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Post Office Tower

Vivienne14

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
After a search I can’t find a thread about the Post Office Tower, but let me know if you are aware of one. Looking at this postcard made me wonder what went on inside the Tower ? Is/was it full of technical equipment, are there offices inside (but no windows ?).

And from what position was this photo taken ? It looks to be a railway station in the foreground, is that Snow Hill Station ? Viv.

730D1BBE-52A6-40FC-A020-A9D4DBDE9D5F.jpeg
 
Vivienne14 said:
After a search I can’t find a thread about the Post Office Tower, but let me know if you are aware of one. Looking at this postcard made me wonder what went on inside the Tower ? Is/was it full of technical equipment, are there offices inside (but no windows ?).

And from what position was this photo taken ? It looks to be a railway station in the foreground, is that Snow Hill Station ? Viv.

View attachment 132942
Click to expand...
great pic. and me i always wanted to have a butchers inside there.to see the equipment.
 
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Vivienne14 said:
After a search I can’t find a thread about the Post Office Tower, but let me know if you are aware of one. Looking at this postcard made me wonder what went on inside the Tower ? Is/was it full of technical equipment, are there offices inside (but no windows ?).

And from what position was this photo taken ? It looks to be a railway station in the foreground, is that Snow Hill Station ? Viv.

View attachment 132942
Click to expand...

Hi Vivienne, the post office tower was close to the Telephone Exchange Newhall st where I worked at the telephone exchange in the late 60's early 70's. I think its in Lionel st, there is information about when the tower was originally built on wikipedia and the updating of it over the years. I dont know from which area the photo was taken , sorry.
Wendy
 
wendylee said:
Hi Vivienne, the post office tower was close to the Telephone Exchange Newhall st where I worked at the telephone exchange in the late 60's early 70's. I think its in Lionel st, there is information about when the tower was originally built on wikipedia and the updating of it over the years. I dont know from which area the photo was taken , sorry.
Wendy
Click to expand...
looks like great charles st tunnel under snow hill
 
A view of the Post Office Tower from Lennox Street in the late 1960s early 1970s.
index.php

Image only visible if logged in.
It is from post https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/old-street-pics.38737/post-629902
 
Is it a real photograph or an artist's impression with Snow Hill and a tramway? The view must be from Lionel Sreet I think.
bpot.jpg
The building immediately to the left of the tower with the roof-top equipment room is the same.
The tower was built as part of a microwave radio chain, starting from the London tower. Other towers ranged from simple concrete cylindrical structures to quite ugly pylons. Certainly back in the early 1970s the TV signals came via the tower though its prime use was for telephony. The TV signals were passed to a monitor desk in Telephone House and then routed to Sutton Coldfield/Lichfield via co-ax feeder that looked rather like those metal liners that are dropped down domestic chimneys.
 
Spargone said:
Is it a real photograph or an artist's impression with Snow Hill and a tramway? The view must be from Lionel Sreet I think.
View attachment 132949
The building immediately to the left of the tower with the roof-top equipment room is the same.
The tower was built as part of a microwave radio chain, starting from the London tower. Other towers ranged from simple concrete cylindrical structures to quite ugly pylons. Certainly back in the early 1970s the TV signals came via the tower though its prime use was for telephony. The TV signals were passed to a monitor desk in Telephone House and then routed to Sutton Coldfield/Lichfield via co-ax feeder that looked rather like those metal liners that are dropped down domestic chimneys.
Click to expand...
was that 6" co-ax i could do with some co-ax like that lol.... is sutton hard wired to the tower?
 
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mw0njm. said:
was that 6" co-ax i could do with some co-ax like that lol.... is sutton hard wired to the tower?
Click to expand...
Pete,
are you into microwave tx or moonbounce? :D I use 75 ohm twin feeder with a 108' trapped dipole. Rain gets into co-ax far too easily, especially with the frequent storms nowadays.
 
Would love to have a look around those tunnels. An over enthusiastic player made a right mess potting balls on that snooker table !

Viv.
 
Radiorails said:
Pete,
are you into microwave tx or moonbounce? :D I use 75 ohm twin feeder with a 108' trapped dipole. Rain gets into co-ax far too easily, especially with the frequent storms nowadays.
Click to expand...
i try'd eme and got a good contact in texas. using 23 cm,and a 2mtr dish.too much qrm.i use twin 75. from a kenwood atu to a carolina windom. 200 ft. i spoke to a devon station on 11 mtrs last july.100w from my qth. f3e.... i like 20mts with a balloon



Build an HF long wire balloon antenna

on a long wire. we are off thread132955no more geeking.sorry folks
 
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Phyllis Nicklin gave us a photographic record of it in 1966 with her view of the Tower from the Rotunda. Presumably it had just been built.

