Bletchley Park Gets £4.6 Million Restoration

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Bletchley Park Gets £4.6 Million Restoration

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday October 4, 2011 @09:19PM from the heavy-support dept.

mikejuk writes "Bletchley Park has secured a £4.6 million Heritage Lottery Fund Grant for the establishment of a visitor center dedicated to the World War II Codebreakers. This year saw the unveiling of a new memorial to the Codebreakers in the grounds of Bletchley Park by the Queen. Shortly after her visit, a new fundraising campaign for the restoration of the iconic huts where the code-breaking teams worked was inaugurated, with help and sponsorship from Google. The grant will enable the restoration of Codebreaking Huts 1, 3 and 6, and create a world-class visitor center and exhibition in the currently derelict Block C. The Bletchley Park Trust has launched the 'Action This Day' campaign to raise the match funding now needed."

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Good use of the money by Chrisq · 2011-10-04 21:26 · Score: 1

This is a really important bit of our recent history. It would be a shame to let it rot away.
1. Re:Good use of the money by weffew... · 2011-10-04 21:33 · Score: 1
  
  GCHQ and BT both wanted it turned into a housing estate, albeit for differing reasons.
2. Re:Good use of the money by Going_Digital · 2011-10-04 21:46 · Score: 1
  
  Part of it has been, the site was bigger than it is now but a few years ago part of it was sold to developers, fortunately it was just some open ground, not any of the buildings.
3. Re:Good use of the money by _Shad0w_ · 2011-10-04 23:45 · Score: 1
  
  Sounds like the southern end of the RARDE Waltham Abbey - it's all under a housing estate and/or commercial sites now. The north end is protected and forms the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills museum (awesome place to visit, especially if you can get on a walking tour of the restricted access portion)
  
  --
  Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
4. Re:Good use of the money by martin-boundary · 2011-10-05 00:13 · Score: 1
  
  I've never visited the place, but I hope they don't just show the English side though. The great efforts and ingenuity of the German scientists whose work was used by the other team deserves to not be forgotten either.
5. Re:Good use of the money by Oswald+McWeany · 2011-10-05 02:58 · Score: 1
  
  Patriotism and Nationalism are not far seperated.
  American's are taught from an early age that patriotism is not just good, but expected. They use an old communist pledge to worship a flag every school day as a child. It is no surprise the US is so insular- Americans have nationalism beat into them as children.
  Most people turn out relatively normal though- but a number do become very nationalistic and fail to see any positives from foreign shores.
  You caught one of the looneys on a bad day. The average American would not have been so hostile.
  
  --
  "That's the way to do it" - Punch
6. Re:Good use of the money by hackertourist · 2011-10-05 03:17 · Score: 1
  
  They do show some German artifacts (Enigma and Lorenz encoding machines) but don't go into the German side of things too deeply. IIRC they explain the design of the Enigma to some extent, but Lorenz and its brethren don't get much explanation.
  Of course, much of the success of Bletchley is owed to the lack of ingenuity of the German scientists and the security holes this created, allowing regular breaks into the encrypted traffic.
Something to 'celebrate' about war ... by MacTO · 2011-10-04 21:31 · Score: 1

I'm a pacifist, so I basically don't want to think about the darker side of war even when it was necessary evil to ensure the freedom of the children and grandchildren of those who fought in the war.
So when I see governments acknowledging the contributions of non-combatants in non-violent roles, I have to congratulate them. Bletchley Park mayn't have ended the war, but it certainly made it shorter and less bloody.
National Museum of Computing by MiggyMan · 2011-10-04 21:45 · Score: 1

I Wonder if the National Museum of Computing will get any of this ?

