Post Office Tower
| BT Tower | |
|---|---|
BT Tower from Conway Street
Tallest building completed in London in the 1960s |
|
| General information | |
| Type | Offices |
| Location |
London, W1 United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°31′17″N 0°08′20″W / 51.5215°N 0.1389°WCoordinates: 51°31′17″N 0°08′20″W / 51.5215°N 0.1389°W |
| Construction started | 1961 |
| Completed | 1964 |
| Height | |
| Antenna spire | 191.0 metres (626.6 ft) |
| Roof | 177.0 metres (580.7 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 37 |
| Lifts/elevators | 2 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Eric Bedford |
| Main contractor | Peter Lind & Company |
The BT Tower is a communications tower located in Fitzrovia, London, owned by BT Group. It has been previously known as the GPO Tower, the Post Office Tower and the Telecom Tower. The main structure is 177 metres (581 ft) high, with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 191 metres (627 ft). It should not be confused with the BT Centre (the global headquarters of BT). Its Post Office code was YTOW.
Upon completion it 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 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 Britain's 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 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 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.
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