Looking across London’s legendary skyline, there are a few buildings you can easily pick out: The Shard, 30 St Mary Axe (better known as The Gherkin) and The Fenchurch Building (e.g. The Walkie-Talkie), to name a few. Set further back from the river, the BT Tower stands proudly in London’s Fitzrovia, a vast Lego-block building towering high above the lush grounds and canals of Regent’s Park.
The Grade-II listed building was first opened in 1965 by then Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and it held the prize for London’s tallest building until 1980, scraping the sky at 581 feet high. The building is easily recognisable for the 360-degree LED screen wrapped around the tower’s 36th and 37th floors. The screen first switched on in 2009 and is most frequently remembered for the countdown displayed for the 2012 London Olympics.
We’re yet to hear much information regarding the tower’s future in hospitality, but after a £275 million sale to US-based MCR Hotels, we expect big things. The hotel chain is behind projects, including The High Line Hotel in New York and the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport, among 150 other properties worldwide.
According to Sky News, MCR said it “will partner with Camden-based Heatherwick Studio to consider how best to reimagine its use as a hotel.” Any information regarding specific plans or proposals won’t come for the next few years, as the “BT Group will take a number of years to vacate the premises, due to the scale and complexity of the work to move technical equipment, and there will be significant time for design development and engagement with local communities before any proposals come forward,” says MCR.
The BT Tower is the latest in a series of London landmarks reimagined as hotels. The Bow Street Magistrates’ Court was transformed into the NoMad in 2021, while Raffles at the OWO opened in 2022 inside Whitehall’s Old War Offices, which historically has played host to members of government officials from Winston Churchill to Ian Fleming, now home to nine restaurants, three bars and 120 rooms and suites. Elsewhere in London, Admiralty Arch is due to open in 2025 as London’s first Waldorf Astoria hotel after five years of construction, and we are currently awaiting opening dates for The Chancery Rosewood, which will sit inside the old US Embassy in Mayfair.