--
Lifesigns: Present Hair: Escaped Age: Increasing
1. Re:National Museum of Computing by Chrisq · 2011-10-04 22:04 · Score: 1
  
  I Wonder if the National Museum of Computing will get any of this ?
  I think that the huts are part of the National Museum of Computing exhibits, but it will be a grant for a specific purpose
2. Re:National Museum of Computing by Going_Digital · 2011-10-04 22:09 · Score: 1
  
  No, they don't even get any commission from the Bletchley Trust when they run an event that brings in lots of PAYING visitors. The National Museum of Computing essentially just rents the space as a tenant, despite their efforts being responsible for increasing visitor numbers they get no special recognition from Betchley.
3. Re:National Museum of Computing by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-04 22:33 · Score: 0
  
  The NMC may not even be welcome at BP for much longer. The resident Air Training Corps squadron has been told to dispose of their preserved Harrier gate-guardian ASAP because the BP site will be a "World War 2-only" facility.
  Shame that all this fame has gone to their heads.
4. Re:National Museum of Computing by hackertourist · 2011-10-04 23:21 · Score: 1
  
  There is some overlap; IIRC the Colossus exhibit is part of the NMOC, but confusingly it follows Bletchley's opening hours, rather than the NMOC's more limited hours.
5. Re:National Museum of Computing by Going_Digital · 2011-10-05 01:03 · Score: 1
  
  They will have to get rid of the car display in the stables then as those are not WW2 era vehicles.
6. Re:National Museum of Computing by MiggyMan · 2011-10-05 01:41 · Score: 1
  
  I had this discussion with the guys at the vcf, what makes it worse is that people assume the because bletchly get funding, so do they :(
  
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  Lifesigns: Present Hair: Escaped Age: Increasing
About time - Turing's 100th birthday nears by BitterKraut · 2011-10-04 21:54 · Score: 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing_Year
enigma by Dark+Lord+of+Ohio · 2011-10-04 22:04 · Score: 1, Interesting

It is a shame that on their site there is nothing about polish "coders" who in 1932 broke the enigma code and made it available for British and French intelligence... wiki - in December 1932, the Polish Cipher Bureau first broke Germany's military Enigma ciphers. Five weeks before the outbreak of World War II, on 25 July 1939, in Warsaw, they presented their Enigma-decryption techniques and equipment to French and British military intelligence. Thanks to this, during the war, Allied codebreakers were able to decrypt a vast number of messages that had been enciphered using the Enigma. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine
1. Re:enigma by Hazel+Bergeron · 2011-10-04 22:07 · Score: 1
  
  History is the propaganda of the winner, comrade.
2. Re:enigma by Dark+Lord+of+Ohio · 2011-10-04 22:12 · Score: 1
  
  History is the propaganda of the winner, comrade.
  Yeah, but they were on the winning side anyway...
3. Re:enigma by Shimbo · 2011-10-04 22:18 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  It is a shame that on their site there is nothing about polish "coders" who in 1932 broke the enigma code and made it available for British and French intelligence...
  You didn't look very hard. http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/hist/history/polish.rhtm
4. Re:enigma by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-04 22:18 · Score: 0
  
  It is a shame that on their site there is nothing about polish "coders" who in 1932 broke the enigma code and made it available for British and French intelligence
  They have a detailed page about Polish contributions here: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/hist/history/polish.rhtm
5. Re:enigma by Hazel+Bergeron · 2011-10-04 22:23 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, everyone ends up on the winning side.
6. Re:enigma by Dark+Lord+of+Ohio · 2011-10-04 22:59 · Score: 1
  
  well... shame on me then... it's good they mentioned about it. thanks for the info.
7. Re:enigma by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-04 23:48 · Score: 0
  
  Other posters have pointed out that you can't have looked very hard, the website is scattered with references to the Poles as well as having dedicated parts.
  Also, having been to Bletchey Park, I can also confirm that the place itself give lots of Kudos to the Polish code breakers and mathematicians.
8. Re:enigma by karolbe · 2011-10-05 00:05 · Score: 1
  
  Yep. They did not forget about Poland! ;-)
9. Re:enigma by BigZee · 2011-10-05 01:40 · Score: 1
  
  Not only is this subject quite well covered at the park, they have a memorial to the Polish coders. I believe they also have an annual Polish Day.
10. Re:enigma by Dark+Lord+of+Ohio · 2011-10-05 03:03 · Score: 1
  
