Neat

It seems that "new" Broadcasting House is getting older fast. For architects and interior designers, there's always a tense period in the handover of a new building - will the occupants embrace the clean lines and sassy furniture, the leading-edge breakout spaces, the touch-down pods, etc and RESPECT THE CONCEPT - or will they revert to type ?

Peter Salmon seems to have kept them in line at MediaCityUK, in Salford; staff at the Media Centre in White City generally play by the house rules, led by hot-desking DG Mark Thompson. But at Broadcasting House, the pot plants, rugs and sellotape have made it through security, and the crisp, modern, shared workplace is said to be well on the way to looking like the set of Waterloo Road.  Some departments in the wide open spaces are apparently hardly visible for foliage barriers of weeping figs, yuccas and peace lilies.

Even the white glass of the huge reception has been "decorated" with huge decals of Bruce Forysth and other broadcasters of the future - a departing gift from marketing supremo, Helen Normoyle, on her way to add a touch of class to sofa-pushers DFDS.

Does this matter ?  Mark Thompson is known to favour tidy, focussed working in clean and uncluttered surroundings - paper plays little part in his working life. Broadcasting House is "owned" by Caroline Thomson, very much a candidate to succeed as DG, whereas many of the staff currently wielding sellotape belong to rivals Helen Boaden and Tim Davie. Will Lord Patten mind if Auntie's £1bn investment is dotted with fold-up bikes, tea trays, old rucksacks, etc, leaning against pillars festooned with rotas, union notices and invitations to lunchtime jewellery sales ?