Spinnaker Tower history: 5 things you didn't know

The Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth opened on 18 October 2005, and on opening day the council's project manager and others were stuck in the external lift for over an hour until engineers abseiled down. Building magazine and Attractions Management both reported it. Wikipedia puts the delay at around an hour and a half. That is only one of the tower's stories.

The public chose it

In early 1998 there was a public vote between three designs: Spinnaker, Globe and Triple. Wikipedia's Spinnaker Tower article says Spinnaker won about 65 per cent of 9,476 votes. It was designed by the local firm HGP Architects. This is a single-source figure, so treat the percentage as approximate.

How tall, how far

The tower's antenna reaches 170 metres, according to Wikipedia and Building. Wikipedia says views extend up to 37 kilometres, or 23 miles. It's the sort of number that makes you check the weather before you go up.

A tower with a sponsor's name

For five years from July 2015 the tower was the "Emirates Spinnaker Tower", and was repainted for the deal. The sponsorship ended on 30 June 2020, according to Wikipedia. As with the vote figure, this comes from one source.

Born a Millennium Tower

The tower was conceived in 1995 as the Millennium Tower and was due to open in late 1999. It opened in October 2005. Building calls that five years late and Wikipedia says six, so we've stuck to the dates rather than giving a delay. Wikipedia also says more than 600,000 people visited in its first year, with only the internal lift working.

What we left out

We did not include the cost of the tower, because the council's share of the figure we found was flagged as unsourced. We also left out the glass floor, the number of steps and The Drop ride, because we couldn't confirm the details.

How we checked

The opening-day lift story is carried by Building magazine and Attractions Management, and the height is confirmed by Building as well as Wikipedia. The vote, the view distance, the sponsorship and the visitor numbers each rest on Wikipedia alone, so we have said so where they appear. Reports of how long the lift stuck vary a little between about an hour and about an hour and a half, which is why we say "over an hour".

Why it still matters

The Spinnaker Tower is one of the most recognisable shapes on the Portsmouth waterfront, and it started with a vote, a deadline it missed and a lift that stuck on the very first day. If you are driving down from Waterlooville for a view of the harbour, you now know where it all began.

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