The Post Office TOWER... A Communications Icon 

The Royal Visit - 17th May 1966

The Postmaster General, Anthony Wedgwood Benn, said that the Post Office Tower symbolised 20th-century Britain. Lean, practical and futuristic, it epitomised the technical and architectural skills of the second industrial revolution.

Scan: Cover of Post Office Magazine July 1966 3d [Anthony Wedgwood Benn and the Queen]

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The Royal Visit

Her Majesty the Queen visited on 17th May 1966 and took tea with the Postmaster General who presented her with a gold replica of a model of the Tower.

The Queen also met some of the key personnel associated with the Tower:-

• Assistant Postmaster General, Mr J. Slater, BEM, MP.
• Engineer-in-Chief, Mr D.A. Barron, CBE.
• Director, LTR, Mr A.B. Harnden.
• Engineer-in-charge of the Tower, Mr W.L. Newman.
• Officer-in-charge of the Trunk Test Room, Mr G. Burrows.
• Chief Supervisor at Museum Exchange, Mrs D.F. Westmacott.

The Public Opening

The Tower was opened to the public on 19th May 1966. A ceremony of invited dignitaries in the morning was followed by the public opening in the afternoon.

London's Top People:
Derek Dewey-Leader goes to the Post Office Tower to meet the staff who meet the public
[Reproduced from the Post Office Magazine July 1966]

		In the first three weeks more than 50,000 people visited the Tower, 5,500 of them on Whit Monday. In the first week visitors put £160-worth of sixpences in the seven telescopes on the observation platforms for a close-up look at famous landmarks. Read more...

"The Post Office Magazine" July 1966 price 3d.