the Post Office Tower

... as seen from my hotel room window: in London for a flying visit - an all-day meeting tomorrow, then visiting my father (where the view will be greener).  This is true 60s new brutalism (and late January new brutal murky grey damp weather supporting it).  But the Post Office Tower! Or, as it was first known, the GPO tower (it's now the BT tower).  When it was finished, in 1964-5, it was the tallest building in London - I can remember being taken to see it on precisely those grounds.  Rather improbably, it was opened to the public in 1966 by Tony Benn and Billy Butlin - though the Butlin bit becomes less unlikely when one finds that the Butlin group operated the Top of the Tower revolving restaurant, on the 34th flower.  And so it slowly rotated - I think my father ate up there a couple of times when business-entertaining (I'll ask him), and it was something that I longed to do (presumably for the sheer novelty value, and the zoo).  But that never happened - the tower has been almost entirely closed to the public since as bomb went off there in 1971 (I'm not sure if it was ever determined whether that was the work of the IRA or the Angry Brigade).  It's still used as a major telecommunications hub, but seems to have top secret status - with only the occasional restaurant swirl for something like a Children in Need event.  But nonetheless, it's unquestionably still an iconic structure of the 60s.