BT Tower - history, chat and news and conversion to a luxury hotel

[T & P]

Is the revolving bit still in working order?

I've been in a revolving restaurant in New York and they are pretty cool.

We went up to the big TV tower in Berlin, which name escapes me. Perhaps it was down to the fact that we were all massively hung over, but the revolving bit, while lending superb, changing views, did make a few of us feel slightly nauseous

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

i almost wish i didn't have all these vhs copies the dvd extras sound nice

Without the extras I don't think I could bare any of them.

 

[Bungle73]

We went up to the big TV tower in Berlin, which name escapes me. Perhaps it was down to the fact that we were all massively hung over, but the revolving bit, while lending superb, changing views, did make a few of us feel slightly nauseous

Nauseous? How fast was it going??

 

[editor]

Is the revolving bit still in working order?

Yep. It's a bit weird, You have a few drinks and set off for the loo only to find it's moved to the opposite side!

 

[Onket]

Yep. It's a bit weird, You have a few drinks and set off for the loo only to find it's moved to the opposite side!

Lightweight.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Another chance this year

Just been confirmed that the BT Tower will open again this September for the London Open House weekend, and tickets might be just a smidgen easier to get this time as they have “over double” the capacity that was available last year.

I presume that means it will be open longer hours rather than they will squash more people into the same few hours on a Sunday that it was open in 2010.

Hopefully.

Tickets will again be by ballot (presumably not organised by the Olympics idiots) with the ballot opening on the 15th August.

 

[Kizmet]

Go. It's amazing.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Hey, if I get a ticket in the ballot I will!

 

[Kizmet]

Food is shit, though. Don't eat... stare.

 

[Lord Camomile]

I think it's just a tour, not sure you get to eat there.

Forgot to mention, the Open House Weekend itself is on the 17 & 18 September 2011.

 

[Onket]

Please bump the thread when the ticket ballot starts, as I'm bound to forget.

 

[Maggot]

Bump, cos the ballot opens today.

http://www.londonopenhouse.org/

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Excellent, thanks Maggot. I've entered

 

[Lord Camomile]

Ah yes, got there before me

Good luck everyone.

 

[mango5]

Thanks Maggot.

 

[editor]

I'm not sure what to make of these changes to the BT Tower.

Before

After

Feature: http://www.urban75.org/blog/what-have-they-done-to-the-bt-tower-in-london/

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Noooo! I think it makes it look naked and vunerable. However it would also make a great film setting

 

[Gingerman]

Wasn't it because they were in danger of falling off? Shame really,looks a bit naked

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Wasn't it because they were in danger of falling off? Shame really,looks a bit naked

Yes, which is fair enough. I always presummed they were all still in use tbh

 

[editor]

It does look a bit more sci-fi now, though.

 

[blossie33]

Think I remember reading about that - something to do with the technology having changed and they now use fibre optics so the disc things are redundant?

 

[Bungle73]

So if it's not used to communications any more, what's it used for?

I remember an episode of Blue Peter back in the early '80s where one of the presenters joined them up the side of the Tower while there were replacing the dishes with more modern ones.

 

[StraightOuttaQ]

The Dishes weren't in use anymore, BT are now using the fibre optics. Now the analogue TV signal is gone (switched off in Most of the UK - the very reason why the BT tower is so high is to transmit line of sight to other towers to the north), The dishes serve no practical purposes. Similarly, being in a poor state of repair and in danger of falling off, they've been taken off for safety's sake as much as anything

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pic...llite-dishes-from-the-BT-Tower-in-London.html

 

[innit]

It does look a bit more sci-fi now, though.

It looks like a sonic screwdriver.

Lovely pictures in that Telegraph piece.

 

[chazegee]

 

[T & P]

At least we're allowed to talk about it now. Until relatively recently, it was illegal to speak of its existence

 

[8ball]

At least we're allowed to talk about it now. Until relatively recently, it was illegal to speak of its existence

Gotta love Governments.

 

[lang rabbie]

Similarly, being in a poor state of repair and in danger of falling off, they've been taken off for safety's sake as much as anything

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pic...llite-dishes-from-the-BT-Tower-in-London.html

Good to see that the URL is still recording the Telegraph journalist (and BT press department)'s technological ignorance from the original press release - even though the headline and text of the story has now been corrected.

They weren't satellite dishes - they were microwave aerials.

Geo-stationary communications satellites had only just been thought up by Arthur C Clarke when the Post Office Tower was being designed.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Good to see that the URL is still recording the Telegraph journalist (and BT press department)'s technological ignorance from the original press release - even though the headline and text of the story has now been corrected.

They weren't satellite dishes - they were microwave aerials.

Geo-stationary communications satellites had only just been thought up by Arthur C Clarke when the Post Office Tower was being designed.

Although it'll be nice to see grand designs 2412 when some rich interstellar Martian boho monied wanker renovates it and makes it into one from them and their Shorenebulain narrow cast on intergalactic iMW stream...

Yah! And it's impossible to imagine now but at one point in time this was like the shiz in interplanetary comms, man...

Kevin however has his doubts....

 

[editor]

Menu from the old restaurant. Eet ees tres French.

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http://www.butlinsmemories.com/other/postofficetower/index.htm