317BC99C-4D3A-4F24-BF25-CCD77CC22D88.jpeg

And again in 1968. By this time it had lots of paraphernalia (!) on top.

D2E4EA14-4EB1-4D55-911E-27527F14145D.jpeg

And in 1969, the year Phyllis passed away.
06199B33-6074-4C2F-BCC8-070835FD2754.jpeg
 
Vivienne14 said:
Phyllis Nicklin gave us a photographic record of it in 1966 with her view of the Tower from the Rotunda. Presumably it had just been built.

View attachment 132957

And again in 1968. By this time it had lots of paraphernalia (!) on top.

View attachment 132958

And in 1969, the year Phyllis passed away.
View attachment 132959
Click to expand...

Hi Vivienne thank you for posting the great photos, I didnt realise when I started as a telephonist inTelephone House in Newhall street in 1967 that the tower had not long been completed.
Wendy
 
wendylee said:
I didnt realise when I started as a telephonist inTelephone House in Newhall street in 1967 that the tower had not long been completed.
Click to expand...
I worked briefly at MTRHQ, 95 Newhall Street and my office looked down on the operators' positions. I remember a bomb scare at Telephone House and all the men pouring out and 'the girls' just carrying on working. A really scary sight was watching the window cleaners at Telephone House. They would open the sash windows and step out with short triangular ladders which they placed tight against the bottom window. Holding on to the window they would climb the ladder, the top of which pointed away from the building! We could see down onto the TV monitor position too. Around the corner we could see across Lionel Street into what must have been a Telex manual exchange of sorts. At that time the extension to the Museum was being built and 'The City of Birmingham' stood in position but sheeted over.
 
Hi,

I worked at the Westminster Bank on the diagonally opposite corner
of Lionel Street from 1960 to 1964, and a lot of the building workers
came into the branch to draw their wages. I seem to remember that
the contractors were called Tileman's, but whether they were the
main contractor or a sub contractor I don't know.

Kind regards
Dave
 
A nice 'stand-out' view of the tower
BTtower.jpg

screenshot from panoramic shown by ...
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worth a look if you have never seen it ... zoom in and be nosy ...:cool:
 
I'm new to this forum and have been enjoying having a look round and particularly finding old photographs of parts of Birmingham I am familiar with.

Also especially enjoying photos showing the variety of makes of cars I remember from my youth - many of which are more distinctive and memorable than most anonymous looking cars around today!

I worked for 20 odd years near to the Post Office Tower so found interesting the 1960s pictures showing its construction and views including Summer Row where I worked. I also spent hours exploring the "gigapixel image" of the city centre skyline (Post Office Tower thread #23) which shows an amazing level of detail even when full zoomed in.

I'm also a birdwatcher so have been aware for many years and often have seen the Peregrine Falcons on the PO Tower, so was also interested in the items within the City Centre Photographs thread (#1582 et seq) showing screen grabs from the recent Springwatch programme of David Lindo watching them from the roof of the New Library.

  • I wonder though if anyone happened to find the Peregrine Falcon which is perched on the Post Office Tower in the gigapixel image?

  • I'm probably at an advantage being familiar with where they tend to perch, and with the "jizz" of what Peregrines look like, but if you look carefully you should be able to find the bird.

Other birds I found in the picture are Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls, both of which nest in the city centre.

  • As an aside I have been unable to relocate the thread which asked for forum members to attach recent photos of Birmingham, which I would be happy to do but am unsure where I should place them, so would be grateful if someone could advise me, thanks.

Mike Box

Postscript:- If unable to find the Peregrine I can give a "clue" where to look!
 
I've never seen them on the BT Tower, but did do these zoom in's from the Library of Birmingham in 2016.





 
Nice detail in your views. If the Peregrines had been perched in view you would have seen them well enough from there (typically they are often perched on an opposite side to the ones which you are viewing... … )

Is the viewing platform open to the public then and can you use a tripod there do you know?

I've only taken photos of them from the ground level and not for a number of years; not sure if have any worth showing - will have to check; at best are only "record shots"!
 
If you go up to the Discovery Terrace or the Secret Garden it's fine. Been up there hundreds of times since the library opened in 2013. Not sure about a tripod, don't use one myself. My current camera can super zoom in to buildings.
 
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