Well connected hotel

Just before lunch, a WhatsApp from James that BT has sold the iconic Tower to be turned into a hotel. I joked that I hoped it would have good WiFi! The Tower was a big part of my early career in London. It could be viewed from the SMS offices and, more importantly, was the source of almost all of our broadcast circuits that carried programmes into our control centre and, I think, out again to the satellite uplink. When I worked at StickyADS, we had an office at the top of the Euston Tower with a great view of the BT Tower, and I used to tell all our visitors about it once being an ‘official secret’ despite having been, from 1964-1980, the tallest building in London. Reading the news, I discovered that BT only acquired it in 1984. It was built for the Post Office, which once ran communications in the UK, and, more explicitly, to house the microwave links at the heart of the telecoms network. Those dishes were removed a few years ago. I got to visit pre-pandemic, but I’d love them to reopen the revolving restaurant, which closed in the early 80s and was managed by the Butlins organisation.