MCR Hotels has unveiled its plans to convert the BT Tower into a hotel, opening the 620-foot Grade II-listed structure to the public for the first time in nearly 50 years. The American hotel group, which bought the tower from BT Group for £275 million in February 2024, held its first public consultation in May 2026 and is targeting a planning application to Camden Council in September 2026. If everything goes to plan, construction won’t complete until 2033.

That last figure is worth sitting with for a moment. We are talking about a project where the gap between “we’ve bought it” and “you can sleep there” spans the better part of a decade. BT still needs to finish decommissioning the telecommunications infrastructure it has operated from the tower, a process not expected to conclude until around 2030. Only then can construction properly begin. Londoners excited by what they saw at the consultation boards in May will need to be patient.

What exactly is MCR proposing for the BT Tower?

The scheme is more ambitious than a simple hotel conversion. The proposals include a new publicly accessible square at the base of the tower, a parade of independent retail, food and beverage units along what are currently blank-faced stretches of Cleveland, Howland and Maple Streets, and public access to Level 34 (the old revolving Top of the Tower restaurant) and the Aerial Galleries on Levels 24 through 30, which once housed satellite dishes. Hotel rooms will occupy the Stick (Levels 7 to 23) and the 1930s Howland Building, which was originally the Museum Telephone Exchange. A publicly accessible pool is also proposed in the Podium.

The heritage approach is genuinely considered. Orms, the London architecture practice that replaced Heatherwick Studio on the project earlier this year, has committed to retaining the original concrete structure and restoring the 1966 Podium façade, which has been buried under unsympathetic extensions for decades. The C20 Society, which campaigns for the protection of post-war buildings, has backed the scheme. The plan to remove those accretions and reveal the original building again is one of the more appealing elements of the whole proposal.

MCR’s track record at the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport lends the ambition some credibility. Eero Saarinen’s 1962 terminal had sat dark for years before MCR restored and reopened it. By 2024, Skytrax ranked it as North America’s best airport hotel and the world’s third-best airport hotel. The firm clearly knows how to handle architecturally loaded buildings, and it clearly understands that the history is the product, not just a backdrop to it.

What are the practical concerns about the BT Tower hotel conversion?

There are real operational constraints baked into this building that no amount of careful design can entirely solve. The tower’s cylindrical floor plates are compact, and a ring-shaped corridor on each level eats into already limited room space. The building’s two existing lifts will both likely be required for guests, leaving nothing dedicated to staff movement. These aren’t insurmountable problems, but they mean the finished hotel will be an exercise in making small spaces work well rather than offering the kind of generous room proportions that premium pricing would usually require.

And premium pricing is, I suspect, coming. This is the part of the consultation materials that goes conspicuously unaddressed. No estimated ticket price for the public viewing gallery has been mentioned. No room rate range has been floated. No annual visitor projections have been published. The whole rationale for the scheme rests on community access and public benefit, yet the community has no idea what that access will actually cost them. A tower closed to the public for half a century risks simply reopening as a very expensive tower, accessible mainly to hotel guests and affluent day visitors. That would be a genuine shame, and it is a question MCR will need to answer as the planning application develops.

Historic England’s regional director said MCR’s approach would reinforce the significance of the Grade II-listed tower’s architecture, ensuring it remains a presence on the London skyline while opening its spaces to public enjoyment and economic growth.

That endorsement carries weight. Historic England’s support, combined with the C20 Society’s backing, suggests the heritage case is solid. The sustainability commitments are also reasonable rather than tokenistic: a retrofit-first approach, circular use of materials, car-free arrivals encouraged by the site’s proximity to Warren Street, Goodge Street and Great Portland Street tube stations (all within a short walk), and consolidated deliveries through a redesigned Cleveland Mews.

When will the BT Tower hotel open, and what happens next?

The timeline runs as follows: the current public consultation closes on 26th May 2026, a second round follows in July 2026, and MCR expects to submit its planning and listed building consent applications to Camden Council in September 2026. BT hands the site over to MCR in late 2029, construction is expected to start around then, and completion is projected for 2033. (That is a seven-year runway from planning submission to opening day, for anyone counting.)

Anyone wishing to feed back on the proposals before the 26th May 2026 deadline can do so at bttowerconsultation.co.uk, by emailing info@bttowerconsultation.co.uk, or by calling the freephone number 0800 061 4770.

The BT Tower hotel is a genuinely worthwhile project: a neglected, historically important building getting a thoughtful second life, with real public access built into the brief. For travellers and Londoners, it means panoramic views from a building most of us have only ever looked at rather than from, along with a revitalised corner of Fitzrovia. The next step is to submit feedback if you have views, then settle in for a long wait before the doors open in 2033.