The BT Communication Tower is a grade II listed

communications tower Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-made ...

located in

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urban ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, owned by

BT Group BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broa ...

. Originally named the Museum Radio Tower (after the adjacent Museum telephone exchange), it became better known by its unofficial name, the Post Office Tower. It was later officially renamed the Telecom Tower. The main structure is high, with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to . Upon completion in 1964, it overtook the

Millbank Tower Millbank Tower is a high skyscraper in the City of Westminster at Millbank, by the River Thames in London. The tower was constructed in 1963, and has been home to many high-profile political organisations, including the Labour and Conservati ...

to become the tallest structure in London until 1980, when it in turn was overtaken by the NatWest Tower.

History

20th century

Commissioning and construction

The tower was commissioned by the General Post Office (GPO). Its primary purpose was to support the

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...

aerials then used to carry telecommunications traffic from London to the rest of the country, as part of the

General Post Office microwave network The British Telecom microwave network was a network of point-to-point microwave radio links in the United Kingdom, operated at first by the General Post Office, and subsequently by its successor BT plc. From the late 1950s to the 1980s it provided a ...

. It replaced a much shorter steel lattice tower which had been built on the roof of the neighbouring Museum telephone exchange in the late 1940s to provide a television link between London and Birmingham. The taller structure was required to protect the radio links' "line of sight" against some of the tall buildings in London then in the planning stage. These links were routed via other GPO microwave stations at

Harrow Weald Harrow Weald is a suburban district in Greater London, England. Located about north of Harrow, Harrow Weald is formed from a leafy 1930s suburban development along with ancient woodland of Harrow Weald Common. It forms part of the London Boro ...

, Bagshot,

Kelvedon Hatch Kelvedon Hatch is a village in civil parish of Kelvedon Hatch, in the Borough of Brentwood in south Essex, England. It is situated just north of Pilgrims Hatch, approximately to the north of Brentwood and is surrounded by Metropolitan Green ...

and Fairseat, and to places like the

London Air Traffic Control Centre The London Terminal Control Centre (LTCC) was an air traffic control centre based in West Drayton, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, approximately north of London Heathrow Airport. Operated by National Air Traffic Services (NATS) it ...

West Drayton West Drayton is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and from 1929 was part of the Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District, which became part of Greater London in 1965. Th ...

. The tower was designed by the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s of the

Ministry of Public Building and Works Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

: the chief architects were

Eric Bedford Eric Lance Bedford (18 February 1928 – 8 July 2006) was an Australian politician, affiliated with the Labor Party and elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. Bedford was born at Concord, NSW, and attended Fort Stree ...

and G. R. Yeats. Typical for its time, the building is concrete clad in glass. The narrow cylindrical shape was chosen because of the requirements of the communications aerials: the building will shift no more than in wind speeds of up to 150 km/h (95 mph). Initially, the first 16 floors were for technical equipment and power. Above that was a 35-metre section for the

aerials, and above that were six floors of suites, kitchens, technical equipment, a revolving restaurant, and finally a

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

ed steel lattice tower. To prevent heat build-up, the glass cladding was of a special tint. The construction cost was £2.5 million. Construction began in June 1961; owing to the building's height and its having a tower crane

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsail ...

across the top virtually throughout the whole construction period, it gradually became a very prominent landmark that could be seen from almost anywhere in London. A question was raised in Parliament in August 1963 about the crane.

Reginald Bennett Sir Reginald Frederick Brittain Bennett (b Sheffield 22 July 1911 – d London 19 December 2000) was an English Conservative Party politician, international yachtsman, psychiatrist and painter. Education Bennett was educated at Winchester Coll ...

MP asked the Minister of Public Buildings and Works,

Geoffrey Rippon Aubrey Geoffrey Frederick Rippon, Baron Rippon of Hexham, PC, QC (28 May 1924 – 28 January 1997) was a British Conservative Party politician. He is most known for drafting the European Communities Act 1972 which took the United Kingdom into ...

, how, when the crane on the top of the new Tower had fulfilled its purpose, he proposed to remove it. Rippon replied: "This is a matter for the contractors. The problem does not have to be solved for about a year but there appears to be no danger of the crane having to be left in situ." The tower was

topped out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...

on 15 July 1964, and officially opened by the then Prime Minister

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

on 8 October 1965. The

main contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

was

Peter Lind & Company Peter Lind & Company is a building contractor with bases in Central London and Spalding in Lincolnshire, England. History The original company was founded in 1915 by Danish engineer Herman Peter Thygesen Lind (1890–1956). In 1980 the company, ...

