'Blue Peter' garden opened up for public

The new Blue Peter garden in Salford will be open to the public for the first time in the show's history.

Princess Anne will officially open the relocated children's TV landmark in a landscaped area outside Dock House on February 23.

The venue has been switched from a previous plan to have a rooftop garden, which would have again been off-limits for the public.

Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins has been placed in charge of designing the new garden, which will include a statue of the BBC One flagship children's show's first pet dog Mabel.

Foot, hand and paw prints from other presenters who were involved in the original garden in 1978 will also be used.

"We're really excited about being able to open up the garden so Blue Peter viewers can come along and visit it - we wanted to make it as accessible to the public as possible," said the show's editor Tim Levell.

The original Blue Peter garden was designed by Percy Thrower and it is behind the staff canteen at BBC Television Centre.

The garden was vandalised in 1983 and presenter Janet Ellis famously requested that viewers come forward with information on the criminals.

An urban myth developed that footballers Dennis Wise and Les Ferdinand were involved in the criminality in the 1990s, and '80s-based BBC drama series Ashes to Ashes also included a reference to the vandals with Philip Glenister's character Gene Hunt involved in the incident.