Long ago, revolving silently on nylon wheels 580 feet above the streets of Fitzrovia, Caesar salads and salmon roulades circled the skies of swinging London. While slurping their strawberry daiquiris and toasting their Tom Collins, diners would enjoy a futuristic culinary adventure, soaring above the Fitzrovian skyline, '60s-style in the city centre.

They could view Battersea with their brioche and Camden with their crème brulee. They were dining in the first purpose-built tower to transmit high-frequency radio waves, and what is now one of London's most prominent landmarks.

The Fitzrovia BT Tower (formerly the Post Office Tower, built in 1961 and completed in July 1964 but closed following a terrorist bomb incident in 1971) was built to cater to the United Kingdom's mounting telecommunications needs. But its foremost fascination to the public was as the tallest building in London, with a rotating restaurant turning full circle every 22 minutes at the very top.

Though communications and media have always been Fitzrovia's livelihood, and the BT Tower is the area's tallest attraction, it's by no means the only draw. There's Charlotte Street, which, during the week, is buzzing with television production squads, editing folk, new media types, and ladies who lunch.

Magnificent, substantial, stucco-fronted freehold houses surround Fitzroy Square and charming, period townhouses are located in pedestrianised streets such as Colville and Middleton Place.

Newman Passage is an innocuous little cobblestone thoroughfare linking Newman Street to Rathbone Street. Charlotte Street runs perpendicular to Goodge Street and is the main focal point for wining and dining, although gastronomic rivalry is close at hand in nearby Market Place and Great Portland Street.

On summer evenings punters spill out onto Fitzrovia's pavements, where Italian sidewalk cafés lend a distinctly continental air. And after-hours, Fitzrovia resumes the distinctly bohemian aura of yesteryears, when writers like Dylan Thomas and George Orwell frequented the Fitzroy Tavern. There the name Fitzrovia was coined, and though the tag has varied from Upper Soho to Noho (North Soho), nothing's quite caught on like the name adopted by the artists who habitually frequented the Fitzroy public house.

By Abbey Stirling/MOLI