Which TV buildings should be listed?

So, Television Centre is going, opening up the possibility that it will succumb to the bulldozers being on prime housing land.

It's very sad that TVC could end up going that way. But recent years have seen the destruction of several landmark TV sites including Grampian at Queen's Cross, Meridian at Northam and Central's Lenton Lane. I realise that not all these buildings are suitable for re-use, but it galls me that a preservation order has been slapped on some eyesore Civic Centre in Plymouth when the former Westward/TSW buildings - still in a functional state if not for broadcasting - face the bulldozer.

So which TV sites would YOU make listed buildings? I'd go with:

- BBC Television Centre;
- Neptune House (BBC/ATV Elstree);
- Kent House (LWT/ITV plc);
- Granada Quay Street;

Anywhere else?

- ATV Centre
- Anglia
- YTV

Just a small point of order: Northam hasn't been demolished and remains more or less as Meridian left it (in building shell terms at least, I've no idea what the internal structure and fabric of the studios is like).

Lenton Lane is also still in existance but part of a university AIUI - anyone know what they did with the studios? Lecture theatres?

As for listing TV buildings, fond of purpose built studio centres as I am, I'm not sure many of them have much architectural merit. Bits of BBC Television Centre are certainly very 'of an era' but Stages 5 and 6 and the East Tower are extremely mundane and uninteresting IMO. However, the facade from TC1's bobbly wall on the left across the curved front of the main block to Stage 4 is probably one of the most familiar TV Building's frontages in the UK. The only other TV building with a familiar facade is LWT's Kent House - though probably only really to London's viewers as it featured heavily in their start ups of the 70s and 80s!

I also think ATV Centre has some merit, though it's being (been?) demolished soon. Granada's Quay Street is a pretty dull looking block IMO, but no more dull than Pebble Mill's office tower block! Bits of the Mill were really great and individual though - the textured exteriors round the back (were these the radio studios?) were really unique and of course the glass front elevation with the long gallery (Pebble Mill at One's infamous setting) running along the bottom and the top of Studio-A sticking up from it was great!

also I think BBC Yorkshires Woodhouse Lane should have been listed.

If the site is buldozed, will the BBC auction off old studio equipment like they did with Pebble Mill?

The Lenton Lane studios are used for shooting films nowadays, interior shots of Control were done there recently; I believe Shane Meadows has used them recently as well. East Midlands Media Archive use the parts of the studios for storage etc

Other parts of the complex are used by University of Nottingham, for administrative purposes. I think former Central newshound Jonathan Ray works there as a press officer for Nottm Uni funnily enough!

What's actually happening to Broad Street in B'ham these days? I went by a few weeks ago, it seemed like the beginning of demolition work was taking place?

It's a shame that Television Centre's going to go.

Iconic? Yes.

Architecturally important or remotely interesting? No.

There's no point listing Anglia's building really, there's nothing there in a sense. From the front, it's Anglia House as we've always known it, still with original sign. From behind however, it's a modern building with a huge satellite dish plonked in front of it and a car park. It all feels too new to be listed.

Neptune House is a very dull 1960's office block, absolutely no value at all. The small, art deco 'Fairbanks' building next to it is possibly the only bit of Elstree worth preserving.

I don't really think it has much merit really. It's not got a clever uniquie design like TV Centre, it's just a big grey concrete box the type of which Birmingham is doing so well to get rid of. It's the TV equivalent of New Street Station - functional but nothing special.

I suppose the problem is that most purpose built television studio complexes were built in the 60s - a decade where architecture was functional, concrete and, in the main, very very bland. The BBC's Bristol and Plymouth bases are both old houses (in Bristol's case, lots of victorian villas all knocked together). While the houses themselves are individually rather nice, round the back there are ugly blocks housing the TV Studios, almost lean-to corridors linking the houses and generally little that would be missed.

The buildings that television companies inhabited before they built their much heralded studio complexes however are much more interesting. Theatres and Cinemas were routinely used - many have since been (ironically) demolished to make way for 60s office blocks. The Shepherds Bush Empire was the BBC TV Theatre until the early 1990s and is now restored and is a successful rock venue. That may well be listed... I believe ABC had a TV theatre which was demolished. Southern Television had one too I think.