CRI听力:BT Tower Welcomes Its 50th Birthday

The tower was officially opened by then-British Prime Minister Harold Wilson on October 8th, 1965 after four years of construction.

Initial planning for the BT Tower first began almost 30-years earlier in 1936.

However, the Second World War delayed its construction.

During the design process, municipal authorities in London paid close attention to its layout, as authorities wanted to keep both St. Paul's Cathedral and Parliament as the main attractions on the city's skyline.

But Doctor Ruth Craggs with King's College in London says once it was finished, the BT Tower became an important landmark in its own right.

"The function of the building is it's tall and thin and circular and that was both about an artistic and an architectural style - a kind of sleek modernity, it looks a bit like Thunderbirds and Stingray and all of those things - but it was also very much about new technology."

The BT Tower has since become the nerve centre of a broadcasting and communications network in London, transmitting TV programmes, telephone calls and computer data.
But it is best known for one particular feature.

BT Tower has a revolving restaurant on its 34th floor.

When it was open, the restaurant allowed diners a panoramic view of the British capital, making a full rotation every 22-minutes.

The rotating restaurant was shut down in 1980.

However, it's going to be re-opened to mark the BT Tower's 50th birthday.

Doctor Ruth Craggs says the rotating restaurant was a front-runner in innovation at the time.

"And after the viewing platform closed in 1980, really it wasn't until you started getting things like the London Eye that again you could get that panoramic view of London. And it was part of a broader trend too around Europe and around the world for these restaurants at the top of buildings."

From July 25th to August 7th, 14-hundred people, drawn from a ballot, are going to be given access to the restaurant.

Craggs says she believes it will be a great opportunity for those chosen to get a sense of what London was like two generations ago.

"And it's one of the few modernist buildings in London that has really seemed to capture the public's imagination, lots of people hate the dirty concrete, the ugly buildings, but somehow the BT Tower is very popular with everyone."

The BT Tower still remains a landmark in London, even today.

It's 360-degree LED screen - installed in 2009 - was used to count down to the start of London's 2012 Olympics.

It also helped announce the recent birth of Princess Charlotte.