Bletchley Park's information hub wins Grade II listing

Saturday 7 January 2012

Bletchley Park's information hub wins Grade II listing
------------------------------------------------------

Derelict block seen as birthplace of modern computer processing gains 
heritage protection

Stephen Bates

To look at, it is a distinctly undistinguished and desolate-looking piece 
of utilitarian 1940s architecture. There is a failed concrete roof, water 
seeping in, pigeons nesting and vegetation growing through the cracks in 
the brickwork.

But in context, the long overlooked and derelict Block C at Bletchley 
Park, the second world war codebreaking headquarters in Buckinghamshire, 
may be one of the most significant buildings of the 20th century and on 
Friday the government gave it Grade II listed status to preserve it for 
posterity.

It joins most other buildings on the site, including the famous wooden 
huts in which scientists, intelligence officers and civil servants, led by 
figures such as Alan Turing, initially worked to break the Nazis' 
supposedly impenetrable Enigma code. Their success shortened the war by as 
much as four years, by some accounts....../snip/


http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jan/06/bletchley-park-grade-ii-listing


http://www.culture.gov.uk./news/news_stories/8751.aspx

http://www.culture.gov.uk./news/media_releases/8750.aspx