A few years ago, the late Tony Benn was interviewed on the radio, together with a smartarse PR man from BT. Benn kept on referring to "The Post Office Tower" and the PR man rather patronisingly corrected him - "It's the BT Tower now you know". Benn came straight back at him - "It The Post Office Tower. I opened it. It was paid for by the British people and you stole it from us".
@Johnson James harsh judgement of the man. I don't have a high opinion of politicians, but he was one of the few that I admire. I don't agree with all that Wedgie said, but at heart I believe he said, and stood by, what he felt was right for the country and not for his own personal gain. And he's right. For those of us who were around when it was built it will always be "The Post Office Tower". It represented an institution of authority, integrity and ambition to provide more and better services to the public. OK, the Post Office was overlarge, had many inefficiencies, and was in dire need of reorganisation (which, ultimately, it got) but it was there to providing a public service, not for the private, personal profit of corporate shareholders. Anyway, "The Post Office Tower" still carries a sense of grandeur which its namby-pamby successors ("BT tower" and "Telecoms tower") fail dismally to match.
@@ML-rk2cx e.a.: For me (Alien to UK) that's the essence of British humor. In short: Continental Europe: "The situation is serious, but not hopeless." UK: "The situation is hopeless, but not serious." (That was originally the motto of Austria-Hungary, whose disintegration is a portent for the „U“K.)
They are fun aren't they, between this and Jools Guids it is my favourite way to walk around London without leaving my front door and riding the 149 towards London Bridge. Who knew the old Roman road, now named the A10, could prove so beneficial to modern life?
I worked there as a Telecomms Engineer in the early 70s. The funny thing is I don't ever remember being told that it didn't exist, nor that we needed to deny it's existence. All Enigneers had to sign the Official Secrets Act and, although I know nothing of value to anyone, I think I'm still covered by it - so I can't tell you anymore!
I once tried to get to it from Waterloo station. Got completely lost and had to ask a passing police crew how to get back to the station. They gave me a lift back, and to this day I still haven't seen it up close.
The then new "Post Office Tower" was a key element in the 1966 Doctor Who story, "The War Machines", which in a way predicted the internet. Well worth a watch.
The internet wasn't really a novel concept in the 60's in general. A lot of research was going into the idea of global computer networks, and a lot of sci-fi also borrowed many of the ideas too. It's just it wasn't until the 70's and 80's that voice telephones were clear enough, and cheap enough, that things like modems could be practically used. More direct digital networks, like ARPANET, were also impossible until fiber-optics were created and undersea fiber cables were laid. It wasn't so much that the idea wasn't there, as it was that the technology wasn't there.
The IRA were responsible. The Angry Brigade were the cover name they used before they became known for their bombing campaigns throughout the 70's, 80's, and 90's.
Hmmmm Interesting, my favourite youtubers have interests that they share with me not related to their channel :P. Oh...hello you. I'm Marco and I welcome you to Fact Hunt! 10 Interests of your favourite youtubers not related to their channel!
Really? The Berlin TV Tower cannot be evacuated by lift. They even inform you on the base, before getting inside, that it is your responsibility to get out of the building by stairs in the event of an emergency.
It's almost as funny as a TV programme I saw with Mark Thomas talking about the tunnels under Corsham, in Wiltshire, where he is told, by a military police officer that the tunnels were a fabrication. What made it laughable was that the top of one of the WW2 'Shadow Factories' cargo elevators was in shot.
I think it’s the BBC’s Woke-ulizer and they regularly beam Londoners so they’ll be more accepting of BBC propaganda er... I mean progressive programming. For example I hear next Doctor Who is a transgender handicapped Australian Aboriginal with a learning disability, and has a Dalek companion. Ooh so woke!
"Dinsdaaaaale!" And a giant hedgehog pushes over the tower. Can we all agree it is a hideous piece of architecture? Possibly the ugliest structure ever built?
The Cold War has been in the freezer ever since the USSR ran out of other people's money... and then came over with a severe case of Terminal Existance Failure. A standoff with China though... that's another matter.
@@mittfh Not really. The City of London (the small square mile next to the Tower, with all the skyscrapers, like the walkie talkie and Gherkin) has always acted fairly independent of the UK as a whole anyway. That's why it's the financial capital of the world. It's not governed by parliament in the same way as the rest of the UK, so it has a lot of independence to set it's own laws and tax rates
"BBC news at 10: "We are standing just outside the......empty plot of land at 60 Cleveland St owned by b..Uh no one behind me you can see...uh....absolutely nothing"
Takes me back. I worked for BT in an obscure role part of which involved servicing radio transmitters located near the top of the tower. So a ride up to the top (36 floors), which was to the kitchens just above the revolving restaurant. I believe at the time it was the fastest elevator in the UK. It did leave my stomach behind but strangely wasn't an unpleasant feeling! When at the top I could see down the shaft through the cracks and was quite a sight. When I got out in the kitchens, it was a hubbub of activity but with plates of food laying all over the (not terribly clean) floor waiting to be served, I had to step over those dishes. Then I reached a ladder to climb up to the open air area at the very top. Fabulous view but on one occasion there were some aerial riggers running around the ledge (perhaps 2-3 feet wide) in their plimsolls with absolutely nothing, no barrier at all between them and the ground 600 foot or so below. It was me feel queasy just looking at them!
I remember being taken to dinner there by my parents when I was about 7.... I was just fascinated by the carpet on the floor, sliding past another piece of carpet so smoothly! (wasn't really interested in the view or the food, but this moving carpet thing was interesting!)