  If thats true, next time I will go to London I will drive there and personally apologise the manager (whoever is in charge) of Bletchley Park for my lack of knowledge.
11. Re:enigma by jeremyp · 2011-10-05 20:24 · Score: 1
  
  More about the memorial: http://www.ww2museums.com/article/11049/Polish-Memorial-Bletchley-Park.htm
  BP is quite a long way from London. You'll need a whole day to drive there, have a look around, apologise and drive back. I'd skip the apology though, if I were you. I doubt if the manager of BP reads Slashdot.
  It's a common misconception that the Polish contribution is not acknowledged anywhere. In fact, I have read many popular accounts about the code breaking. They all talk about the Polish contribution and they all claim that popular accounts don't give enough credit.
  
  --
  All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
In honor of Bletchley Park by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-04 22:19 · Score: 0

I've renamed the bathroom here, Codebreaking Hut 7.
1. Re:In honor of Bletchley Park by digitig · 2011-10-04 23:49 · Score: 1
  
  Hoping for a cut of the money to get it redecorated?
  
  --
  Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
U571 by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-04 22:25 · Score: 5, Funny

i hope they have recognition for the brave crew of U571 and Matthew McConaughey
1. Re:U571 by ledow · 2011-10-04 23:12 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Flamebaiting bastard.
  (As most UK people will know, the movie U-571 is entirely bullshit about how the US captured an Enigma machine from a boat that, in real life, was never involved)
  Wonder how the Yanks would feel about a British movie depicting the Boston Tea Party as a British success...
2. Re:U571 by Tsingi · 2011-10-05 00:30 · Score: 1
  
  *chortle*
  Don't let Hollywood get you upset. It isn't worth it, only thing they value is cash, they care not a whit for history, patriotism, mom or apple pie. Only what they can get you to pay them money for. If that involves telling a bunch of yanks that they are single handedly saving the world, well, that's what they do.
  That they all believe it is a problem, but the motives are pure capitalism.
3. Re:U571 by Peter+Simpson · 2011-10-05 01:55 · Score: 1
  
  And the story of how the Brits *did* capture an Enigma from a sinking submarine is told in David Kahn's excellent _Seizing the Enigma_
4. Re:U571 by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 02:06 · Score: 0
  
  Hollywood never lets the truth get in the way of a good story,
  On or off the screen.
Badly required by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-04 22:46 · Score: 0

Just a month ago I brought myself to visitting this legendary place. After reading about it, especially books like 'Cryptonomicon' raised the expectations high. Disappointment was higher. There is a single building containing half-interesting objects, like recreation of an Enigma, some documents and radio tech. Rest is filled with misplaced mannequins and scavanged posters. It feels like anything of interest has been removed and nothing was added.
Area around it is now a typical UK town and the romance of "remoteness" is nowhere to be seen. There is a lot that can be done to improve the experience of the visit and I hope it takes place, I would love to visit again but this time have more look at.
1. Re:Badly required by ledow · 2011-10-04 23:06 · Score: 2
  
  Did you miss the point that it was mainly secret in its working days (so it was in a quiet town, in the middle of nowhere, away from German bombs) but is now in a modern-day town where it has zero impact on the local economy, that most of the equipment was destroyed afterwards (and hence what you see is the result of DECADES of restoration work of then-top-secret equipment of which virtually nothing original remains), that the building has been derelict (hence the raising of money) ever since it was *deliberately* cleared and abandoned decades ago? At the moment it is *literally* run by fanatics, not cash, so a few scavenged posters is all they have left after reconstructing all that equipment. Everything else is in planning stages.
  You don't preserve the place by turning into The Canterbury Tales with talking characters, etc. especially with ZERO funding that they've had up until now (hence this being a news story that they CAN actually put something there now - and so they should).
  Like the Stalag that I went to visit in Germany last year that was nothing more than a bit of grass with some vague building outlines on and a little building with old movies/photos, it was never designed to be a tourist attraction and still isn't except for those who understand what it WAS.
  That said, my brother has taken Scout groups to Bletchley several times (he was given a valve-amp, by someone who worked there on the reconstruction, for the kids to study) - so long as you set the scene and explain what's going on there, it's still pretty interesting.
  The preservation of it is important but IT HASN'T STARTED. Not properly. For decades it's just been people saying it *should* be preserved but they have literally only just been given the funds to do so - and in ten years time it will be a more interesting place to take your kids.
  Personally, I'd rather they built any museum / exhibit close-by and preserved the original buildings as best they could but I doubt it will happen.
2. Re:Badly required by hackertourist · 2011-10-04 23:28 · Score: 1
  
