West Hartlepool Co. Durham 10.30 AM 8 Nov 1965

The 3 pence (3d) Stamp

I found this example in an old long forgotten album on yet another wet rainy day in North Yorkshire.

The Post Office Tower stamps 3 pence, and 1 shilling and 3 pence (3d & 1/3) went on sale on 8 October 1965, the day the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, officially opened the Tower. The stamps remained on general sale until 30 June 1966.

The Post Office Tower

The BT Tower is a grade II listed 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 British Telecom Tower. The main structure is 177 metres (581 ft) high, with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 189 metres (620 ft).

Upon completion in 1964, it overtook the Millbank Tower to become the tallest building in both London and the United Kingdom, titles that it held until 1980, when it in turn was overtaken by the NatWest Tower.

Commissioning and construction

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 the General Post Office microwave network.

Construction began in June 1961; owing to the building's height and its having a tower crane jib across the top virtually throughout the whole construction period, it gradually became a very prominent landmark that could be seen from almost anywhere in London.

Opening and use

The tower was topped out on 15 July 1964. The Tower was operationally opened on 8 October 1965 by Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

As well as the communications equipment and office space, there were viewing galleries, a souvenir shop and a rotating restaurant on the 34th floor; this was called The Top of the Tower, and operated by Butlins. It made one revolution every 23 minutes.

In its first year the Tower hosted just under one million visitors and over 100,000 diners ate in the restaurant.

1971 Bombing

A bomb exploded in the roof of the men's toilets at the Top of the Tower restaurant at 04:30 on 31 October 1971, the blast damaged buildings and cars up to 400 yards away. The restaurant was closed to the public for security reasons a matter of months after the bombing in 1971.

21st century

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 Microwave links have been replaced by subterranean optical fibre links for most mainstream purposes, but the former are still in use at the tower.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 BT Tower was given Grade II listed building status in 2003.

In 2006, the tower began to be used for short-term air quality observations by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and this has continued in a more permanent form as BT Tower Observatory, an urban atmospheric pollution observatory to help monitor air quality in the capital. The aim is to measure pollutant levels above ground level to determine their source. One area of investigation is the long-range transport of fine particles from outside the city.