London's 177-m (581-ft)-tall BT Tower has been a lot of things over the years – a telecommunications tower, a revolving restaurant, and even the target of a bombing attack. It's now set to begin a new chapter as a luxury hotel.
Owner BT Group has agreed to the sale of the tower for £275 million (almost US$350 million) to United States-based MCR Hotels. Details are still slim at this early stage, but we do know it will host luxury hotel rooms, with MCR Hotels promising to retain the overall character of the building.
Influential UK firm Heatherwick Studio has been tapped for the job and is currently busy drawing up proposals. If previous designs by the firm are anything to go by, it's guaranteed to be interesting, at least.
"My team and I are thrilled to partner with MCR to reimagine the BT Tower," said Thomas Heatherwick, founder and director at Heatherwick Studio. "This is an extraordinary building and an amazing opportunity to bring it back to life. We're excited at the prospect of working with Fitzrovia's residents and with many thousands of Londoners, to repurpose this important piece of the city's living heritage."
Iconic is an overused word in architecture, but it's a reasonable adjective to use when discussing the BT Tower (originally named the Post Office Tower). Completed in 1964, it was officially opened the next year by Prime Minister Harold Wilson and has remained a notable part of London's skyline since.
It was at one time the tallest building in London, before being surpassed by the NatWest Tower, which itself has long been overtaken by a host of gleaming new skysrapers. It hosted large microwave antennae (the antennae were removed over a decade ago) and could handle thousands of phone calls and up to 40 TV channels, if needed. In a weird bit of trivia, it was considered an important enough part of the UK's telecommunications network that its location was not shown on maps as it was covered by the UK Official Secrets Act, despite millions of people knowing exactly where it was.
Indeed, high-profile visitors to the revolving restaurant at the height of the Swinging Sixties included the Rolling Stones and Muhammad Ali. As mentioned, however, the IRA bombed the building at one point, causing damage but no casualties, and it closed to the public due to security concerns a few years later. Since then, it has been used for hosting corporate and charity events, with its "infoband" exterior screen displaying messages.
Naturally, since it's such early days yet, we've no word on when it's renovation is expected to be completed. The project is the latest example of communications infrastructure being repurposed in the UK capital, following the London Tunnels.
Sources: BT Group, MCR Hotels, ICE