Back in my late teens I saw a picture of London and I was in love with it. I saw it again in my early 50s when I visited London in 2011. I saw it from Regents Park, and my heart filled with joy. Thanks for taking me back in time
The original GPO tower was a metal lattice to house the colossal amount of telephone cables needed to connect London together over 360 degrees and over multiple layers. The introduction of Strowger electromagnetic exchange equipment removed the need to employ so many staff, and less need for so many cables. It was also home to a television link between London and Birmingham for a while. There is a BT tower in Birmingham too. In 2003, the building received listed status so the microwave dishes had to remain until BT gained permission to remove them in 2011 as they fell into disrepair and were deemed dangerous. Another fun fact is that the restaurant was run by Butlins. It is also featured in the V for Vendetta comics as the Ear of London.
In 1962 when at the age of 18 I had my first holiday without my parents and decided to spend a week in London seeing all the tourist sights. I had a map of central London showing the bus and underground routes. Although I could see the Post Office Tower, I did not know how to get to it but my bus map showed a bus route terminating at a place with no obvious significance in what looked like the right area so I followed the map and got to the tower. In those days you could go up to the observation platform which I did.
I remember at school we were taught about the GPO Tower, but if i recollect it didn't appear on the Ordnance Survey maps! I wish that BT would re-open the revolving restaurant, there are so many rooftop restaurants now, but this is the only one that revolves! Another fun outing on RUclips, thanks Jago.
My dad said about going there on a school trip not long after it'd opened, even brought back home a souvenir figurine of it that my nan cherished for a number of years.
My great uncle who was from Stratford was a plumber for the government he worked on the tower when it was bombed .He said he was swinging around on a rope underneath it fixing the plumbing, no health and safety then.He said he could see the debris on the roofs below him very brave man,he also worked on the domes at Greenwich naval college
I'm so glad this wonderful building is listed. It's soooo iconic and "Thunderbirds"!!! Dated, Brutalist, of Historical importance, remaining in Functional use, it also featured in an episode of 'The Goodies', to die for!!!
I can remember going up the tower with my parents during a short holiday in London in the early 1970s - we were also able to traverse the completely open Downing St and even got caught up in a protest there which involved Bernadette Devlin!
It reminds me a bit of the location of US nuclear weapons in the Netherlands. Everybody knows where they are, two former Prime Ministers (since deceased) even confirmed it, but it is officially a state secret. The public prosecutor briefly consider investigating the former PMs for divulging the "secret", but as you mentioned, they would have looked very silly. Admittedly, not as obvious as a massive tower in the middle of London.
@@eddyp483 "Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd care to look out of the left side of the restaurant you will be shortly be treated to a very brief glimpse of Moscow."
My dad was a foreman on the crew who installed all the electrical cabling in the Tower. He had to sign the official secrets act as did all the tradesmen who worked on it.
It'll always be the Post Office Tower to me. I was taken up to the top by my parents when I was much younger- I wasn't particularly impressed by the view. On the subject of things we're not supposed to know, when the SIS building at Vauxhall Cross was being constructed, well before it was completed almost everybody knew what it was going to be- I'd love to know how we got that information!
But wasn’t the BT tower destroyed by Kitten Kong in 1971? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitten_Kong ruclips.net/video/tb59dEHRt5Q/видео.html Seriously (but absurdly), The Goodies and the BBC could theoretically also have been prosecuted under the official secrets act for showing the tower in the episode? And inspiring that bombing? We had The Goodies here on the CBC and so I saw that episode often. The B&B I stayed at last summer is in it shadow. Lovely connected memories.
Thinking about it, The Post Office Tower was used in the Doctor Who story "The War Machines" (being the location of WOTAN) So the BBC could have been prosecuted earlier.
That was deliberate misinformation, they made that documentary to show the Russians that it didn’t actually exist anymore because it was wiped out by a giant kitten
I have been up the BT tower to the top. The restaurant was gone by the time I was there but there were still some lovely views to be had. I remember there being airport style security at the entrance and I got a pink BT tower pen which still works several decades later.
"Bomb Twenty replied: "The cold war was fake, a show to scare the sheep.All nations are controlled by the same Elite, fake threats exist to herd the sheep. Just going into google images and searching for".... ....sheep ?
Exactly, the Cold War is still going on, while a Communist Superpower holds a Nuclear stockpile, the threat of Nuclear War is still possible . China is a Communist Superpower that threatens the west, just because the Soviet Union collapsed does not mean Communism hasn't disappeared.
@@grease_monkey6078 China is communist in the same way I'm a pigeon. Their entire ideology revolves around capitalism, the communist in "Chinese Communist Party" is meaningless at this point. Judge them by their actions, not by their name.
It is. The spying, assassinations, border disputes, wars etc are all still ongoing. But the defining part of the Cold War was the threat of nuclear war which is over because of mutually assured destruction
@@mrjohneeviedean A Cold War is simply a war with no direct fighting, no bullets fired or missiles fired. The Cold War never ended. I believe you are referring to the Cuban missile crisis.
I'm staggered to learn that the Post Office Tower is still there: I definitely recall footage from c. 1972 of it being pulled down by a giant kitten! It must have been rebuilt.
I went up there to the restaurant on a school trip in the 60s after it opened, I can remember some kind of water feature at the bottom when we came out.
As secret locations go it lacked the one vital factor. That of being a secret. I am old enough to remember its opening being reported in the news and the fact it was to be used as part of British communications. Did the KGB not monitor British news reports, which is the only way they could have missed it. As for the Top Secret revolving restaurant that was obviously work the likes of 007, M, Q and Miss Moneypenny hung out in the evening after work.
