Construction having begun in 1961, London's 189 feet skyscraper was officially opened to the public in May 1966 by Tony Benn and Billy Butlin of all people. It was built to provide long distance telephone and television circuits and remained the tallest building in London until 1981 when the Natwest Tower was built. There were two lifts, each travelling at 1,000 feet per minute, carrying passengers to the three public observation platforms. A revolving restaurant was located at the top, and the catering carried out by the then equivalent of Gordon Ramsay, Billy Butlin (only joking). Unfortunately the tower is now closed to the public (has been since 1980), but this correspondent for one loves the view of it even though I can't see the view from it!

Interesting facts

• Letters posted from the Tower (it was a post office as well as a telecommunications tower) were franked "Posted at the Post Office Tower".
• It's the only building in the country which is allowed to be evacuated by lift, granted by special act of Parliament.
• The action in the 1966 Dr Who episode "The War Machine" took place around the tower.
• An IRA bomb exploded on the 31st floor in October 1971, leading to the closure of the observation decks in the same year.
• It was attacked by a giant kitten called Twinkle in 1971 (see picture above).
• It has been known as the London Telecom Tower, and is now the BT Tower.
• It's still in use and is the site of a major UK communications hub. Subterranean fibre optic links have replaced microwave links for most mainstream purposes, but the tower is still used for microwave links.
• The Tower is now a grade II listed building and some of the now defunct antennae located on the building can't be taken down as a result.

More Information

The author of The BT Tower - a communications icon has put a lot of work in - well worth a look at for a detailed history of the tower. For a bit more on the technical details see this Guardian article on the Telecom Tower.