Eric Bedford (architect)

Eric Bedford CB CVO
Lector si monumentum requiris circumspice
Born	(1909-11-08)8 November 1909 Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	28 July 2001(2001-07-28) (aged 91) Worcester, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Thornton Grammar School
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	BT Tower

Eric Bedford CB CVO (8 November 1909 – 28 July 2001) was a twentieth-century British architect whose most famous work is London's BT Tower. In 1961, construction began on what was then known as the Post Office Tower, with Bedford as Chief Architect and G R Yeats as senior architect in charge. Completed in 1965, with a height of 177 metres (581 ft), it became for a time London's tallest building.

Born in Yorkshire, and trained as an architect in the Midlands, Bedford joined the Ministry of Public Building and Works in 1936. In 1951, he was appointed the Ministry's youngest-ever Chief Architect. Shortly afterward, he had an important role in the design of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, for which he was subsequently made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

Bedford retired in 1970, and lived abroad for some years before dying in 2001. Although he was the architect responsible for one of London's most iconic buildings, he achieved surprisingly little recognition in his lifetime, or afterward; his obituary in The New York Times described him as "the British government's anonymous chief architect, whose works were visible to millions but whose name was scarcely known".^[1]