Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Tell us about the Post Office Tower, Bradley:
I lived then and had long lived in a ground-floor flat in a small shabby pretty court of terrace houses in North Soho, not far from the Post Office Tower, an area of perpetual seedy brouhaha. […] A sunless and cozy womb my flat was, with a highly wrought interior and no outside. Only from the front door of the house, which was not my front door, could one squint up at the sky over tall buildings and see above the serene austere erection of the Post Office Tower. (1.1.3)
Not surprisingly, given his psychoanalytical inclinations, Francis Marloe guesses early on that Bradley Pearson's infatuation with London's Post Office Tower has more than a little something to do with the tower being a gigantic (seriously, gigantic) phallic symbol.
We don't think that Francis is entirely wrong, but we do think that it'd be a mistake to understand the Post Office Tower as just a phallic symbol. After all, the tower was built to facilitate telecommunications in England, and so it fits in perfectly with The Black Prince's interest in exploring communication (and miscommunication) between human beings—and, occasionally, their gods.
Is it phallic? Sure. But is that the be-all and end-all of Bradley Pearson's fascination with the Post Office Tower? Not on your life.