BT Tower restaurant reborn for Olympics
BT is considering reopening the revolving restaurant at the top of its eponymous Tower in central London. The London landmark has a ten foot ring around the edge which slowly rotates giving amazing views of the city below. It used to have a restaurant, bizarrely run by Butlins, but it was closed down. Reports today suggest BT …
Secret
You forgot to mention in the history section, that the location of the tower was an official secret until 1993, and was not shown on ordnance survey maps.
Bombe Surprise
I seem to remember it was the Angry Brigade, not the IRA, who blew Billy Butlin's establishment off the gourmet map of London.
Size matters?
A 10-foot ring? If it's that small, imagine the size of the portions in the restaurant!
Oxo Tower
Personally I think there are better spots for entertaining our Olypmic guests. For example I'd like to take each of the women's highjump finalists up the Oxo Tower.
Tower v Rural Broadband
Why do BT not spend the money they will waste on the tower to fund the Rural Broadband upgrade to fiber.
Nice view?
Put an anti-aircraft system on the top of the tower and it could cover all of London...
Now, what shall we do to cover the necessary work? I know, let's re-open the restaurant.
31st October 1971
I was on duty that night - teleprinters are noisy until they all switch off, one by one.
The IRA may no longer be a threat...
... but what about Kitten Kong?!
Vaguely recall
Going there in a childhood visit to london, it really was an amazing view. Pretty amazing nobody has thought before of reopening the restaurant. Is it too small for the economics , I'm guessing they'll be aiming at the expensive end of the market?
CN Tower in Torronto
I went up the CN tower in Torronto a few years back, that had "Airport like" security checks before you could go up, nice views once you were up there though. I guess something similar could be done for the BT tower.
Gordon Ramsay?
Hopefully someone will push the obnoxios fuck out of a window.
Why? : "A title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits."
That's really good news; if you ever get a chance to go up there, it's really worthwhile - the views are spectacular.
Just don't plug your laptop into the non-revolving part, and put the laptop on a table on the revolving part, like my boss did once during a presentation...
If you get the chance to go... Go.
Having recently been to the top of the tower at sunset on a clear spring evening, I could have kicked myself for not taking a good camera up. It is an amazing experience and potentially very romantic.
If you get chance to go to the top, do so. It's a fantastic experience and tops the Eye any day.
Memories...
...of being taken to eat there by my aunt when I was - oh, about 12. Just a week or so before the IRA hit it. Fantastic view, but surely the rotating tower restaurant in Liverpool would've been a better choice?
Andus McCoatover? Yer havin' a giraffe, mate! Go for a slash, come out of the toilet, and some bastard's moved the bloody cloakroom...
Mine's the one - er - somewhere.
A nice vid here..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjNQFQVN7O8
As I recall there is no actual kitchen up there.
When it was operating, food was prepared elsewhere and there was only a service kitchen for dishing up the re-heated nosh.
I wonder if Blumenthal would attempt to contrive some method of microwaving stuff on the dish equipment outside.
State asset
The tower was built with public money, and post privatisation suddenly Joe Public wasn't allowed in.
It should be given back to the nation, we paid for it - not BT.
Bring back Buzby.
@Anonymous Coward BT press man
nah, this is better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOHVruvIo9Y
Just sign up to a BT corporate event
Simple trick to get into the BT Tower - just ring up your BT account manager and feign interest in whatever BT are flogging at the moment (this month it's cloud computing). Then before you can say "money-grabbing thieving b**tards" your account manager should send you complimentary tickets to some boring conference followed by lunch in the tower restaurant. Simples!
PS. The view is absolutely fantastic, and the grub is pretty decent as well!
@ State Asset
We pay for the Queen too and you're not allowed in her either. Get over it.
State Asset?
"It should be given back to the nation, we paid for it - not BT."
Yup - and then the government sold it. Along with all the other utilities and their assets too.
It could be taken back into public ownership if the government wanted to buy all the shares back - though EU rules prohibit governments from majority stakeholdings in telcos. Unless they're French.
Public ownership doesn't anyway equal public access. Do you think you'd be allowed to march onto HMS Ark Royal or borrow a Eurofighter or be granted access to the control room at Sellafield?
....Belongs to the Nation....
Still, we now own Nat West tower (part of RBS), so go park your arse in that and see how they like it. Go on, stand up for your rights.
Let us know how you get on, won't you.
Nearly 5 November and still no Guy Fawkes logo?
Nat West Tower? You mean Tower 42?
It hasn't been the Nat West Tower for several years!
@Bluewhelk
Having gone up for a corporate event - I can say that they do have airport style scanners on the way in. The view is impressive at the top too.
