Post Office Tower gets Grade II listing : Simon Perry: Schemes, dreams & trivia

It's for bashing the dust out of the mattress. (Jack Tweed)

Post Office Tower gets Grade II listing

7th April 2003 by Simon

London’s Post Office Tower, later renamed BT Tower, has now received Grade II listing, which broadly means it’s been acknowledged that it’s worthwhile keeping it in good order.

Originally commissioned by The Ministry of Public Building & Works and architected by Eric Bedford, it was opened in 1965 by Harold Wilson during the UK “White heat of technology” phase. At 620 feet (189 metres) it was Britain’s tallest building and although the public were told its value was for transmitting telephone calls around the UK, they weren’t told of it stategic use for military comms traffic.

After a year it was opened to the public and was a huge success, notching up over 1 million visitors in its first year alone. Over 100k of those were dinners at the revolving restaurant which was run by Sir Billy Butlin who was better know for UK holiday camps. I have very fond memories of my own visit with my parents.

Sadly after the IRA bombed it in 1971 it eventually closed to the public and these days it is only open for BT “entertaining” their clients and the occasional Comic Relief.

Normally Grade II listing means it pretty hard to get changes made to the building, but given the need to constantly upgrade telecoms equipment, including the microwave dishes on the outside of the tower it’s not clear if this restriction will apply.

Quite a few other 1950s and ’60s comm builds have also been listed.

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