My favourite fact about the BT Tower in London is that the HMS Camden Lock, the Spaceship from the Cult BBC Sci Fi Comedy "Hyperdrive" (Which deserves better), is based on it. Bonus fact, the other ships in the series, at least the British ones, are all based on other BT Towers around Britain. And honestly, they're kinda beautiful as Spaceships.
1978, first days living in London we do the tourist thing with our brand new A to Z. As darkness falls, we are faffing around by Tottenham Court Road. We can see the tower right above us, but can't find it on the map. At all. We'd assumed there would be some kind of touristy lift with a gift shop thing (plainly we hadn't been paying attention to the news). All we found was a disused looking entrance to a 60s office building on a deserted street. Thank you Mr Hazzard for giving our crap evening a hush-hush backstory.
My father was the senior Post Office telecoms engineer in London centre area and took me up the tower when it was nearing completion, in a hoist. I also saw the houses of parliament, the Post Office underground railway that delivered letters, the "Hot Line" direct line to prevent nuclear war, went up Big Ben. I was only 13, you couldn't do it today.
Definately not. At the time the decision was made to close it permanently it would have cost £38m to repair it. I would expect at least one zero to be added to that now, if not two.
Am I the only one who expected the building on the left with the scaffolding at 1:07 to suddenly uproot itself from its foundation and start cruising around attacking other buildings just like the Permanent Assurance company from the "Crimson Permanent Assurance" from Monty Python's Meaning of Life.
After the bomb my friend,who was working for BT as a photographer's assistant, had go there with the photographer to take pictures of the damage. He told me that the picture that was published, from the top looking down, was actually taken by him hanging over the edge with the photographer hanging onto his feet. The photographer wisely deciding that he didn't fancy it!
In the late sixties I was an Architectural Model Maker and the little company I worked for were asked by BT to make a large model of it for BT to see what it would look like. the restaurant was changed to a smaller diameter, our studio actually looked out over the site so we watched it being built, but in all that time we were never told it was to remain a secret. the climbing crane that built itself was fascinating but was very unsafe when climbing, and sadly one day as we watched it climbing up a level, it knocked a workman off, it was over 100 feet up the tower when that happened.
Much more of a mystery - to me, at least - is why you can't go up it any more. In my youth it was one of the highlights of a trip up to London, especially the lower viewing platform, where those of us not entirely happy with heights could get our 'thrills' in safety. Bearing in mind how much it costs to go up the Shard, BT is missing a major business opportunity. Another mystery is how you can't see the bloody thing when you're anywhere near it! Despite having gone up it several times, I've never been able to find it when I've been in the area. Not that I've actively been looking for it - just expecting it to be visible when I'm that close. Then, one day, on the way from Warren St to Regent's Park, I happened to glance down Cleveland St - and there it was! All that time it had been lurking there keeping very, very quiet...
Just a 'stone's throw' away from Euston Station ... the times I've just stopped and stared at this ... a real gem to behold! Built 4 decades before the Gherkin, and just as iconic today :-)
Yes, wait in line for a week before you hear "TABLE NUMBER 4". Then wait to be served by either a sweaty middle aged man or a bored teenage girl who's only there because her parents insisted she get a job. Food should take between one and two business hours to arrive, unless it gets lost on the way from the kitchen and sold to the highest bidder instead. NEXT PLEASE.
I lived in Abbey Wood, which at the time was right on the border with kent. On days when London was clear of haze, we used to go up to Bostall heath and see right across London to Telecom Tower.
i love the Post Office Tower! wish it still had a restaurant! i have never heard of The Angry Brigade, nor did i know that it was bombed. i must google it! thanks, mate!
It was the 1970s -- a new terrorist organisation with a three-letter acronym popped up every few weeks, made a lot of noise, did a bit of kidnapping, bombing and disruption, then popped back down again.
I have some GPO documents from the 1970s about this, and a 3D postcard of the tower. The Tower was told to the public for Television Signals, rather than the Downing Street Commns which were secret.
As a child living in Essex, me and a mate bought a 'red rover' travel ticket, visited London and went up to the open air viewing gallery. It was the first day the post office tower was open to the public.
Im reminded of a D&D story I was told, of someone playing a giant character that was trying to be stealthy, and screamed "YOU DO NOT SEE ME!" when entering a room.
The public used to be able to go to the observation galleries using the very high speed lifts in the tower. Plus there was the rotating restaurant at the top. My dad, my brother and I went up it in 1968, I think.
The "secret" Tower was used for a scene in the 1967 Peter Cook-Dudley Moore film "Bewitched". And in 1971, an enormous kitten named Twinkle climbed it and brought it crashing down, in the "Kitten Kong" episode of "The Goodies". Benny Hill used it during a sketch called "The Stamp Collector", in which he was kidnapped by an older woman, who took him to her apartment.
Yes it wasn't marked on any official maps etc. I went up the Post Office Tower not long after the viewing area was opened. Coming down in the lift the attendant opened a small hatch in the floor so we could see how fast we were actually dropping. Crazy!
I was at University College London in 1971 and living in student rooms near Regents Park, from where you could see the Post Office. I remember looking out one morning and there were bits hanging off the tower - I later learned that it had been bombed. Until then, as part of rag week, students had raced up the stairs of the tower to raise money for charity.
i was invited to a presentation by BT as it was for charity work, my wife and I had to be vetted before we could go up( asked if we were in the IRA) it seemed that only BT could utilise this after the bombing but the restaurant functioned for a few years as it had a contract
Thanks for reminding me of the official Location/Site 23 designation for the BT Tower, from my own records I believe I've visited probably 9 of the others.
