Here's some photos I took earlier...

Monday, December 9th, 2013

Any visitor to Salford Quays (as I frequently am) should also pay a visit to the MediaCity UK complex, which houses the glassy northern headquarters of the BBC and Granada (including a newly built Coronation Street).

And right next to the MediaCity UK Metrolink station is that iconic bastion of children's television programming, the Blue Peter garden.

Well, I say iconic. Maybe it was iconic before Children's BBC moved from White City to MediaCity, but I can say with some considerable certainty that the Blue Peter garden has seen better days. Whereas before it was a proper, expansive garden that the presenters could plant things in and walk around, now it's merely a concrete corner with virtually no grass and just a hint of green. It's tokenism on a not so grand scale.

Having said that, for what it's worth, any member of the public can walk around it (well, it's more like a couple of steps than a walk) and I recently took some pictures, as I was quite taken with a very photogenic "gardener's shed" they have in one corner.

They also have Petra the dog's statue on a plinth, transported up from London, and while I am always surprised that the Blue Peter garden isn't in a permanent state of vandalism and chaos, I suppose the reason it's largely left alone is because a) it's barely noticeable, and b) nobody really cares any more, perhaps least of all the BBC.