  it was never designed to be a tourist attraction and still isn't except for those who understand what it WAS.
  They may not have all the bells and whistles, but the comparison you make to the Stalag site is unfair. Bletchley already has plenty of things of interest to non-nerds, including exhibits geared towards children. And what they may lack in amenities is more than made up for by their superb tour guides. They manage to explain the very complicated codebreaking operations in terms that most people can understand. So no, it's not just for those who 'understand what it WAS'.
3. Re:Badly required by digitig · 2011-10-05 01:12 · Score: 1
  
  I did my apprenticeship there, before the "new city" of Milton Keynes had been built. The site had been taken over by the post office and the civil aviation authority, both of whom were using it as a technical training establishment. Believe me, the "remoteness" had no "romance" even then. It translated as "dullness". It was never particularly remote anyway, being only a couple of miles from Leighton Buzzard, a couple of miles from Stony Stratford, a couple of miles from Wolverton (about the only place in the area that could beat Bletchley for dullness). They were all separate towns then, although all but Leighton Buzzard have now been swallowed up by Milton Keynes.
  
  --
  Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Re:Osterity measures at work by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-04 22:58 · Score: 0

No.
If you think war is a necessary evil... by Viol8 · 2011-10-04 23:16 · Score: 2

... then you're not a true pacifist because thats what most people think. Very few people see war as a laugh. A true pacifist would never advocate war no matter what and would sooner see himself and his entire family tortured and killed than raise an arm in anger. Basically they're simply cowards dressing up their cowardise as a political idiology.
1. Re:If you think war is a necessary evil... by Dominic · 2011-10-04 23:35 · Score: 2
  
  So Gandhi was a coward?
2. Re:If you think war is a necessary evil... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-04 23:36 · Score: 1
  
  I don't anyone would would follow through on their beliefs, to the point of torture, can be called a coward.
3. Re:If you think war is a necessary evil... by diersing · 2011-10-04 23:40 · Score: 1
  
  I think you're understanding is flawed. There is a difference between non-violence and non-aggression. Just because I think nations should solve their disputes with words rather than bombs doesn't mean I'd willingly welcome a torturous murder of my family. Pacifism allows for self-defense.
4. Re:If you think war is a necessary evil... by Viol8 · 2011-10-04 23:46 · Score: 1
  
  I do. Cowardise isn't simply avoiding pain.
5. Re:If you think war is a necessary evil... by Viol8 · 2011-10-04 23:55 · Score: 1
  
  Nice try, but if ghandi and his followers had attempted a violent uprising it would have been a suicide mission that would have resulted in far greater oppression by the british in the long run so he had no choice in the matter.
6. Re:If you think war is a necessary evil... by digitig · 2011-10-05 01:03 · Score: 1
  
  I doubt there are many here would have the courage to see themself and their entire family tortured and killed than rather raise an arm in anger. You might well disagree with that course of action, but to call it cowardice is plain silly.
  
  --
  Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
7. Re:If you think war is a necessary evil... by aiht · 2011-10-05 15:59 · Score: 1
  
  So Gandhi was an opportunistic coward?
8. Re:If you think war is a necessary evil... by Viol8 · 2011-10-05 21:34 · Score: 1
  
  No , Gandhi was someone who was smart enought to realise that being annihilated is not a good way to achieve your goals.
9. Re:If you think war is a necessary evil... by rich_hudds · 2011-10-05 23:48 · Score: 1
  
  Gandhi wasn't a coward but he was certainly no saint
  
  When pressed on what the Jews should do in response to Hitler he suggested they should all commit suicide.
  