A few years ago, the late Tony Benn was interviewed on the radio, together with a smartarse PR man from BT. Benn kept on referring to "The Post Office Tower" and the PR man rather patronisingly corrected him - "It's the BT Tower now you know". Benn came straight back at him - "It The Post Office Tower. I opened it. It was paid for by the British people and you stole it from us".
So was BT itself.
@Johnson James harsh judgement of the man. I don't have a high opinion of politicians, but he was one of the few that I admire. I don't agree with all that Wedgie said, but at heart I believe he said, and stood by, what he felt was right for the country and not for his own personal gain.
And he's right. For those of us who were around when it was built it will always be "The Post Office Tower". It represented an institution of authority, integrity and ambition to provide more and better services to the public.
OK, the Post Office was overlarge, had many inefficiencies, and was in dire need of reorganisation (which, ultimately, it got) but it was there to providing a public service, not for the private, personal profit of corporate shareholders.
Anyway, "The Post Office Tower" still carries a sense of grandeur which its namby-pamby successors ("BT tower" and "Telecoms tower") fail dismally to match.
Why is the camera just pointing at a random spot in the sky, there's no tower in this video, what are you talking about.
Yeah, what was he talking about? Nice blue sky though!
@@colonelcampbellsoup6318 Blue sky in London? Fake
@@ML-rk2cx e.a.:
For me (Alien to UK) that's the essence of British humor.
In short:
Continental Europe: "The situation is serious, but not hopeless."
UK: "The situation is hopeless, but not serious."
(That was originally the motto of Austria-Hungary, whose disintegration is a portent for the „U“K.)
You don't see it, do you? Bless :-)
@@rodneyhenchliffe754 I see it - perhaps because I‘m an alien?
I’m so glad your videos popped up in my recommended
Same
Yep!
They are fun aren't they, between this and Jools Guids it is my favourite way to walk around London without leaving my front door and riding the 149 towards London Bridge. Who knew the old Roman road, now named the A10, could prove so beneficial to modern life?
Me too :)
Same
I worked there as a Telecomms Engineer in the early 70s. The funny thing is I don't ever remember being told that it didn't exist, nor that we needed to deny it's existence. All Enigneers had to sign the Official Secrets Act and, although I know nothing of value to anyone, I think I'm still covered by it - so I can't tell you anymore!
It's an icon for sure.
Signing the Official Secrets Act has no legal significance. Everyone in the UK is covered by the Official Secrets Act. Signing it is a reminder.
I've been working there the last 10 years
@@jonathanwarner1844 So it's basically those syllabus/conduct forms you and your parents had to sign in grade school for no reason...
I can tell you the restaurant was fantastic and if it was shut the BBC restaurant down the road!
In all my 35 years of living in London ive still never seen the base of the BT Tower. It's like the end of the rainbow
Wasn't the tower closed to the public because of IRA bombing threats?
I once tried to get to it from Waterloo station. Got completely lost and had to ask a passing police crew how to get back to the station. They gave me a lift back, and to this day I still haven't seen it up close.
I like the fact that your videos go straight to the point. No gimmicky intros, only quality content
The then new "Post Office Tower" was a key element in the 1966 Doctor Who story, "The War Machines", which in a way predicted the internet. Well worth a watch.
The internet wasn't really a novel concept in the 60's in general. A lot of research was going into the idea of global computer networks, and a lot of sci-fi also borrowed many of the ideas too. It's just it wasn't until the 70's and 80's that voice telephones were clear enough, and cheap enough, that things like modems could be practically used. More direct digital networks, like ARPANET, were also impossible until fiber-optics were created and undersea fiber cables were laid. It wasn't so much that the idea wasn't there, as it was that the technology wasn't there.
@MusicalElitist1 🖕
@@the123king The idea may have "been there" as you say but it was hardly in the general public consciousness.
Classic Who is ALWAYS worth a watch! 👍 Unlike the modern trash, with its ridiculous sex-change Doctor! 👎
@Zeus It wasn't already "there". Only in theory and that wasn't in the public consciousness.
The Angry Brigade might have set off a bomb, but the Miffed Militia did real damage with a strongly worded letter...
𝓶𝓮𝓸𝔀 I have secret intel that the Pissed Off Patrol are planning something big...
The Irritated Alliance have been voicing complaints but the tensions shouldn't boil over any time soon.
The IRA were responsible. The Angry Brigade were the cover name they used before they became known for their bombing campaigns throughout the 70's, 80's, and 90's.
The Peeved Platoon just sit in the pub complaining about it
It does look like Doctor Who's Sonic ScrewDriver too. Surprised that hasnt' be a plot point yet :D
It looks very similar to HMS Camden Lock but I'm sure that's just a coincidence
Oh, hello you.
@@Stuart_Cox1969 Yes, it did indeed! Back when Doctor Who was worth watching! 👍 Not like the modern trash, with its ridiculous sex-change Doctor! 👎
Hmmmm Interesting, my favourite youtubers have interests that they share with me not related to their channel :P.
Oh...hello you. I'm Marco and I welcome you to Fact Hunt! 10 Interests of your favourite youtubers not related to their channel!
@@Stuart_Cox1969 I'm glad there's a few true Doctor Who fans left! 👍
The only building in the UK that’s allowed to be evacuated by lift.
surely you mean "drop"?
