Saracen Tower

Saracen Tower (Vulcan Tower in the 1990's TV Series) is a tower block situated on Turk's Island (Moor's Island in the TV series which is a traffic island), London where Dinah is summoned to attend the "Junior Computer Brain Of the Year" contest in the second book, The Prime Minister's Brain.

At the end of the book the tower is known to have burnt down due to Splat and the Brains fiddling with the main computer so that they could stop The Headmaster. Saracen Tower is run completely by the super computer known as the Super Salamander.

Description
In the exact centre of the intersection rose a tall, modern tower block, high and narrow. It stuck up into the sky like a finger of light, reflecting the sunshine back blindingly into their eyes. Its whole surface seemed to be composed of large squares of mirror, with no signs of any windows or balconies. And it was completely isolated in the middle of the roaring traffic. Nothing else was visible. Only roads, roads, roads - and that single dazzling pillar.

Destruction due to fire
As the Headmaster left he started the Super Salamander's "booby trap" program which would set a fire in the lift if anybody was to tamper with it, which the Headmaster though was the only way out of the building due to it's lack of stairs, and so trapping and horribly killing everyone in the insuring fire. The brains took a vote and decided that even if it meant them being killed, they would still try to stop the Headmaster from taking control of the world and getting rid of choice and freedom. Lloyd then came up with the brilliant idea that they could still stop the headmaster without anyone being burnt to death if everyone went down the rubbish shoot, which was how Splat got up the tower, before they even tried to use the computer.

When the brains were clear of the building, Dinah took control of the computer and so starting the fire. In the limited time the people who stayed to escape the fire, Dinah the headmasters name off of the Prime minsters meeting list but couldn't crash the helicopter, which was run from the Super Salamander. Dinah instead decided to flick it up and away from downing street and then escaped the building and watched it burn from across the road. Due to the fact the fire spread so fast,as the Headmaster had planned for it to do, the Super salamander was destroyed with the rest of the building as it burned to the ground.

Location in real life
In the 1996 TV series, "The Atrium" in Uxbridge, Middlesex was used as the Vulcan Tower. Its appearance differs significantly to the Saracen Tower mentioned in the book, because it is not as tall, certainly not as narrow, and actually has windows.

The building is located at the junction of Harefield Road and Oxford Road on the edge of Uxbridge town centre.