BT Tower - Cleveland Street, London, UK
N 51° 31.286 W 000° 08.333
30U E 698486 N 5711693
The BT Tower in London's West End, previously the Post Office Tower, is a strikingly tall cylindrical building. The main structure is 175 metres tall, with a further section of aerial bringing the total height to 188 metres.
Waymark Code: WMHYGV
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/27/2013
Views: 6
The London
Attractions website tells us about the BT Tower:
The BT Tower is a London landmark that is recognized
the world over – it is one of the most recognisable sights in London. The BT
Tower is one of those sights that many London tourists are keen to take a
photograph of during their visit to their city. The building has achieved
such iconic status that in 2003 it was awarded Grade II listed status. The
BT Tower is located in Fitzrovia, in central London.
The BT Tower’s status as a building of national prominence is reflected by
the fact that a made-of-lego version of the building appears at Legoland.
The tower is perhaps best known to many people as hosting the
celebrity-manned BBC Children in Need phones each year. The BT Tower has
appeared in many films, including ‘Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets’.
The BT Tower was opened in 1966 by famous left-wing politician Tony Benn
having been commissioned by the General Post Office. It was used to support
telecommunications traffic from London to the rest of the United Kingdom.
The BT Tower continues today to support communications, albeit with more
modern technological methods.
The History UK website
also tells us:
The BT Tower is a focal point in central London
recognised by commuters, city dwellers and tourists alike.
The circular structure stands 189 metres high (about the same distance as 20
double-decker buses parked end to end).
When its construction began in the Sixties, fears were raised that its
height and modern style would be out of keeping with the tone of the area.
The BT Tower stands in a region known as Fitzrovia, a haven for artists,
writers and aristocrats during previous centuries. However, the Royal Fine
Arts Commission, one of the BT Tower's original detractors, now describes it
as "building of merit."
The main purpose of the building is as a functional telecommunications
centre designed to relay broadcast, Internet and telephone information
around the world.
Plans for its creation date back to the 1936 Post Office Sites Act, which
ordered the purchase of the site. The land deals were ongoing when World War
Two began in 1939 and proceedings ground to a halt.
When building work finally began on April 4, 1961, the telecommunications
revolution was beginning. The BT Tower was packed with technology – from
radio equipment in the lower floors to the lattice aerial on the top. The
circular design was chosen to aid alignment of aerials around the
circumference to any direction. The BT Tower became operational on October
8, 1965, and opened to the public in May 1966.
For many people, the key attraction was the revolving section situated about
160 metres up. It operated as a restaurant and people flocked to dine above
the city. Of the 1.5 million visitors to the BT Tower during its first year,
more than 100,000 ate in the restaurant and gazed out at the amazing view.
The revolving segment spans three metres of the widest part of the BT Tower
(where the floor is about 20 metres in diameter) and completes a full
circuit every 22 minutes.
The BT Tower became a popular tourist destination but a bomb attack led to
the doors being closed to visitors during the early Seventies. In the early
hours of October 31, 1971, a bomb exploded on the 31st floor. Nobody was
injured in the blast although the physical damage took two years to repair.
No one claimed responsibility for hiding the device and BT decided public
access to all areas was no longer viable. By this time, more than 4.5
million people had visited the BT Tower. The restaurant continued trading
until 1980 when the floor was turned into a presentation suite for BT
customer events.
Tower facts:
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The revolving section weighs 30 tonnes. It runs on
nylon-tyred wheels on circular rails
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The Tower cost £2.5 million to build
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It is designed to sway up to 20 centimetres from
the vertical in high winds
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Heat and cold cause the structure to expand and
contract. The BT Tower can be as much as 23 centimetres shorter in the
winter than it is in the summer
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The building's two lifts travel at six metres a
second and take just more than 30 seconds to reach the top
The "Official Tourism" URL link to the attraction: [Web Link]
Hours of Operation: The tower is not open to the public but can be seen externally 24/7 from many locations.
Admission Prices: Free to view externally. No admittance.
Approximate amount of time needed to fully experience the attraction: Less than 15 minutes
Transportation options to the attraction: Personal Vehicle or Public Transportation
The attraction’s own URL: Not listed
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