Really? The Berlin TV Tower cannot be evacuated by lift. They even inform you on the base, before getting inside, that it is your responsibility to get out of the building by stairs in the event of an emergency.
gi:kr tbf mate they are in different countries
@@christopherlawley1842 I was hoping for "lower" but if the fire is really bad sure, accelerate to "drop".
@@christopherlawley1842 Nah they just accelerate so fast they essentially become escape pods.
Harold Wilson: "Hey let's build the tallest tower in Britain but hope absolutely no-one sees it"
Technically the project predated 1964, but yeah XD.
Hidden in plain sight?
It's like mentioning the War, you just don't even though it was well known. Almost a World War, you might say.
"We might get away with that as long as it's in a remote spot. Where did you have in mind?"
"Central London."
It's almost as funny as a TV programme I saw with Mark Thomas talking about the tunnels under Corsham, in Wiltshire, where he is told, by a military police officer that the tunnels were a fabrication. What made it laughable was that the top of one of the WW2 'Shadow Factories' cargo elevators was in shot.
Plot twist: this actually British MIB neutralizer and will be used everytime the Queen spaceship came or move past London
Shhh don't tell the rest of the world about it.
Haha
The Queen spaceship as in the spacecraft that transports the band Queen within our Solar System
I think it’s the BBC’s Woke-ulizer and they regularly beam Londoners so they’ll be more accepting of BBC propaganda er... I mean progressive programming. For example I hear next Doctor Who is a transgender handicapped Australian Aboriginal with a learning disability, and has a Dalek companion. Ooh so woke!
Cursed pfp
This sounds like the premise of a Monty Python skit.
It really wasn't a tower at all, just a stick in the mud. But it was a tower to us!
Duff or the Goodies.😂🤣goody goody yum yum ................
"Dinsdaaaaale!"
And a giant hedgehog pushes over the tower.
Can we all agree it is a hideous piece of architecture? Possibly the ugliest structure ever built?
No it wasn't!
Python 😉
in case you hadn't noticed the Cold War is being re-heated , these oven-ready meals do last a long time.
The Cold War has been in the freezer ever since the USSR ran out of other people's money... and then came over with a severe case of Terminal Existance Failure.
A standoff with China though... that's another matter.
@Billy Grahammer I wonder if that is part of the (unsaid!) reasoning for a certain messy divorce we're going through...
Ashens will tell you otherwise about the ready meals
@@Ifakojesfd >dee diii dee diii dee doh<
"Cheapoh!"
@@mittfh Not really. The City of London (the small square mile next to the Tower, with all the skyscrapers, like the walkie talkie and Gherkin) has always acted fairly independent of the UK as a whole anyway. That's why it's the financial capital of the world. It's not governed by parliament in the same way as the rest of the UK, so it has a lot of independence to set it's own laws and tax rates
It got destroyed by a giant kitten, that’s why it didn’t exist
Goodies
Goody, goody yum yum!
Kitty Kong
showing your age there mate.....and yes im that old aswell!!
Great comment! Your not the only old bast*** on here then :-) (no offence)
"BBC news at 10: "We are standing just outside the......empty plot of land at 60 Cleveland St owned by b..Uh no one behind me you can see...uh....absolutely nothing"
And now you know why Monty Python formed during the cold war. It was inevitable...
Takes me back. I worked for BT in an obscure role part of which involved servicing radio transmitters located near the top of the tower. So a ride up to the top (36 floors), which was to the kitchens just above the revolving restaurant. I believe at the time it was the fastest elevator in the UK. It did leave my stomach behind but strangely wasn't an unpleasant feeling! When at the top I could see down the shaft through the cracks and was quite a sight. When I got out in the kitchens, it was a hubbub of activity but with plates of food laying all over the (not terribly clean) floor waiting to be served, I had to step over those dishes. Then I reached a ladder to climb up to the open air area at the very top. Fabulous view but on one occasion there were some aerial riggers running around the ledge (perhaps 2-3 feet wide) in their plimsolls with absolutely nothing, no barrier at all between them and the ground 600 foot or so below. It was me feel queasy just looking at them!
When it was called the Post Office Tower they should have painted it red and pretended it was a letterbox for giants.
That was the plan but they couldn't find it
I thought it had been knocked down by a giant Kitten in the 1970s... thanks to 3 blokes on a trandem bike...
Goodies!!!
Mike Smith - Goody goody yum yum!
@@MS-Patriot2 Did you see that Tim Brooke-Taylor died from COVID-19?
@@Blaqjaqshellaq 😧
I remember being taken to dinner there by my parents when I was about 7.... I was just fascinated by the carpet on the floor, sliding past another piece of carpet so smoothly! (wasn't really interested in the view or the food, but this moving carpet thing was interesting!)
"Mom, I want Tom Scott"
"No, we have Tom Scott at home"
The Tom Scott at home:
The video is good it's just that it reminded me a lot of Tom Scott's videos
Linkale_ Nice meme dude!
Hahahahaha
Inky Bink HAHAHAHAHHAHAHDISIEIOEIRHEHQUUSHD FFJOFRUSIIMGOINGTOKILLMYSELFHFHEHHEGWHEUDBRBRJJRBRRJ
I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking of him
Back in my late teens I saw a picture of London and I was in love with it. I saw it again in my early 50s when I visited London in 2011. I saw it from Regents Park, and my heart filled with joy. Thanks for taking me back in time
“There’s something alien about that tower.” - The First Doctor, “The War Machines”.
