London’s BT Tower to get rooftop swimming pool

Offbeat

Imagine taking a dip 177m above the streets of London’s West End

Visitors to London’s iconic Telecom Tower might soon be able
to go for a rooftop swim, according to plans revealed by the developer turning the building into a hotel.

The iconic 177 meter (581 ft) high structure in Fitzrovia in
London’s West End was sold off by BT Group in 2024 to US-based hotel
owner-operator MCR Hotels for £275 million ($346 million).

At
the time, the firm said it wanted to preserve the Grade II listed building,
while converting it into a hostelry.

Now, MCR has announced a small number of public consultation events it
is holding on May 11, 12, and 16 where those interested can view the emerging
proposals for the site, meet the project team, and share any feedback on the
plans.

Those proposals include public access to
the top of the tower and its podium buildings for the first time in almost half
a century. The 34th floor was famously home to a revolving restaurant that gave
diners a panoramic view of Britain’s capital as it slowly turned once every 22
mins, but this was closed in 1980.

Also part of the proposals are a new publicly accessible
square plus retail shops and restaurants at ground level, and a rooftop
swimming pool.

London is home to a number of high-rise swimming venues already.

There is the vertigo-inducing Sky Pool which
spans two apartment buildings ten stories up at the Embassy Gardens development
in the Nine Elms region of Wandsworth. You will find an infinity pool at the Shangri-La hotel
on the 52nd-floor of the Shard building near London Bridge, and there is also a
pool on the roof of the Berkeley Hotel, overlooking Knightsbridge.

The BT Tower was originally known as the Post Office Tower
when it was first built in 1964, and its main purpose was to support microwave
antennas used to beam telecom signals between London and the rest of the
country.

The tower will not be turned into a vertical hotel immediately.
BT said payment for the site is spread over six years to 2030, during
which time the company will gradually remove all of its telecoms equipment from
the building.

As we reported previously, the BT Tower also famously fell
victim to a giant kitten in an episode of the British 1970s TV comedy
series The Goodies.  ®