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BT Tower is a tall, slender tower, cylindrical in shape, at 60 Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, London, bordered by Howland St, Cleveland Mews and Maple St. It is 175 metres (574 feet) tall, but with an aerial added, its total height is 188 metres (620 feet).
BT Tower was originally built for the General Post Office, and was known as Post Office Tower. Its purpose was to support microwave aerials then used to carry telecommunications traffic from London to the rest of the country. It replaced a much shorter tower built in the 1940s. It was deliberately made thin to meet the requirements of communications aerials. Construction began in June 1961, and the tower was topped out on 15 July 1964. Then Prime Minister Harold Wilson officially opened it on 8 October 1965. It only opened to the public on 16 May 1966, with viewing galleries, a souvenir shop, and a rotating restaurant - the "Top of the Tower" - on the 34th floor. The rotating restaurant makes one complete round in 22 minutes. An IRA bomb exploded in the men's toilet roof, on 31 October 1971, resulting in the closure of the restaurant to the public.
When GPO telecommunications services were split up in 1981, the run up to privatisation in 1984, the tower was renamed London Telecom Tower. When the company rebranded again in 1992, it became the BT Tower. Although the restaurant has been used for BT events and promotions, the tower itself is still not open to the general public. Until the mid-1990's, the building was in fact officially secret - it does not appear on official maps. Its existence was only "confirmed" when Kate Hoey, MP, on 19 February 1993, stated: "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.
An Act of Parliament was passed allowing the BT Tower to be evacuated by using the lifts - the only building in UK permitted to do so.
Getting there
Nearest Tube Station: Great Portland Street Tube Station.Return to Skyscrapers, Stadiums & other Modern Architecture of London
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