They should have featured it in Planet of The Apes
The original GPO tower was a metal lattice to house the colossal amount of telephone cables needed to connect London together over 360 degrees and over multiple layers. The introduction of Strowger electromagnetic exchange equipment removed the need to employ so many staff, and less need for so many cables. It was also home to a television link between London and Birmingham for a while. There is a BT tower in Birmingham too. In 2003, the building received listed status so the microwave dishes had to remain until BT gained permission to remove them in 2011 as they fell into disrepair and were deemed dangerous. Another fun fact is that the restaurant was run by Butlins. It is also featured in the V for Vendetta comics as the Ear of London.
Alternatives for the codename 'Backbone' were 'Very Important' and 'Please Don't Bomb'.
And all the documents were stamped (in red ink) with "DEFINITELY NOT TOP SECRET".
Operation "if they bomb 60 Cleveland street we're fucked" --- eyes only, top secret
In 1962 when at the age of 18 I had my first holiday without my parents and decided to spend a week in London seeing all the tourist sights. I had a map of central London showing the bus and underground routes. Although I could see the Post Office Tower, I did not know how to get to it but my bus map showed a bus route terminating at a place with no obvious significance in what looked like the right area so I followed the map and got to the tower. In those days you could go up to the observation platform which I did.
Video: "It was called site 23"
Scp fans: "it was called WHAT?
So that's why no one could know about it
[REDACTED]
Illuminatus! fans: get off my lawn, SCP.
I remember at school we were taught about the GPO Tower, but if i recollect it didn't appear on the Ordnance Survey maps! I wish that BT would re-open the revolving restaurant, there are so many rooftop restaurants now, but this is the only one that revolves! Another fun outing on RUclips, thanks Jago.
My dad said about going there on a school trip not long after it'd opened, even brought back home a souvenir figurine of it that my nan cherished for a number of years.
The extra knowledge pooled by your viewers greatly adds to the experience 👍
My great uncle who was from Stratford was a plumber for the government he worked on the tower when it was bombed .He said he was swinging around on a rope underneath it fixing the plumbing, no health and safety then.He said he could see the debris on the roofs below him very brave man,he also worked on the domes at Greenwich naval college
I was walking to work one morning in 1971, when I looked up and noticed that there was certainly less of it that day.....
60 Cleveland Street. I am from Cleveland, Ohio. Thanks Brits. Love you even more.
Cheers ! Mate from London
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland,_England
I'm so glad this wonderful building is listed. It's soooo iconic and "Thunderbirds"!!! Dated, Brutalist, of Historical importance, remaining in Functional use, it also featured in an episode of 'The Goodies', to die for!!!
A perception filter to hide the largest sonic screwdriver in existence
I went up there as a guest of BT last year and it was really impressive.
I can remember going up the tower with my parents during a short holiday in London in the early 1970s - we were also able to traverse the completely open Downing St and even got caught up in a protest there which involved Bernadette Devlin!
That's the first time I've heard her name mentioned since, well, the early 1970s.
Cold war era people: "Does that tower even exist?"
Tower: "Hey, am I a joke t...."
UK Government: "Shhhhhh! Secret!"
It reminds me a bit of the location of US nuclear weapons in the Netherlands. Everybody knows where they are, two former Prime Ministers (since deceased) even confirmed it, but it is officially a state secret. The public prosecutor briefly consider investigating the former PMs for divulging the "secret", but as you mentioned, they would have looked very silly. Admittedly, not as obvious as a massive tower in the middle of London.
What no one official reveals is that it’s actually a fully fuelled ICBM ready to be launched at enemies in a retaliatory MAD strike.
wonder what happens to the diners in the revolving restaurant as they launch it.
@@eddyp483 There's a reason the restaurant is closed...
@@eddyp483 "Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd care to look out of the left side of the restaurant you will be shortly be treated to a very brief glimpse of Moscow."
Haha! I can see it from Chaucer House. From here it doeslook like an ICBM, ive said it to the wife loads of times!
The last time I visited London, my first thought was „the lack of a TV Tower in this city was appalling..“
The TV towers are at Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood. If one visits Greenwich one can see the towers in the distance.
Why? It doesn't make sense to put a TV transmitter at the bottom of a valley.
Saying “a, b, c” to label from left to right is so simple but I’ve never seen or thought of it before 🤯
The picture shows them stood in the order Campbell, Aubrey, Berry
Tower: look at me I'm tall
England: ion see nothing
My dad was a foreman on the crew who installed all the electrical cabling in the Tower. He had to sign the official secrets act as did all the tradesmen who worked on it.
Oops! How come you know about it then? (;
It'll always be the Post Office Tower to me. I was taken up to the top by my parents when I was much younger- I wasn't particularly impressed by the view.
On the subject of things we're not supposed to know, when the SIS building at Vauxhall Cross was being constructed, well before it was completed almost everybody knew what it was going to be- I'd love to know how we got that information!
You've failed to mention the most infamous attack, that of Twinkle the giant kitten, eventually brought down to size by Tim, Bill and Graeme!
Aaah The Goodies.Thats going back a bit.
But wasn’t the BT tower destroyed by Kitten Kong in 1971? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitten_Kong
ruclips.net/video/tb59dEHRt5Q/видео.html
Seriously (but absurdly), The Goodies and the BBC could theoretically also have been prosecuted under the official secrets act for showing the tower in the episode? And inspiring that bombing? We had The Goodies here on the CBC and so I saw that episode often. The B&B I stayed at last summer is in it shadow. Lovely connected memories.
Thinking about it, The Post Office Tower was used in the Doctor Who story "The War Machines" (being the location of WOTAN) So the BBC could have been prosecuted earlier.
