The BT Tower [All images courtesy of Camden Local Studies Archive]

THE landmark BT Tower is set to be converted into a luxury hotel, and the 20th Century Society is welcoming the sale.

Catherine Croft, a director at the conservation group, told the Extra the society was due to meet the design team Heatherwick Studio to discuss the challenges facing one of London’s most ‘iconic’ buildings.

She said: “It sounds like good news. It is very early days. The developer says he is absolutely nowhere near applying for planning permission, and has yet to work out elements such as how many bedrooms.”

The soaring, 177-metre edifice has been sold to a US-based chain which has previously converted a New York flight control tower into a quirky place for guests to stay.

That project saw Finnish-American designer Eero Saarinen’s 1962 flight tower converted, and MCR Hotels director Tyler Morse revealed its success had prompted them to bid for the BT Tower.

Ms Croft added: “It is a building that does not work for its current owners. The world has moved on and it does not fit their brief. It needs a lot of investment and finding someone who loves it and has a vision for it is the best way of ensuring that happens.”

Ms Croft said the firm’s track record was encour­aging, having converted the 1960s TWA tower in New York into a hotel. She said: “It looks a little like a minute Sydney Opera House in the middle of an airport. The BT Tower is just as iconic, and just as much a one-off.”

View across the city from the top of the BT Tower

The BT Group has struck a £275million deal with MCR Hotels for the Grade II-listed building that closed permanently to the public in 1981.

Chairman and CEO Mr Morse told BBC Radio yesterday, Thursday, that the luxury hotel would be accessible to all, with a sliding scale of prices to ensure it was not just the preserve of the super-wealthy.

Ms Croft said: “It will be really challenging but we are really positive it could be a great scheme and a great venue for London. Part of its aesthetic appeal is that fact it was meant to be a little bit sci-fi in style, and keeping that is important.

“The new owners will have to make changes. They will want to make it more energy efficient and environmentally friendly and as they are making bedrooms, they will want to have windows. They will need to be sympathetic and approach this with careful consideration.”

Heatherwick Studio founder Thomas Heatherwick said: “It is an extraordinary building and an amazing opportunity to bring it back to life. We are excited at the prospect of working with Fitzrovia’s residents to repurpose this important piece of the city’s living heritage.”

BT Group property director Brent Mathews said: “The BT Tower sits at the heart of London and has 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 the BT Tower to take on a new purpose, preserving this iconic building for decades to come.”

But travellers wanting to stay in the 20th-century design masterpiece and enjoy grandstand views across the city are in for a wait. BT says it will take “years” to remove com­munications equipment before they can hand it over for conversion work to start. The new owners say they will use the time to discuss their plans with Westminster and Camden civic groups and the council before applying for permission.

Tallest building a game-changer

Construction of the General Post Office Tower took more than four years, opening for business in 1965. At a height of 117 metres, it was the city’s tallest building for more than 15 years

WATCHING the rise of the General Post Office Tower kept the Fitzrovia neighbourhood fascinated for more than four years, and the impact the tower had on the cityscape was game changing, writes Dan Carrier.

Soon after it opened for business in 1965, a reporter from the Hampstead and Highgate Express newspaper, reviewed its impact: “It is essentially a building to house machines and equip­ment to such an extent that the building has become a machine in itself,” they wrote in an article stored in the Local Studies Archive in Holborn.

“To fully appreciate its beauty, it is necessary to saunter through Regent’s Park early in the morning, when Bedford College and the foreground trees are in shadow, and the pencil slim structure rides above the London silhouette in twinkling majesty.”

The report said the building had become so well known that it was churlish to offer any further description, but added some facts behind its construction. “There are some 95 tons of high tensile steel in the baser and a further 19 tons of pre-stressed wire cable,” the correspondent said. “The tower itself uses another 685 tons of mild steel reinforcement. A hollow reinforced concrete shaft, 35 ft in diameter, is at the core and has two lifts that rise 1,000 feet in 34 seconds.”

It’s 250 feet higher than London’s long skyline marker, St Paul’s Cathedral, and using 13,000 tons of steel and concrete in total, it also boasted 4,600 square metres of glass.

Construction began in 1961 and it was opened by Labour prime minister Harold Wilson in 1965. At a height of 177 metres – with an extra 20 metres on top for aerials – it was London’s tallest building for 15 years, overtaking the Millbank Tower and usurped in 1980 by the NatWest Tower in the City.

Public areas were opened by the postmaster general, Labour MP Tony Benn, alongside holiday camp promoter Sir Billy Butlin, who took a lease on running the revolving restaurant that turned 360 degrees every 23 minutes called Top of the Tower on the 34th floor. Queen Elizabeth was also given a tour in 1966 and presented with a gold model of the tower to take home.

Designed by the architects Eric Bedford and GR Yeats, the tower was built on the site of the London telephone exchange. Its height was necessary because the microwaves it sent across the country could be distorted by hills or buildings.

And it wasn’t just a mixture of the great, the good and phone engineers who visited: students from UCL organised an annual charity rag week competition to see who could run up the 500-plus stairs the quickest.