URPoint Details
BT Tower is a distinctive high cylindrical building located near Euston Station that, in 1962, while still under construction, overtook St Paul's Cathedral to become the tallest building in London. BT Tower held that title until 1980, when it in turn was overtaken by the NatWest Tower. Until 1993, the BT Tower was not acknowledged on any maps, being subject to the Official Secrets Act, but a Member of Parliament 'outed' the 60 Cleveland Street location in the House, to break this silly deadlock.
It has been previously known as the Post Office Tower, the London Telecom Tower and the British Telecom Tower. The main structure is 177 metres (581 ft) tall, with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 189 metres (620 ft). It should not be confused with the BT Centre (the global headquarters of BT), or the British Telecom Tower (Birmingham). Its Post Office code was YTOW.
While the microwave link dishes that it was originally designed for have largely been decommissioned in favour of modern fibre optics, the tower still plays a role in line-of-sight transmissions. The tower was commissioned by the General Post Office (GPO).
BT Tower is also currently used as
- Type:
- Landmark