Whenever I hear of the BT Tower, it’s linked in my head to The Goodies episode. The program was enormously popular in New Zealand .
That was deliberate misinformation, they made that documentary to show the Russians that it didn’t actually exist anymore because it was wiped out by a giant kitten
Also on the Thames TV start up and end logo back in the 70's the GPO tower was clearly seen.
Matthew Williams yep completely fake, done ,literally with mirrors
I have been up the BT tower to the top. The restaurant was gone by the time I was there but there were still some lovely views to be had. I remember there being airport style security at the entrance and I got a pink BT tower pen which still works several decades later.
"The cold war is of course over" - I'm not at all sure about that.
Not heard of global warming ? ;)
"Bomb Twenty replied: "The cold war was fake, a show to scare the sheep.All nations are controlled by the same Elite, fake threats exist to herd the sheep. Just going into google images and searching for"....
....sheep ?
Exactly, the Cold War is still going on, while a Communist Superpower holds a Nuclear stockpile, the threat of Nuclear War is still possible . China is a Communist Superpower that threatens the west, just because the Soviet Union collapsed does not mean Communism hasn't disappeared.
@@grease_monkey6078 China is communist in the same way I'm a pigeon. Their entire ideology revolves around capitalism, the communist in "Chinese Communist Party" is meaningless at this point. Judge them by their actions, not by their name.
@@Sam-Cain does that mean we can stop pretending antifa are actually anti-fascist?
“The Cold War Is long over.”...that’s what we wanted you to think.
:(
It is. The spying, assassinations, border disputes, wars etc are all still ongoing. But the defining part of the Cold War was the threat of nuclear war which is over because of mutually assured destruction
@@mrjohneeviedean A Cold War is simply a war with no direct fighting, no bullets fired or missiles fired. The Cold War never ended. I believe you are referring to the Cuban missile crisis.
I'm staggered to learn that the Post Office Tower is still there: I definitely recall footage from c. 1972 of it being pulled down by a giant kitten! It must have been rebuilt.
Not sure why this channel popped up in my feed but, I'm glad it did. Very enjoyable.
Until watching this I had not noticed that all the big dishes have gone!
It still looks kinda weird to me at least, even after so many years without them, it just looks like a giant sonic screwdriver without its "ears".
The last one was taken down in 2011.They were replaced by fiber optics running through the base of the tower.
I went up there to the restaurant on a school trip in the 60s after it opened, I can remember some kind of water feature at the bottom when we came out.
The restaurant platform also rotated ,if you remember. But the rotating mechanism was irrepairably damage by the ANGRY BRIGADES bomb.
I'd say they did a good job, first I've ever heard of it
As secret locations go it lacked the one vital factor. That of being a secret. I am old enough to remember its opening being reported in the news and the fact it was to be used as part of British communications. Did the KGB not monitor British news reports, which is the only way they could have missed it.
As for the Top Secret revolving restaurant that was obviously work the likes of 007, M, Q and Miss Moneypenny hung out in the evening after work.
“I haven’t even looked at the menu yet.” “Pay attention, 007!”
@@JagoHazzard Then the bomb went of and they found his vodka martini was both shaken and stirred.
So now you're doing vertical tubes as well ;)
I remember, with a friend, as a kid, throwing paper aeroplanes out near the top.
My favourite fact about the BT Tower in London is that the HMS Camden Lock, the Spaceship from the Cult BBC Sci Fi Comedy "Hyperdrive" (Which deserves better), is based on it.
Bonus fact, the other ships in the series, at least the British ones, are all based on other BT Towers around Britain. And honestly, they're kinda beautiful as Spaceships.
1978, first days living in London we do the tourist thing with our brand new A to Z. As darkness falls, we are faffing around by Tottenham Court Road. We can see the tower right above us, but can't find it on the map. At all.
We'd assumed there would be some kind of touristy lift with a gift shop thing (plainly we hadn't been paying attention to the news). All we found was a disused looking entrance to a 60s office building on a deserted street.
Thank you Mr Hazzard for giving our crap evening a hush-hush backstory.
Actually what you see is a replica. The original tower was destroyed by a giant kitten in the 70’s.
I'd never noticed how much it looked like a lightsabre hilt!
No mention of Kitten Kong destroying the tower in the 70's?
Well Thames Television plastered it on our screens everyday, if anyone remembers
I do!
My father was the senior Post Office telecoms engineer in London centre area and took me up the tower when it was nearing completion, in a hoist. I also saw the houses of parliament, the Post Office underground railway that delivered letters, the "Hot Line" direct line to prevent nuclear war, went up Big Ben. I was only 13, you couldn't do it today.
I enjoy your videos. They are invariably upbeat as well as interesting and informative.
The real question is: will that rotating diner ever return?
Redfern Pitcher brilliant!
@Redfern Pitcher I'm a week late, but well done on winning the internet! 😁
Definately not. At the time the decision was made to close it permanently it would have cost £38m to repair it. I would expect at least one zero to be added to that now, if not two.
I’ve never noticed it before and I’ve visited London nearly 20 times. This awakened me
The number of UK Telethons that apparently had a celebrity filled call centre at the top of that thing...
RUclipsr: Does the BT Tower even exist?
BT Tower: Am I a joke to you?
This entire RUclips channel is so, so British that the Queen needs to put it on a United Kingdom National Treasure Book!
I always thought it was our contribution to Thunderbirds.
It does have that 60s "space age" look doesn't it?