. The tower was originally designed to be just high; its foundations are sunk down through of

London clay The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 56–49 million years ago) age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content. The fossils from t ...

, and are formed of a concrete raft square, thick, reinforced with six layers of cables, on top of which sits a reinforced concrete pyramid.

Opening and use

The tower was officially opened to the public on 19 May 1966, by

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...

(then known as Anthony Wedgwood Benn) and

Billy Butlin Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin (29 September 189912 June 1980) was a South African-born British entrepreneur whose name is synonymous with the British holiday camp.''#refRiverside, American Heritage Dictionary 2004'', p. 135.#refSc ...

, with HM Queen Elizabeth II visiting on 17 May 1966. As well as the communications equipment and office space, there were viewing galleries, a souvenir shop and a rotating restaurant on the 34th floor; this was called The Top of the Tower, and operated by

Butlins Butlin's is a chain of large seaside resorts in the United Kingdom. Butlin's was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families. Between 1936 and 1966, ten camps were built, including one in Ireland and o ...

. It made one revolution every 23 minutes. In its first year the Tower hosted just under one million visitors and over 100,000 diners ate in the restaurant.

1971 bombing

A bomb exploded in the roof of the men's toilets at the Top of the Tower restaurant at 04:30 on 31 October 1971, the blast damaged buildings and cars up to 400 yards away. Responsibility for the bomb was claimed by members of

the Angry Brigade The Angry Brigade was a far-left British terrorist group responsible for a series of bomb attacks in England between 1970 and 1972. Using small bombs, they targeted banks, embassies, a BBC Outside Broadcast vehicle, and the homes of Conservativ ...

, a far-left

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

collective. A call was also made by a person claiming to be the Kilburn Battalion of the

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

. That act resulted in the tower being largely closed to the general public. The restaurant was closed to the public for security reasons a matter of months after the bombing in 1971. In 1980, Butlins' lease expired. Public access to the building ceased in 1981. The tower is sometimes used for corporate events, such as a children's Christmas party in December, '' Children in Need'', and other special events; even though it is closed, the tower retains its revolving floor, providing a full panorama over London and the surrounding area.

Races up the tower

The first documented race up the tower's stairs was on 18 April 1968, between

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted ...

; it was won by an Edinburgh runner in 4 minutes, 46 seconds. In 1969, eight university teams competed, with John Pearson from

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

winning in a time of 5 minutes, 6 seconds.

Secrecy

Due to its importance to the national communications network, information about the tower was designated an official secret. In 1978, the journalist Duncan Campbell was

tried In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, ...

for collecting information about secret locations, and during the trial the judge ordered that the sites could not be identified by name; the tower could only be referred to as 'Location 23'. It is often said that the tower did not appear on

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maps, despite being a tall structure in the middle of central London that was open to the public for about 15 years. However, this is incorrect; the 1:25,000 (published 1971) and 1:10,000 (published 1981) Ordnance Survey maps show the tower. It is also shown in the London A–Z street atlas from 1984. In February 1993, the MP

Kate Hoey Catharine Letitia Hoey, Baroness Hoey (born 21 June 1946), better known as Kate Hoey, is a Northern Irish politician and life peer who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Home Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and Minister for Sport from 1999 ...

used the tower as an example of trivial information being kept officially secret, and joked that she hoped parliamentary privilege allowed her to confirm that the tower existed and to state its street address.

21st century

The tower is still in use, and is the site of a major UK communications hub.

