Site Records

SiteName: The Rotundas

Marsham Street
London SW1
OS Grid Ref: TQ298790

Sub Brit site visit 28th June 2001

We completed the tour and made our way back to street level. The North Rotunda is currently having asbestos removed from it prior to demolition so we were not allowed to tour but our guide did permit us to visit a small area of the lower floor where the site offices are located.

Our guide led us along the corridor to a locked door. He opened it and we entered. We were standing in the last remaining BT telephone switch and distribution room for the Government Telecom Network on this site. (GTN) The room is huge - about 10M wide by 30M long and contained a huge number of disconnected BT circuits and the main distribution frame (MDF). Each of the rack sets had a red notice on it announcing that the circuits were disconnected and that if anyone wanted to connect something to them they needed to contact the BT engineers. One block of lines was still connected. These were for the security staff and the emergency phones in the lifts in the tower blocks. The area we walked through to reach this room had also housed telecom gear but this had been stripped out by BT and the final room was due to go just prior to demolition.

Photo:The two rotundas sitting beneath the tower blocks
Photo by Nick Catford

We then visited the room which housed the defunct SX2000 telephone switch which had only been used for 6 months prior to being scrapped. This has now been donated to English Heritage and will be installed at the refurbished ROC Group Control at Acomb in York.