Wartime intelligence exhibition at Bletchley Park

Once a secretive operation of the Second World War, Bletchley Park Museum has now unveiled a new exhibition dedicated to the role of codebreakers

Situated near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, the former wartime facility and present-day museum known as Bletchley Park – a name synonymous with codebreaking – has opened its largest ever exhibition. The permanent fixture, entitled The Intelligence Factory, seeks to highlight the personal stories of those involved in the vast and secretive operation, from tracking ships to handling data to recruiting, feeding and housing thousands of staff.

Unveiled on 28 April 2022, the newly restored Block A, which houses the exhibition, has been made available to visitors for the first time in Bletchley Park’s history. Featured within are numerous fascinating objects, including a Hagelin C-39s cipher machine and an original Hollerith machine. A contemporary interactive recreation of the Plotting Room used by naval intelligence officers for safeguarding Allied vessels has also been installed, painstakingly put together through veterans’ accounts as no known photographs exist.

Alongside The Intelligence Factory, an area of Block A has been adapted into a gallery that will host temporary exhibitions. The first 18-month running display, called The Art of Data: Making Sense of the World, draws inspiration from the techniques utilised by codebreakers to manage information at scale while focusing on how data visualisation helps people understand modern society. Both the permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as the rest of Bletchley Park, can be explored with a general admission ticket.

Recognising the opening of Block A as a milestone in the historic site’s development, Peronel Craddock, head of programmes at The Bletchley Park Trust, says: “The Intelligence Factory will explore how pioneering potential of the world’s first intelligence organisation was realised during its busiest years and the legacy that is still felt to this day.”

For more information: bletchleypark.org.uk