arms???
BB
BBC LDN
According to the BBC itself, its own status as neither a government department nor an official body meant that it was denied permission to use the Royal Coat of Arms but was instead encouraged to adopt its own coat of arms as a symbol of its potency and indeed of its "Britishness".

As Wikipedia correctly states, the BBC's technical and artistic functions have been carried into heraldic language. A thunderbolt and lightning flash are used to represent the electrical nature of broadcasting, the speed of it is represented by the eagles, the BBC's work of public proclamation is embodied in the bugles, the scope of the BBC's operations is represented by the globe and universe (stars), and the banner embodies the BBC's ultimate ideal, that "nation shall speak peace unto nation".

The heraldic description of the Coat of Arms is:

Azure a Terrestrial Globe proper encircled by an Amulet Or, and seven Estoiles in Orle Argent, and for the Crest, on a Wreath of the Colours, a Lion passant Or, grasping in the dexter fore-paw a Thunderbolt proper. Supporters on either side, an Eagle, wings addorsed proper collared Azure pendant therefrom a Bugle horn stringed Or.

If anyone gives a toss, I have an image of the original BBC Coat Of Arms (the 1993 Coat Of Arms used for the news was significantly updated over the original to bring it more in line with the Royal Coat of Arms).
BR
britbat
There is something very special and wonderful about heraldic language, it gives me shivers to read it.

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