History
Telephone House in Manchester was the end-point for the cable carrying television distribution from Birmingham and the start of the onward SHF link to Kirk o'Shotts which entered service in 1952. More than one building has carried this name over the years but old OS maps confirm the location was between Chapel Street and the River Irwell, marked "Telephone House (Telephone Exchange)" on a 1951 map. Parts of the building were operational by 1930 - at the time the world's largest telephone exchange. The complex expanded over the years and was re-named "Dial House" in the 1960s.
The installation at Manchester used a short steel tower with two dishes facing Windy Hill, but there do not appear to be any archive photos showing the original configuration. A 1957 photo shows the addition of two small dishes of the type used for temporary installations - possibly this was to provide a link to one of the studios within the city. Further confusion arises from 1965 photos catalogued as "Dial House temp aerial installation for Manchester-K-O-Shotts 4000 Mc/s system".
A new "Telephone House" was completed at Portland Street in 1961 but it seems the Manchester Television Network Switching Centre developed at the original Chapel Lane site and linked via cable to the radio tower at Heaton Park. The Portland Street building was vacated by BT in the late 1990s and as of 2017 is subject to plans for refurbishment or demolition.
One footnote to the use of "Telephone House" for SHF linking arose in the 1980s. BT diagrams show a radio link (assumed SHF) to Knutsford, running directly from the TVNSC. This is understood to have been an arrangement for TV-AM, precise details are to be confirmed.
