Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story of a 581 foot tower that was an official secret in the middle of one of the world’s biggest cities.
This stamp shows a post office tower that really is not related to the post office. It is still a new giant tower in London so how could the post office not give it a stamp. Well perhaps because it was officially illegal to take pictures of it. Well it is more of a drawing and the post office did own it.
The stamp today is issue A181, a three pence stamp issued by Great Britain on October 8th, 1965 to celebrate the opening of the post office tower in London. There was one other stamp in the issue with a more horizontal drawing of the tower. According to the Scott catalog, it is worth twenty five cents used.
In the early 60s, the government run post office was in control of the British landline telephone system. A new taller tower was needed so line of site was possible for satellite communications. So for this reason the tower was built at government expense. There was a public observation deck and a rotating restaurant called “Top of the Tower,” The majority of long distance communications in Great Britain were routed through the tower.
In 1970 an anarchist group called The Angry Brigade exploded a small bomb in the men’s room or the Top of the Tower restaurant. No one was killed but the government rethought public access to the tower and the restaurant was closed. The group made 25 small bomb attacks from 1970 -72 including on The Miss World competition and the homes of Conservative members of Parliament. The leader of the Angry Brigade only got 10 years in jail and later realized that he was the only angry one and the rest of his brigade was only slightly cross. One of the Angry Brigade coconspiritors later received on Order of the British Empire for her work in homosexual rights. I guess people did not take terrorism seriously back then. I bet the Queen was gagging handing out that OBE if she knew who she was handing it to.
The secrecy of the tower was a major point or ridicule from the left even after the bomb attack. It was on secret government documents showing routing of communications that the tower was referred to as Location 23. Since the communications emanating from the tower was never cut off they get to enjoy there jokes. Don’t look up!
The post office was later reorganized and the telecommunication system separated from the post office and eventually privatized. For this reason the tower is now known as the BT Tower. Technology has left behind most of the antennas. Since the tower is now a listed property for it’s historic importance, it took many years to get permission to have them removed. By then, around 2010, they were in a bad state and in danger of falling off the tower. A night light show was added to the tower and there was a failed attempt to reopen the restaurant for the 2012 Olympics. The tower is no longer an official secret.
Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.