Visit to the "new" Bletchley Park - ( a moan... )

Last Wednesday ( 20/07/05 ) I had a chance, as a guest, to join a 'tour'
of Bletchley Park, organised by a local club. I am sorry to say that,
compared to my last visit there about a year ago, this trip was a big
disappointment. Not only are the D Block and H Block not accessible to
the public, but the only 'official' BPT displays related to WW2
codebreaking are the "WW2 Exhibition Centre" in one room of Block B, plus
the 'Bombe Rebuild' room on the ground floor. The Mansion was being used
for a 'corporate event', which made the Ballroom and the Library
inaccessible. Huts 1,3,6 and 8 locked. There are some other collections,
usually only open at the weekends, but not directly relevant to the
codebreaking history. But the numerous and varied displays of actual
hardware, which used to be in the H-Block, are now gone.

I was very lucky to manage to sneak away to try and see the Colossus MkII
Rebuild, and even more privileged to find Mr. Tony Sale there to let me
in.

But on the whole the 'atmosphere' of the place has changed, and I went
away feeling strangely depressed about it all.

I would just like to recommend (again) to everybody on this list to follow
the  http://www.bletchleyparkheritage.org.uk  website of Tony Sale, and we
should all be prepared to help him in any way to try and preserve the
Colossus Rebuild project in its rightful place !

Martin

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|      Martin Postranecky        Phone : [00-44]-(0)20-7679 3453 |
|  Senior Experimental Officer   Phone : [00-44]-(0)20-7679 2000 |
|   UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON    Fax :   [00-44]-(0)20-7679 7145 |
| DEPT.OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY  E-Mail: [email protected]        |
| Gower Street,London, WC1E 6BT  http://www.hep.ucl.ac.uk/       |
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