Orms and MCR Reveal Plans to Turn London's BT Tower Into a Hotel
Architecture practice Orms and American hotelier MCR have submitted plans to convert London's Grade II listed BT Tower into a hotel with a publicly accessible rooftop pool, reopening the tower's upper floors to the public for the first time since 1981.
London's BT Tower is a step closer to a new life as a hotel. Architecture practice Orms and American hospitality group MCR have submitted plans to the London Borough of Camden to convert the 177 metre Grade II listed tower, along with its adjoining podium and the 1930s Howland Building, into a hotel with ground floor shops, bars and restaurants, as first reported by Dezeen.
The tower opened in 1964 as the Post Office Tower, designed by the Ministry of Public Building and Works under chief architects Eric Bedford and G R Yeats, and briefly held the title of London's tallest building before the NatWest Tower overtook it in 1980. Its revolving restaurant closed in the early 1980s, and public access to the upper floors has been off limits since 1981. Under the new plans, that section would reopen to visitors for the first time in more than four decades.
The most visible addition is a publicly accessible rooftop swimming pool proposed for the podium structure, alongside improvements to the surrounding public space at the tower's base. MCR chief executive Tyler Morse framed the plan as a continuation rather than a break from the building's past, saying "our vision has always been to honour the BT Tower's remarkable history while reimagining its future." Heatherwick Studio was originally announced in 2024 to lead the tower's transformation, with Orms now taking the project forward to this planning stage.
The timeline reflects how much has to happen before renovation work can begin. Construction is not expected to start until 2029, once the tower has been fully vacated, with completion targeted for 2033. The tower's original microwave aerials, long since obsolete for telecommunications, were removed back in 2011, leaving the structure largely as an empty shell awaiting its next use, four years before construction on its new life is even due to begin.
For a building that spent decades as one of London's most recognisable but least accessible landmarks, a hotel conversion offers a route back into public use that a purely commercial office redevelopment would not. The proposal keeps the tower's Grade II listed status intact while opening a structure that has spent more than four decades closed off above its lower floors. Full planning details are with Camden council, and more on the operator's plans for the site is available through MCR Hotels.
