This letter appeared in the Guardian, November 12 2011:

Further to your article regarding the 75th anniversary of television (In praise of… Alexandra Palace, 4 November), my husband and I visited Alexandra Palace last weekend, as the studios were open to the public. We both worked at Alexandra Palace for BBC TV News from 1963 to 1969, when news moved to Television Centre. We even met and married while working there.

I cannot begin to say how saddened we both were at the state of neglect and condition of the studios – in fact only Studio A was open as Studio B was closed due to its unsafe condition. The studios have not been regularly used since 1981.

Television has had a major impact on so much of the world in a variety of ways, from being instrumental in helping to bring democracy to many countries, to informing and entertaining vast numbers of people – Frozen Planet and Downton Abbey currently being prime examples. Surely we should not allow this internationally important historic building, the very birthplace of television, to deteriorate to extinction. It should be preserved.

I realise that funding would currently be a problem for a project of this size, especially for the trustees of Alexandra Palace on their own. However, this would surely be a good candidate for national lottery funding. Perhaps after the Olympics next year, the restoration of these studios could be considered. Less than 40 miles away is the birthplace of radio, in Chelmsford. Would it not be fitting for Alexandra Palace to become a celebration of radio and television. After all, both of these immensely important media forms are British inventions of which we should be justly proud.

Hazel Willingale
Great Dunmow, Essex

I'll third that proposal!! [Even though I only worked in 'News' from '96 to '03!]
But since there's unlikely to be anyone in current "Management" who'd even remember that the Beeb ever used AP, I think there's unlikely to be a push for this from within the present organisation. Shame on them.