GPO Tower (Post Office Tower) – Nostalgia Central

When it was built in 1964, the GPO Tower in London was the tallest building in Britain.

Situated near Tottenham Court Road, the Tower was 620 feet tall, weighed 13,000 tons and played an important part in London’s telecommunications infrastructure.

Telephone conversations were transmitted as far afield as Norwich, Bristol and Southampton via relayed line-of-sight microwave beams, with each beam capable of carrying over a thousand individual telephone calls at once.

Television broadcasters also used the Tower to send signals across the country.

The Tower viewing galleries were open to visitors, offering a vast panoramic view of London, and Butlins operated the revolving ‘Top of the Tower’ restaurant on the 34th floor of the tower – completing one 360° rotation approximately every 25 minutes – from 1966 until 1980.

The building was designed by the Ministry of Public Building and Works, under chief architects Eric Bedford and G R Yeats.

Construction began in June 1961, and the Tower was topped out on 15 July 1964 and inaugurated by Prime Minister Harold Wilson on 8 October 1965. He tested the equipment by making a phone call to the lord mayor of Birmingham.

A bomb exploded in the men’s toilets of the Top of the Tower restaurant at 04:30 am on 31 October 1971. The blast damaged buildings and cars up to 400 yards (370 m) away.

The Provisional IRA and the Angry Brigade group of far-left terrorists both claimed responsibility. Nobody was ever charged.

The restaurant (pictured at right) was closed to the general public a few months later, but continued operating on an invitation-only basis. Public access to the Tower ceased altogether in 1981.

Also in 1971, the Post Office Tower was famously destroyed on television by a giant kitten in an episode of The Goodies titled ‘Kitten Kong’ (pictured below right).

The Tower remained the tallest building in the country until 1980, when it was overtaken by the NatWest Tower.

Renamed the  British Telecom Tower (and eventually the BT Tower), the building was given Grade II listed building status in 2003.

In 2024, the BT Group announced the £275 million sale of the Tower to the US-based MCR Hotels group, which plans to retain it as a hotel.

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