After nearly fifty years of service, London’s iconic BT Tower has been sold to a hotel operator. It reflects major changes to telecommunication in recent years.
- MCR Hotels buys the tower for £275million
- Tower no longer needed for network operations
- The site once played a critical part in distributing TV services around the UK.
Built in the 1960s, the former Post Office Tower was designed to be tall enough to provide line of sight to other telecommunications infrastructure above London’s other tall buildings.
Its microwave aerials were removed in 2011; they once ensured audio and video feeds could be transmitted and received to other parts of the UK.
However its days under BT, former the Post Office, are over following a £250million deal with hotel operator MCR Hotels. BT will now proceed to remove its equipment from the site.
The Tower was just one node on a backbone of similar towers dotted across the UK, linking places such as Manchester with the capital. Its microwave links were also used to connect distant television transmitters. At the time of the Tower going into service, the Post Office needed extra capacity on its microwave network ahead of the launch of BBC Two and the arrival of 625 colour TV. The BT Tower was also where ITV stations were once switched from one feed to another. Perhaps the most noticeable switch was the weekly switch from Thames to LWT in the London region at 5:15pm on the dot (7:00pm until 1982).
The arrival of satellite for news gathering feeds and later the rollout of high capacity fibre links rendered the old infrastructure obsolete for broadcasting.
What happens to BT’s broadcast business?
BT’s ongoing media and broadcast business has been migrating to the cloud. The nature of cloud-based platforms means BT doesn’t need to remain at BT Tower. And whereas BT once dominated TV distribution, the company is now just one of a range of providers of TV distribution services.
Public access to the tower restored
The tower’s reinvention as a hotel will mean paying guests will once more have a chance to visit the site. Public access to the site was restricted in 1971 after a bomb exploded at the Top of the Tower restaurant. In recent decades, it has been used for corporate events including Children In Need.
MCR Hotels own around 150 hotels, including the historic landmark Eero Saarinen-designed TWA Hotel in New York City. Payment for the sale will be made over multiple years, as BT Group equipment is progressively removed from the building, with final payment on completion of the purchase.
BT Comment
Brent Mathews, Property Director, BT Group said:
“The BT Tower sits at the heart of London and we’ve been immensely proud to be the owners of this important landmark since 1984. It’s played a vital role in carrying the nation’s calls, messages and TV signals, but increasingly we’re delivering content and communication via other means. This deal with MCR will enable BT Tower to take on a new purpose, preserving this iconic building for decades to come.”
Although BT Tower was a critical component in the distribution of TV, it never directly transmitted TV to the public. This was done via transmitters at Crystal Palace and Croydon, and relays in the Greater London area.
The top of BT Tower is currently home to DAB antenna transmitting all national and local DAB multiplexes. However, there’s been no suggestion that this arrangement will change at this stage. The BT Tower DAB transmission site is just one in a network of sites serving Greater London.
Marc Thornham