back to article Tower of BT Bubbly: Fancy nibbling atop a strategic data hub?

The rotating restaurant at the top of the BT Tower will open for two weeks this year to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The GPO Tower, as it was named many decades ago, used to be open to the public, with both a restaurant and a public viewing galley. A 1971 IRA bomb led to the closure of the gallery, with the restaurant …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Simon Rockman

    They use it for some BT events. There have been some press launches there.

    1. Oh Matron!

      Have been up there several times for events when I worked at BT. It's normally a call centre for things like comic relief, etc as well.

      Get tickets. Seriously: The view is better than the Shard despite it not being as high, as it rotates. Pop your camera on the side, set it to take photos every 20 seconds, and you'd have the most fantastic panorama!

      1. John Sager

        I went up there many years ago on a company do for our collaborators on a project I was associated with. It is a good view of London, but TBH I preferred the view from the Sky Tower restaurant in Auckland. Pity it's 12k miles away, but then the view would change if it were nearer...

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge
      Unhappy

      "They use it for some BT events."

      Back in my BT days I got in to work one morning to find customer services a bit agitated.

      Sales had got a good contract and they needed to ship product out to hotels where the customer was holding courses for their staff. For various reasons this didn't fit with order processing but they'd overlooked that & now had several temps who should have been entering the data standing about. I quickly set up a table and data entry form on the development database to get the data entry there & spent the rest of the morning working out how to get the data processed into acceptable orders.

      All the stuff got shipped on time & at the end of the exercise I discovered that sales had organised an event for themselves, customers and other BT management concerned - except it was preplanned & had no provision for anyone who'd dug them out of the hole of their own making. My own fault, I suppose; I usually kept my ear close enough to the ground to be aware of those things ahead of time.

  3. Only me!

    Is it safe or not?

    Is it me?

    If something is open to the public for 2 weeks. It could be open all the time to the public with the same security in place.

    1. BobRocket

      Re: Is it safe or not?

      It was closed because of the terrorist threat at the time, it is a working telecom tower with a resturant on top, any kind of explosive incident could knock out communications across London as well as generating huge publicity for the perps.

      1. Mark 85
        Unhappy

        Re: Is it safe or not?

        So once again, we let fear rule and the terrorists win. Pretty damn discouraging, isn't it?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Is it safe or not?

          I doubt it's really driven by terrorist fears now, since we trust scanning / surveillance to keep aeroplanes and Westminister safe. My guess is that it's partly a matter of convenience (not an enormous money spinner on BT's scale and keeping access routinely open may impede telecoms work, or just get in the way of senior staff jollies) and possibly also related to building codes, health-and-safety etc: sporadic limited invite-only noshes with guests signing a waiver may be allowed under conditions where a normal restaurant wouldn't be.

        2. Trigonoceps occipitalis

          Re: Is it safe or not?

          Actually there was a "thank deity it's closed" element. According to the written procedures my brother had to book lifts 48 hours in advance for emergency replacement of comms hardware at the top of the tower. How many replacements were stored at the top, go on take a guess, 1, 2, 3 or none of the above?

          Of course, like most engineers, he made it work (there were, after all, stairs and strong, fit riggers) so the PHB never had to explain to the BT board why Oxford was cut off.

  4. Alan J. Wylie

    Beware giant kittens

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr6CyU-Ev_M

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