Since 1963 England have won a World Cup and man has landed on the moon – but the BT Tower remains Birmingham’s tallest building.

More than 50 years have passed since work started on the building and these rare pictures from BT’s archives show the toil that went into creating the 499ft structure.

The tower was designed by the Ministry of Public Building and Works, with MH Bristow the senior architect, and scaled new heights which represented a city on the up.

Construction of the tower commenced in July 1963 and was completed in September 1965. It has 26 storeys, housing technical areas and offices, and five levels of circular aerial galleries at the top.

The tower is one of 12 buildings to feature in the returning Birmingham Post Hidden Spaces feature which will be published on December 18 and 23 in the print edition of the Post and online in the coming weeks.

Last year’s Hidden Spaces feature was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people and showed rare glimpses of parts of the city including:

The Electric cinema

New Alexandra Theatre

The Steelhouse Lane mini prison

Anchor Exchange BT tunnels

The New Street signal box

Curzon Street railway terminus

The Assay Office

The UK’s first municipal bank

Perrott’s Folly

Ravenhurst Cottages

Birmingham Council House

Big Brum clock tower

The BT Tower was commissioned by the General Post Office (GPO) to support the microwave aerials then used to carry telecommunications traffic from London to the rest of the country.

The images show work in some perilously high places and give some context of the area before the building was constructed.

This year’s Hidden Spaces will also include the Grand Hotel, the School of Art and the Victoria Law Courts.