BT Tower, W1W

Block in/near Fitzrovia, existing between 1964 and now.

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The BT Tower is a communications tower, previously known as the GPO Tower, the Post Office Tower and the Telecom Tower.

The main tower structure is 177 metres high, with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 191 metres. The building was designed by the architects of the Ministry of Public Building and Works: Eric Bedford and G. R. Yeats.

The structure was commissioned by the General Post Office (GPO) and its primary purpose was to support the microwave aerials then used to carry telecommunications traffic from London to the rest of the country. It replaced a much shorter tower which had been built on the roof of the neighbouring Museum telephone exchange 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.



Post Office Tower under construction
(click image to enlarge)


The narrow cylindrical shape was chosen because of the requirements of the communications aerials: the building shifts no more than 25 centimetres in high wind speeds. Initially, the first 16 floors were for technical equipment and power. Above that was a 35-metre section for the microwave aerials, and above that were six floors of suites, kitchens, technical equipment, a revolving restaurant on the 34th floor and finally a cantilevered steel lattice tower. To prevent heat build-up, the glass cladding was of a special tint. The construction cost was £2.5 million. As well as the revolving restaurant (The Top of the Tower and operated by Butlins), the tower used to host viewing galleries - almost an essential family day out in the 1960s - and a souvenir shop.

The tower was topped out on 15 July 1964, and officially opened by the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson on 8 October 1965. In its first year the Tower hosted nearly one million visitors and over 100 000 diners ate in the restaurant.

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 for collecting information about secret locations, and during the trial the judge ordered that the sites could not be identified by name; the Post Office Tower could only be referred to as ’Location 23’.

A bomb exploded in the roof of the men’s toilets at the Top of the Tower restaurant on 31 October 1971. Responsibility for the bomb was claimed both by the IRA and the Angry Brigade, an anarchist collective. The bomb resulted in the tower being largely closed to the general public and public access to the building ceased completely in 1981.



Youngsters play on the corner of Clipstone Street and Great Titchfield Street, in front of the Post Office Tower in 1965. Entry to the viewing gallery cost four shillings and was half price for children (Getty Images)
(click image to enlarge)


Upon completion the Post Office Tower overtook the Millbank Tower to become the tallest building in both London and the United Kingdom, titles it held until 1980, when it in turn was overtaken by the NatWest Tower.

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

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, wrapped around the 36th and 37th floors. This comprises 529 750 LEDs arranged in 177 vertical strips, spaced around the tower.

In April 2019, the display spent almost a day displaying a Windows 7 error message.




Main source: Wikipedia
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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Comment
Fumblina   
Added: 21 Feb 2023 11:39 GMT   

Error on 1800 map numbering for John Street
The 1800 map of Whitfield Street (17 zoom) has an error in the numbering shown on the map. The houses are numbered up the right hand side of John Street and Upper John Street to #47 and then are numbered down the left hand side until #81 BUT then continue from 52-61 instead of 82-91.

Reply
Lived here
Julian    
Added: 23 Mar 2021 10:11 GMT   

Dennis Potter
Author Dennis Potter lived in Collingwood House in the 1970’s

Reply

LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Comment
Wendy    
Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT   

Polygon Buildings
Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings.

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Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT   

Road construction and houses completed
New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only.

Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

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Comment
Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT   

Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS)
One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc.

I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

Reply
Comment
Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

My House
I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s.

Reply

NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

Telephone House
Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000

Reply
Comment
Paul Cox   
Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT   

War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street
Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there.

Reply
Comment
Diana   
Added: 28 Feb 2024 13:52 GMT   

New Inn Yard, E1
My great grandparents x 6 lived in New Inn Yard. On this date, their son was baptised in nearby St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

Source: BDM London, Cripplegate and Shoreditch registers written by church clerk.

Reply
Comment
Vic Stanley   
Added: 24 Feb 2024 17:38 GMT   

Postcose
The postcode is SE15, NOT SE1

Reply



LOCAL PHOTOS
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In the neighbourhood...

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The Prince of Wales Theatre in 1903 shortly before its demolition for the building of the Scala Theatre in 1904.
Credit: Caroline Blomfield
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Fairyland, 92 Tottenham Court Road (1905) Fairyland was an amusement arcade with a shooting range, owned and run by Henry Stanton Morley (1875-1916) during the period leading up to and during the First World War. It was closed after (unintentionally according to its owners), it was used to practice political assassinations. Notably, attempts on the life of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith (planned but not carried out) and Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie (carried out).
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High level shot of Regents Place as seen from Great Portland Street. The photograph shows the Holy Trinity Church and Great Portland Street underground station in the foreground.
Credit: Wiki Commons/PortlandVillage
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Taste of India restaurant, Drummond Street, NW1 (2022)
Credit: The Underground Map
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10 Gower Street, Bloomsbury What’s in a name? Well, this area abounds in streets named after landowners. Gower Street is named after Gertrude Leveson-Gower, the wife of John Russell, the 4th Duke of Bedford. Leveson-Gower was noted as a formidable adviser to her husband who held various political roles during the reigns of George II and George III, including Lord Privy Seal and Ambassador to France at the end of the Seven Years’ War. The Gower baronetcy was a subsidiary title of the Duke of Sutherland, held in the Leveson-Gower family until 1963. The area now known as Bloomsbury had come into the possession of the Russell family in 1669. That year the 5th Earl of Bedford’s son married Lady Rachel Vaughan, daughter of the 4th Earl of Southampton. Southampton had started developing the area in the 1660s. John Russell died in 1771 and Gower Street was laid out from the 1780s onwards under Lady Gertrude’s supervision.
Credit: Spudgun67
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View South of Hallam Street, near Weymouth House (2008)
Credit: Wiki Commons/Portlandvillage
Licence: CC BY 2.0


A 2500 pound German bomb, buried opposite University College Hospital, is about to be removed by Army sappers as people in the area are evacuated to a safe distance (1948) Metropolitan "C’ Division covered the West End. Note the ’on duty’ striped armbands and the black helmet plates (now silver). The bomb fell in 1941 near to the corner of Stanhope Street and Euston Road.
Credit: Creative Commons image from New Times Paris Bureau Collection
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St Anne’s Court, Soho in the early 1960s
Credit: Wiki Commons
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Tottenham Court Road, W1T
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