UK computer history gets new home

[Jules Richardson]

Stroller wrote:
> Reading about Bletchley Park I'm never quite sure quite how the heck it 
> rose from the bunch of derelict concrete prefabs I knew as a (1970s) 
> child to the acknowledged symbol of computing history that it now is.

Half the site's still a bunch of derelict concrete prefabs... :-)

I think plans are afoot for the Park themselves to do something with C Block 
(the one by the new entrance that looks like "IIIE" from the air). The 
building's a mess, though - there's even a fairly substantial tree growing on 
the roof!

D Block's leased by English Partnerships these days and they want to sub-let 
bits of it (either for museum-related activities, or for archival purposes - 
I've heard both). Needs a heck of a lot of work internally to get it up to 
scratch, though - but at least it's been re-roofed and stabilised now.

G Block's fate is unknown - I think the property developers who are building 
the housing estate on the old ATC site might own that one. I don't think it's 
got listed status unfortunately...

Some of the Huts have been restored, as has B Block, and of course we'll be 
taking over the whole of H. Hut 4 (beside the mansion) has just been restored 
and turned back into catering facilities. That still leaves various Huts 
around the site that need a lot of TLC, though.

> Enough kudos to them - if there is a publicly-funded British National 
> Museum of Computing, I think it's likely to be at Bletchley Park.

It was almost at Waltham Abbey for a while... some of the politics in the past 
at the Park have been horrible. The new guy in charge seems to have his head 
screwed on right, thankfully.

> I was disappointed to read praise of his wartime efforts 
> but no mention of how he was subsequently hounded to suicide. I feel 
> this to be a series of events of which we should all be ashamed and 
> equal in signifiance to his mathematical achievements, yet half a 
> century later it is still swept under the carpet. :(

I don't know, I think it's pretty common knowledge as to how he was treated 
post-war. I think I'd much rather he was remembered for all the great 
achievements, rather than for all the nasty stuff that went on later.

What gets me a little is the comparative lack of recognition that all the 
others working on projects like Colossus have received; Turing still gets 
publicity (rightly so), but not much ever gets said about all the others who 
were contributing effort and ideas.

Anyway, things went well today I think - everyone seemed to be enjoying 
themselves (and more importantly, there were no mishaps with any of the 
vintage hardware :-)

cheers

Jules