Property:
Telecoms
Board: London - Here and Now Limited
Edition (2005)
Colour: Utility - no
colour
Original 1935
Property: Electric Company
Detailsof Property:
Wikipedia [visit link] tells us about the
tower:
"The BT Tower is a communications
tower located in Fitzrovia, London, United Kingdom owned by BT Group. It has
been previously known as the Post Office Tower, the London Telecom Tower and the
British Telecom Tower. The main structure is 177 metres (581 ft) tall, with a
further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 189 metres (620
ft). It should not be confused with the BT Centre (the global headquarters of
BT). Its Post Office code was YTOW.
In 1962, while still under
construction, the BT Tower overtook St Paul's Cathedral to become the tallest
building in London. Upon completion it overtook the Millbank Tower (which had
been constructed faster) to once again 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 was commissioned by the
General Post Office (GPO). Its primary purpose was to support the microwave
aerials then used to carry telecommunications traffic from London to the rest of
the country, as part of the British Telecom microwave network.
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, Bagshot, Kelvedon Hatch and Fairseat, and to places like the
London Air Traffic Control Centre at West Drayton.
The tower was designed by the
architects of the Ministry of Public Building and Works: the chief architects
were Eric Bedford 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
25 centimetres (10 in) in wind speeds of up to 150 km/h (95 mph). Initially the
first sixteen 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 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.
Construction began in June 1961, and
owing to the building's height and its having a tower crane jib 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. In August
1963 there was even a question raised in Parliament about the crane. Doctor
Reginald Bennett MP asked the Minister of Public Building and Works how, when
the crane on the top of the new Post Office tower had fulfilled its purpose, he
proposed to remove it. Mr Geoffrey 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 on 15 July
1964 and officially opened by Prime Minister Harold Wilson on 8 October 1965.
The Main Contractor was Peter Lind & Co Ltd.
The tower was originally designed to
be just 111 metres (364 ft), and its foundations are sunk down through 53 metres
of London clay and are formed of a concrete raft 27 metres square, a metre
thick, reinforced with six layers of cables on top of which sits a reinforced
concrete pyramid.
The tower was officially opened to
the public on 16 May 1966 by Tony Benn and Billy Butlin. As well as the
communications equipment and office space there were viewing galleries, a
souvenir shop, and a rotating restaurant, the "Top of the Tower", on the 34th
floor, operated by Butlins. It made one revolution every 22 minutes. An annual
race up the stairs of the tower was established and the first race was won by
UCL student Alan Green. Tony Benn also designated the tower a mascot of UCL
after lobbying by students.
A bomb, responsibility for which was
claimed by the Provisional IRA, exploded in the roof of the men's toilets at the
Top of the Tower restaurant on 31 October 1971. The restaurant was closed to the
public for security reasons in 1980, the year in which the Butlins' lease
eventually expired. Public access to the building ceased in 1981. The Tower is
sometimes used for corporate events, but the closure of the Tower restaurant to
the public means London has no revolving restaurant of the type common in major
cities throughout the world; although reports that the restaurant would re-open
emerged in 2009.
Until the mid-1990s, the building was
officially a secret, and did not appear on official maps. Its existence was
finally "confirmed" by Kate Hoey, MP, on 19 February 1993: "Hon. Members have
given examples of seemingly trivial information that remains officially secret.
An example that has not been mentioned, but which is so trivial that it is worth
mentioning, is the absence of the British Telecom tower from Ordnance Survey
maps. I hope that I am covered by parliamentary privilege when I reveal that the
British Telecom tower does exist and that its address is 60 Cleveland Street,
London."
The tower is still in use, and is the
site of a major UK communications hub. Microwave links have been replaced by
subterranean fibre optic links for most mainstream purposes, but the former is
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 (including the BBC), production
companies, advertisers, international satellite services and uplink companies.
The outside broadcast control is located about the former revolving restaurant,
with the kitchens on floor 35.
A renovation in the early 2000s
introduced a 360-degree 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 distinctive appearance on the London skyline at night.
In October 2009, a 360-degree 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, 167m up. The display comprises some 529,750
LEDs arranged in 177 vertical strips, spaced around the tower. The display is
the largest in the world of its type, occupying an area of 280m2 and with a
circumference of 59m. 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 October 2009, The Times 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 as to the
decision.
The BT Tower was given Grade II
listed building status in 2003. Several of the defunct antennas located on the
building now cannot be removed unless the appropriate listed building consent
has been granted, as they are protected by this listing. Permission for the
removal of the defunct antennas was approved on safety grounds as they were in a
bad state of repair and its fixings were no longer secure. As of December 2011,
the last of the antennas has been removed, leaving the core of the tower
visible.
Entry to the building is provided by
two high-speed lifts which travel at 7 metres per second, reaching the top of
the building in under 30 seconds. An Act of Parliament was passed to vary fire
regulations, allowing the building to be evacuated by using the lifts - unlike
other buildings of the time.
The tower is being used in a study to
help monitor air quality in the capital. The aim is to measure pollutant levels
above ground level to determine their source - including the long-range
transport of fine particles from outside the city."
Board link: Wikipedia.