  When his wife got ill he refused to allow her 'Western' medicine and she died. When he himself got ill he had a rethink and decided that 'Western' medicine wasn't so bad after all.
  
  Anyone who expects you to wash their feet is probably a bit flawed imho
  
  Pacifism is not necessarily cowardly but it isn't necessarily ethical either.
Great by Black+Parrot · 2011-10-04 23:23 · Score: 3, Insightful

Too bad they can't give Alan Turing his life back.

--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
1. Re:Great by hackertourist · 2011-10-04 23:31 · Score: 2
  
  Enough with the moaning about Alan Turing already! Yes, he was treated awfully by the British government aftwer WW2, but this has nothing to do with Bletchley; during his tenure at Bletchley Turing was left in peace.
  Also, Bletchley currently houses a memorial and celebrates Turing's invaluable contribution to the codebreaking effort. What more do you want?
2. Re:Great by _Shad0w_ · 2011-10-04 23:58 · Score: 1
  
  He got given £50 personally by Churchill too. That was his entire reward for creating the bombes and other contributions.
  
  --
  Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
3. Re:Great by heroid1a · 2011-10-05 01:10 · Score: 1
  
  Not quite as bad as it sounds given that an average house cost Â£500 at the time (http://www.wwwk.co.uk/culture/housing/index.htm) Perhaps more like Â£20,000 in current value? (At a guess, ignoring housing bubbles...) Although I do agree his later treatment was appalling : we can only be glad that, in the UK at least, people are generally more tolerant.
4. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 04:41 · Score: 0
  
  No, keep moaning. It's terrible that such a thing happened, yet so much worse it would be for something like that to happen twice.
Does 4.6 million convert to something in metric? by Tsingi · 2011-10-04 23:27 · Score: 1, Interesting

4.6 million is how much Chase Manhattan gave to the NYC cops to beat up protesters.
Is it some kind of magic number?
That match funding request in full... by zevans · 2011-10-04 23:46 · Score: 1

SENDM ONEYN OWXXX

--
"... and more and more now there are all kinds of electronic goodies available" -- Pink Floyd 1972
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2011-10-05 01:08 · Score: 1

Comment removed based on user account deletion
Great news by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 01:16 · Score: 0

Glad to see this funding come through for the park.
Their website sucks :( by tibit · 2011-10-05 02:27 · Score: 1

Their website, frankly said, visually sucks. Those YellowHawk people are doing themselves a disservice.
They don't seem to have a design document done for consistent use of their logo, nor for consistency among visual elements on the pages. There are tons of annoyances, they didn't even do the most trivial things like color correction on the B/W pictures (say on the history page). I don't claim to be any sort of a highfalutin' designer, but there's a point where things just get too annoying to look at, and all the minor problems add up...

--
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
5.4 million short by xdor · 2011-10-05 02:57 · Score: 1

Nothing gets built in England for less than 10 million.
Heritage Lottery Fund Grant by mattOzan · 2011-10-05 04:01 · Score: 1

Given that the lottery is frequently described as a "tax on people who are bad at math," it is a wonderful irony that this money is going to commemorate some of the most important mathematical work in history.
Are Donations From US Tax Deductible? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 05:24 · Score: 0

Just curious.. never considered donating to a charity that didn't have an arm here in the States.
Bletchley a head start for UK computing? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 06:43 · Score: 0

If the equipment had not been highly secret, and disposed of at the end of the war, could England have had an early basis for a computing industry?
1. Re:Bletchley a head start for UK computing? by aiht · 2011-10-05 16:10 · Score: 1
  
  Yes.
This reminded me about "Most Secret War"... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 08:46 · Score: 0

... a book written by Prof. R.V. Jones that is worth a read by anyone interested in the history of applied science & tech
IIRC the CIA even has an award in his honor.
Cool, but by blair1q · 2011-10-05 09:41 · Score: 1

Now that we've decided to renovate the Isle of Kryptos, can we do something about shoring up Greece itself?
Re:Osterity measures at work by aiht · 2011-10-05 16:04 · Score: 1

What's Osterity?
Being frugal with Ostriches?
Austerity in Österreich?