Microwave link Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the microwave frequency range of 300MHz to 300GHz(1 m - 1 mm wavelength) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwave signals are normally lim ...

s have been replaced by subterranean optical fibre links for most mainstream purposes, but the former are still in use at the tower. The second floor of the base of the tower contains the TV Network Switching Centre which carries broadcasting traffic and relays signals between television broadcasters, production companies, advertisers, international satellite services and uplink companies. The outside broadcast control is located above the former revolving restaurant, with the kitchens on floor 35. A renovation in the early 2000s introduced a 360° coloured lighting display at the top of the tower. Seven colours were programmed to vary constantly at night and intended to appear as a rotating globe to reflect BT's "connected world" corporate styling. The coloured lights give the tower a conspicuous presence on the London skyline at night. In October 2009, a 360° full-colour LED-based display system was installed at the top of the tower, to replace the previous colour projection system. The new display, referred to by BT as the "Information Band", is wrapped around the 36th and 37th floors of the tower, up, and comprises 529,750 LEDs arranged in 177 vertical strips, spaced around the tower. The display was the largest of its type in the world, occupying an area of and with a circumference of . The display is switched off at 10.30pm each day. On 31 October 2009, the screen began displaying a countdown of the number of days until the start of the London Olympics in 2012. In April 2019, the display spent almost a day displaying a

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

error message. In October 2009, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' reported that the rotating restaurant would be reopened in time for the 2012 London Olympics. However, in December 2010, it was further announced that the plans to reopen had now been "quietly dropped", with no explanation of the decision. For the tower's 50th anniversary, the 34th floor was opened for three days from 3 to 5 October 2015 to 2,400 winners of a lottery. The BT Tower was given Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

status in 2003. Several of the defunct antennae attached to the building could not be removed unless the appropriate listed building consent was granted, for they were protected by this listing. Permission for the removal of the defunct antennae was approved in 2011 on safety grounds, for they were in a bad state of repair and the fixings were no longer secure. The last of the antennas was removed in December 2011, leaving the core of the tower visible. Entry to the building is by two high-speed lifts, which travel at a top speed of 1400 feet per minute () and reach the top of the building in under 30 seconds. An

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

was passed to vary fire regulations, allowing the building to be evacuated by using the lifts – unlike other buildings of the time. In 2006, the tower began to be used for short-term air-quality observations by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and this has continued in a more permanent form as BT Tower Observatory, an urban atmospheric pollution observatory to help monitor air quality in the capital. The aim is to measure pollutant levels above ground level to determine their source. One area of investigation is the long-range transport of fine particles from outside the city.

In popular culture

Model of BT Tower in Miniland, Legoland Windsor

The tower has appeared in various novels, films, and television shows including ''

Smashing Time ''Smashing Time'' is a 1967 British satirical comedy film starring Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave. It is a satire on the 1960s media-influenced phenomenon of ''Swinging London''. It was written by George Melly and directed by Desmond Davis ...

'', '' The Bourne Ultimatum'', ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'', ''

V for Vendetta ''V for Vendetta'' is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published between 1982 and 1985 in black and white as an ongoing serial in the British anthol ...

'', and '' Danger Mouse''. It is toppled by a giant kitten in the 1971 ''

The Goodies The Goodies were a trio of British comedians: Tim Brooke-Taylor (17 July 1940–12 April 2020), Graeme Garden (b. 18 February 1943) and Bill Oddie (b. 7 July 1941). The trio created, wrote for and performed in their eponymous television com ...

'' episode " Kitten Kong", a parody of ''

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

''.

Gallery

File:Post Office Tower during construction.jpg, BT Tower under construction in the 1960s File:View from the Post Office Tower in 1966 (4) (geograph 6862425).jpg, View of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

from the BT Tower, 1966 File:Tottenham Court Road a Great Russel Street torkolatál, szemben a Euston Tower felhőkarcoló, balra a BT Tower TV torony látszik. Fortepan 100630.jpg, BT Tower in 1970 File:BT Tower.jpg, BT Tower from

Queen's Tower Queen's Tower can refer to: * Queen's Tower, Brisbane, residential skyscraper in Brisbane, Australia * Queen's Tower (London), a building of Imperial College London * Queen's Tower (Serpieri), a former royal estate near Athens * Queen's Tower (Shef ...

, 2007

References

External links

* * . Retrieved on 21 January 2015. *
Post Office Tower

The official tower guide, archive film footage, and more.
* *

"Thirty-six Views of a London Tower..."
A short film with the BT Tower in every shot.
BT Tower building information & photos
{{UKSkyscrapers, Completed British Telecom buildings and structures BT Group Butlins Communication towers in the United Kingdom Fitzrovia General Post Office Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Observation towers in the United Kingdom Radio masts and towers in Europe Skyscraper office buildings in London Skyscrapers in the London Borough of Camden Towers completed in 1964 Towers in London Towers with revolving restaurants Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Camden