The Post Office Tower in the swinging 60's - Cold War Modern

[kitto42]

this is the future..

[ianupton]

back then there were staff canteens. now the staff will go to greggs, but a ciabatta and drift around for 45 mins in the cold.

[rippingdon]

AMAZING music, 30 years before drum and bass was 'invented'

[lilstix71]

checked this out after listening to a story about it on Surrey/Sussex Radio! Hope it re-opens!

[nathanchantrell]

Great video. The revolving restaurant is to be reopened by xmas 2011 according to The Times website today.

[GSVNotInventedHere]

Great '60s video. Thanks for posting :)

[GSVNotInventedHere]

I love the building. See it everyday at work.

But if what I saw this evening (29.10.09) is anything to go by, our BT Tower is going to be lit up like never before. Someone even said it will rival the 20.00 lightshow in Hong Kong!

Can't wait to see the full show.

[bertyUK]

It's unfortunate the "future" as said at the end of this film, meant the closure of the wonderful restaurant coupled with the threat of terror.

[butiamthedoctor]

Bit more than a threat though, the IRA planted a bomb under the observation platform that went off in 1971.

Then again, that restaurant was extremely expensive, a glass of Coke there in 1975 cost £5 (a can was only 10p back then!), so goodness knows what prices they'd have had now if it stayed open!

Trouble is, BT's a privatised company, so there's no way they'd reopen it to the public, even with Tony Benn, the MP who opened the tower, campaigning for it too.

[bopkick5]

best tower in da world an i dont wanna here any arguementz

[bluesugarmonkeys]

Iconic building.

[staypress]

nice film where did u get this

[indiething]

any idea who made the accompanying music?

[coldwarmodern]

Unfortunately we don't know who made the music on this film. The space-age sound effects accompanying the lift animation almost sound like something produced by the BBC's Radiophonic workshop for Doctor Who, but the latter percussive sections seem to have been composed to evoke the sounds of the telephone switching mechanisms. It is certainly a great match to the 'futuristic' technology and architecture of the tower as depicted.

[RobinCarmody]

The music in the earlier part of the film *is* by a Radiophonicist - "Electro Twist" by John Baker. The other music may well also be by him. There's a quite amazing double CD out at the moment called 'The John Baker Tapes' which you really need to hear if you're interested in the time when it really did seem that Britain might become a permanent social democracy.