The White Visitation?

[David Morris]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/nov/07/heritage-grant-bletchley-park

English Heritage yesterday announced a grant to save arguably the most
horrible building it has ever attempted to rescue, the sprawling
Victorian hulk of Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, which housed the
equally ramshackle geniuses who broke Germany's second world war
codes.

"English Heritage isn't only concerned with great architectural
set-pieces," its chief executive, Simon Thurley, said, announcing a
£330,000 grant for urgent repairs, one of the largest such grants ever
made by the organisation, on what he called "a fascinating group of
buildings".

Sir Francis Richards, chairman of the Bletchley Park Trust, said: "It
is hideous, but one can develop a fondness for the place. This grant
comes in the nick of time; the roof is at its last gasp."

Richards is himself a former director of GCHQ at Cheltenham, where
some of the Bletchley Colossus computers were used throughout the cold
war.

Bletchley was due for demolition in 1938 when the head of MI6 spotted
the potential of a large secluded estate beside a railway line and
main road. "Captain Ridley's Shooting Party", the code and cipher
experts, moved in, claiming to be house guests or typists. The
eccentric turreted water tank topping the roof became Station X, the
10th of the MI6 secret radio stations.

English Heritage has also promised help with the much larger job ahead
on the derelict huts where people such as Alan Turing worked, which
will cost up to £500,000 each to restore.

Photos:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5094660.ece

http://flickr.com/photos/publicenergy/126438312/in/set-72057594103845598/