POST OFFICE TOWER - BIRMINGHAM
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The Birmingham tower is the tallest building in the city and is located at 40 Lionel Street, Birmingham Birmingham. Site Code - YBMR. It was one of a series of communication towers built across the UK in the 1960s and was a hub for microwave connections, designed to relay telephone, TV and radio signals around Britain. The 152m tower was completed in 1966 and was opened by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham Alderman James S Meadows. It became operational in 1967. The structure was designed by architects at the Ministry of Public Building and Works working for the General Post Office (GPO). The original intention was to build a circular tower similar to the London one but without the public floors above the aerial galleries. At one time the Post Office wanted to increase the height from 500 feet (150m), which had been agreed by the Ministry of Aviation, to 600 feet (180m). This was refused in order to avoid non-standard procedures for aircraft approaching Birmingham Airport from the north-west. Cost over-runs on the London tower led to a review of the Birmingham design, and then it was decided to use a circular design of the 'Chilterns' type as used at Stokenchurch, Charwelton, Pye Green, Sutton Common, Heaton Park and Tinshill radio stations, but with the internal diameter increased from 32 feet (9.8m) to 37 feet (11m) to provide sufficient space on the equipment floors. The square design, as built, was proposed for aesthetic reasons by the Chief Architect of the Ministry of Public Building and Works. The building has 31 floors, with five levels of circular aerial galleries at the top. It also houses testing and maintenance workshops, as well as rooms for archive storage. Other floors contain communication equipment and a canteen for workers. It has a crane mounted on the roof. The tower was designed to be stable in high winds. Channels at each corner funnel the wind to counteract the force of the wind swaying the structure. Some areas of the tower are no longer in use due to the transition of microwave to fibre optic Although the tower�s original 4m-wide radio dishes have been removed, it still houses around 80 smaller dishes 500cm across. The dishes are used to send signals to parts of Britain which have no or little access to the national fibre-optic broadband network. In 2009 the tower had an array of microwave dishes but by 2011, most of the dishes had been removed.
An Engineer comments I can't remember if there was a standby generator, but both Telephone House and Anchor were close and there was a tunnel from Telephone House to Victoria Exchange that ran under and connected to the Tower and could have had a couple of power cable connections. There were two lifts, one passenger and one goods, that ran up to the top equipment floor. these would "jam" occasionally as the building swayed. Not serious, but did catch the unwary out. Above the equipment floors there was the waveguide turning room which allowed the waveguide to be looped so that the correct length for maximum power transmission. Above that were the three aerial galleries and on top of that was the crane. The building's original design was circular, but was changed to square as there was only one circular building in Birmingham, the Rotunda. This was told to me on my visit. The channels at the corner were to funnel the wind to help combat swaying. There was another story told me that the master clock was on the ninth floor and it used to gain time due to the slight sway of the building. The clock was moved to the second floor and during a very windy night gained several minutes. According to what I was told, the concrete slab that the tower sits on can't take heavy lorries and the crane couldn't lift a complete horn aerial. There are two rails that run up the side of the tower facing Snow Hill station. There was a buggy that was attached to these rails and the aerials fixed to the buggy. The horns had to be stripped down due to the safe working limit of the crane. The rails ran to the top of the waveguide turning room and from there the buggy was detached from the rails and swung out onto cables stretched between poles. Again I have never seen this and this was part of the introduction I was given by the site staff.
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