Iconic headquarters could be flattened

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The building that for the past 50 years has stood as an emblem of the British Broadcasting Corporation will be sold off to raise cash, it was confirmed today.

It is most likely to be flattened to make way for a new office and retail development on the prime 13-acre site. The sale of the huge studio complex, home to hundreds of shows from Top Of The Pops to Blue Peter, will raise hundreds of millions of pounds.

To some who work within its labyrinthine walkways, departure will be a relief. TV Centre is a relic of an analogue age in a digital media world. Its layout is commonly held to be confusing - with various clunky extensions over the years.

Many of its staff are due to move out anyway, with the children's, sport and Five Live departments set for relocation to Manchester in 2009. Others will see its potential destruction as a tragedy.

Television Centre opened in 1960 on a site used for the Franco-British exhibition of 1908. Its architect, Graham Dawbarn, conceived the design in a local pub, on the back of an envelope. The semi-circular facade began life as a question mark scribbled in the centre of his drawing - but Dawbarn realised the shape would suit the studio complex.

It has had a colourful history - stormed by lesbians in 1988 protesting at anti-homosexual laws, bombed by the Real IRA in 2001 and home to the Blue Peter garden, vandalised by intruders in 1984.