GC7CDW3 BT Tower (Traditional Cache) in London, United Kingdom created by macornley

This cache has been archived.

macornley: Archiving this, unfortunately. Goes missing too often :-(

GC7CDW3 ▼

A cache by macornley Message this owner

Hidden : 10/2/2017

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

what3words location: wider.craft.area

This cache celebrates my favourite London landmark. Once you've found it I recommend a stroll down Conway Street and through Fitzroy Square towards the tower.

Please note that if you can't reach the cache to sign the paper log (it's quite high) I'm happy for you to message me a photo of it in situ to validate your find.

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The BT Tower is a communications tower located in Fitzrovia, London, owned by BT Group. It has been previously known as the GPO Tower, the Post Office Tower and the Telecom Tower. The main structure is 177 metres high, with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 191 metres. Its Post Office code was YTOW.

The tower was commissioned by the General Post Office (GPO). Its primary purpose was to support the microwave aerials then used to carry telecommunications traffic from London to the rest of the country, as part of Britain's microwave network.

The tower was designed by the architects of the Ministry of Public Building and Works: the chief architects were Eric Bedford and G. R. Yeats. The construction cost was £2.5 million and began in June 1961. The tower was topped out on 15 July 1964 and officially opened by the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson on 8 October 1965. The main contractor was Peter Lind & Co Ltd.

The tower was originally designed to be just 111 metres, and its foundations are sunk down through 53 metres of London clay and are formed of a concrete raft 27 metres square, a metre thick, reinforced with six layers of cables on top of which sits a reinforced concrete pyramid.

The tower was officially opened to the public on 16 May 1966 by Tony Benn and Billy Butlin. As well as the communications equipment and office space there were viewing galleries, a souvenir shop and a rotating restaurant on the 34th floor, called the Top of the Tower and operated by Butlins. It made one revolution every 22 minutes.

A bomb, responsibility for which was at first blamed on the Provisional IRA, exploded in the roof of the men's toilets at the Top of the Tower restaurant on 31 October 1971. In fact, the bomb had been placed there by members of the Angry Brigade, an anarchist collective. The restaurant was closed to the public for security reasons in 1980, the year in which Butlins' lease eventually expired. Public access to the building ceased in 1981 but the tower is still used for corporate events and other special events and retains its revolving floor, providing a full panorama over London and the surrounding area.

Due to its importance to the national communications network, the location of the tower was designated an official secret. In 1978 the journalist Duncan Campbell was tried for collecting information about secret locations, and during the trial the judge ordered that the sites could not be identified by name; the Post Office Tower could only be referred to as 'Location 23'. In February 1993 the MP Kate Hoey drew attention to the supposed secrecy and claimed parliamentary privilege to reveal its location.

The tower is still in use, and is the site of a major UK communications hub. Microwave links have been replaced by subterranean optical fibre links for most mainstream purposes, but the former are still in use at the tower. The second floor of the base of the tower contains the TV Network Switching Centre which carries broadcasting traffic and relays signals between television broadcasters (including the BBC), production companies, advertisers, international satellite services and uplink companies. The outside broadcast control is located above the former revolving restaurant, with the kitchens on floor 35.

The BT Tower was given Grade II listed building status in 2003. Several of the defunct antennas attached to the building could not be removed unless the appropriate listed building consent was granted, as they were protected by this listing. In 2011 permission for the removal of the defunct antennas was approved on safety grounds as they were in a bad state of repair and the fixings were no longer secure. In December 2011 the last of the antennas was removed leaving the core of the tower visible.

Entry to the building is by two high-speed lifts which travel at 7 metres per second (15.7 mph), reaching the top of the building in under 30 seconds.

For more information about the tower, including archive film footage go to: www.sites.google.com/site/postofficetower

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ulqenag

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
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N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)