Am I the only one who expected the building on the left with the scaffolding at 1:07 to suddenly uproot itself from its foundation and start cruising around attacking other buildings just like the Permanent Assurance company from the "Crimson Permanent Assurance" from Monty Python's Meaning of Life.
After the bomb my friend,who was working for BT as a photographer's assistant, had go there with the photographer to take pictures of the damage.
He told me that the picture that was published, from the top looking down, was actually taken by him hanging over the edge with the photographer hanging onto his feet. The photographer wisely deciding that he didn't fancy it!
In the late sixties I was an Architectural Model Maker and the little company I worked for were asked by BT to make a large model of it for BT to see what it would look like. the restaurant was changed to a smaller diameter, our studio actually looked out over the site so we watched it being built, but in all that time we were never told it was to remain a secret. the climbing crane that built itself was fascinating but was very unsafe when climbing, and sadly one day as we watched it climbing up a level, it knocked a workman off, it was over 100 feet up the tower when that happened.
How very clever of you to paste a picture of the Doctors Sonic Screwdriver in from so many angles in a video to perpetuate the myth of BT Tower 😉
Much more of a mystery - to me, at least - is why you can't go up it any more. In my youth it was one of the highlights of a trip up to London, especially the lower viewing platform, where those of us not entirely happy with heights could get our 'thrills' in safety. Bearing in mind how much it costs to go up the Shard, BT is missing a major business opportunity.
Another mystery is how you can't see the bloody thing when you're anywhere near it! Despite having gone up it several times, I've never been able to find it when I've been in the area. Not that I've actively been looking for it - just expecting it to be visible when I'm that close. Then, one day, on the way from Warren St to Regent's Park, I happened to glance down Cleveland St - and there it was! All that time it had been lurking there keeping very, very quiet...
Life force energy harvesting experiments
Just a 'stone's throw' away from Euston Station ... the times I've just stopped and stared at this ... a real gem to behold! Built 4 decades before the Gherkin, and just as iconic today :-)
Imagine going to a restaurant in a building known as “the post office tower”
Yes, wait in line for a week before you hear "TABLE NUMBER 4". Then wait to be served by either a sweaty middle aged man or a bored teenage girl who's only there because her parents insisted she get a job. Food should take between one and two business hours to arrive, unless it gets lost on the way from the kitchen and sold to the highest bidder instead. NEXT PLEASE.
Dearest Jago, from the title is one to presume this is another of your more existentialist presentations ......😉 - loved it - much love as always
I lived in Abbey Wood, which at the time was right on the border with kent. On days when London was clear of haze, we used to go up to Bostall heath and see right across London to Telecom Tower.
Love the Health and Safety at 2:32.
2:31 HEALTH AND SAFETY!!!
i love the Post Office Tower! wish it still had a restaurant!
i have never heard of The Angry Brigade, nor did i know that it was bombed. i must google it!
thanks, mate!
The angry brigade , as it was known, was actually a splinter group of the IRA ( Irish Republican Army).
It was the 1970s -- a new terrorist organisation with a three-letter acronym popped up every few weeks, made a lot of noise, did a bit of kidnapping, bombing and disruption, then popped back down again.
I have some GPO documents from the 1970s about this, and a 3D postcard of the tower. The Tower was told to the public for Television Signals, rather than the Downing Street Commns which were secret.
As a child living in Essex, me and a mate bought a 'red rover' travel ticket, visited London and went up to the open air viewing gallery. It was the first day the post office tower was open to the public.
Im reminded of a D&D story I was told, of someone playing a giant character that was trying to be stealthy, and screamed "YOU DO NOT SEE ME!" when entering a room.
The public used to be able to go to the observation galleries using the very high speed lifts in the tower. Plus there was the rotating restaurant at the top. My dad, my brother and I went up it in 1968, I think.
The "secret" Tower was used for a scene in the 1967 Peter Cook-Dudley Moore film "Bewitched". And in 1971, an enormous kitten named Twinkle climbed it and brought it crashing down, in the "Kitten Kong" episode of "The Goodies". Benny Hill used it during a sketch called "The Stamp Collector", in which he was kidnapped by an older woman, who took him to her apartment.
Bedazzled not Bewitched. Bewitched was a US sitcom.
Visited it back in the late 80's with my Primary school. I still remember all the big screens and computer banks in a big segmented circle.
How to hide a tower in plain sight:
Step 1: Say it dosen't exist.
That was an awesome piece to watch, thank you for the blue skies!
Yes it wasn't marked on any official maps etc. I went up the Post Office Tower not long after the viewing area was opened. Coming down in the lift the attendant opened a small hatch in the floor so we could see how fast we were actually dropping. Crazy!
I was at University College London in 1971 and living in student rooms near Regents Park, from where you could see the Post Office. I remember looking out one morning and there were bits hanging off the tower - I later learned that it had been bombed. Until then, as part of rag week, students had raced up the stairs of the tower to raise money for charity.
Having been up the BT tower every Christmas up until last year, I was very glad to find out it is real 😂
"The nation's
communications
And therefore
In times of war"
Nice rhymes bro
i was randomly recommended this and im not disappointed
i was invited to a presentation by BT as it was for charity work, my wife and I had to be vetted before we could go up( asked if we were in the IRA) it seemed that only BT could utilise this after the bombing but the restaurant functioned for a few years as it had a contract
Thanks for reminding me of the official Location/Site 23 designation for the BT Tower, from my own records I believe I've visited probably 9 of the others.
I decided in the 1980s that the phone number for it was 00 - as I suspected all overseas calls were routed through it.