Comment: Re:the big problem (Score 3, Informative) 83
I am a crypto buff who happened to be in London last month, and took the train up to visit Bletchley Park, all a-quiver to see the rebuilt Bombe and the Colossus. The park is really just a architecturally-Frankensteined mansion and a collection of "huts" with a few exhibits of crypto equipment and wartime memorabilia. It was bloody fascinating to see all the equipment up close, albeit behind glass. The equipment was simultaneously clever and primitive and bulky. The huts were so rude and tiny! Imagine all those people doing the anxious codebreaking work in such environs back then. I don't want the experience of visiting BP to be Disneyfied, but the cramped, amateurish presentation was a bit of a letdown.
Bletchley Park is not an amusement park. By that, I mean it is not as casually approachable as carnival rides and cotton candy. You'd have to be interested in some aspect of Bletchley to even seek it out. (BP is more than an hour's train ride outside of London, and the casual London tourist/resident is bombarded with advertisements for a buttload of attractive venues to visit, many of them historically important or beautiful or great fun, or all of the above.) This means the target demographic for BP is going to be relatively small. Unless you are into history or cryptography, you probably would prefer to hang out outside Buckingham Palace with the rest of the tourists and watch the guys with them fuzzy hats march around. (There were thousands of tourists ambling by Buckingham Palace one afternoon, compared to the trickle of visitors to Bletchley.)
But subject matter aside, I agree with thermian that the exhibits are badly in need of better presentation and preservation. If you have made the effort to visit Bletchley Park, you want to be engaged. There are guided tours, but they seem awfully bland. I wandered around at my own pace with a map and one of those audio tour headset thingys. One hut was packed full of wartime comms equipment from various nations, but without much background or other info to accompany each item. I approached the tiny wizened docent soldering something in the corner and he was semi-informative. Lucky I visited on the one day of the week that this hut was open to visitors.
However, it looked like they were setting up a new exhibit in one of the other huts, so maybe things are improving.
Bletchley Park is not an amusement park. By that, I mean it is not as casually approachable as carnival rides and cotton candy. You'd have to be interested in some aspect of Bletchley to even seek it out. (BP is more than an hour's train ride outside of London, and the casual London tourist/resident is bombarded with advertisements for a buttload of attractive venues to visit, many of them historically important or beautiful or great fun, or all of the above.) This means the target demographic for BP is going to be relatively small. Unless you are into history or cryptography, you probably would prefer to hang out outside Buckingham Palace with the rest of the tourists and watch the guys with them fuzzy hats march around. (There were thousands of tourists ambling by Buckingham Palace one afternoon, compared to the trickle of visitors to Bletchley.)
But subject matter aside, I agree with thermian that the exhibits are badly in need of better presentation and preservation. If you have made the effort to visit Bletchley Park, you want to be engaged. There are guided tours, but they seem awfully bland. I wandered around at my own pace with a map and one of those audio tour headset thingys. One hut was packed full of wartime comms equipment from various nations, but without much background or other info to accompany each item. I approached the tiny wizened docent soldering something in the corner and he was semi-informative. Lucky I visited on the one day of the week that this hut was open to visitors.
However, it looked like they were setting up a new exhibit in one of the other huts, so maybe things are improving.