Bletchley Park Facing Financial Ruin

biscuitfever11 writes "Bletchley Park, the home of Station X, Britain's secret code-breaking base during World War II, is barely scraping by financially, as shown in these images compiled by ZDNet this week. The site has undergone major redevelopment as an act of remembrance for the Allied efforts to break the German Enigma code, but now its future is clouded — among others, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation turned them down for financial assistance (since it doesn't have to do with the Internet). Its director estimates that Bletchley Park's funds will be exhausted in three years. Hungry land developers are circling. This is an insightful look at what's happened to Bletchley Park these days and the pain it's going through."

Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[elrous0]

These aren't starving kids in Africa, for crying out loud. It's just a museum. And, however important the historical significance of the site, it's hardly fair to make a snide remark about not getting funding from a foundation that has MUCH more important issues to deal with. If anything, they should be getting funding from the British government (and obviously THEY don't think it's so important).

I know this is /., and there is many a Bill-basher here who would probably take ANY opportunity to blast him, but COME ON.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yea! Let the Brits destroy their heritage like we do in the US. Tear it down and put a parking lot on it, that's what I say.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[Anonymous Coward]

Kids in Africa are starving for reasons the Gates Foundation can't fix.

That written, I view the demise of Bletchley Park the same way I look at copyrights: Doing something great a long time ago shouldn't guarantee you a lifetime of financial benefits. Even if you saved the world.

Great you broke codes but a long time has passed since then. Figure out how to pay your own way.

Misunderstanding

[InvisblePinkUnicorn]

"Everything has a price tag. Everything costs something, and everyone should get something hard for everything he does."

This only makes sense if you ignore why we use money. Money is simply an exchange of productivity. I work, get money, and then use that money to buy others' productivity. Saying "everything has a price tag" simply means that people are only willing to offer up their productivity if they get someone else's in return. That's the sign of a properly functioning market. If you want to donate to these causes, feel free, but don't demand the government forcibly take a larger portion of everyone's productivity (in the form of increased taxes) because you have a pet idea and you want easy access to money.

Disgusted

[segedunum]

As a UK citizen I'm pretty disgusted that a lot of our landmarks and history, as well as worthwhile projects such as revived steam railway lines and 'sense' centres for severely disabled kids with people putting their own volunteer time in, are somehow getting turn down for National Lottery funding (there never is a solid reason given) and billions are being given to the waste of time and money that is the Olympics, largely because of corruption. Who's going to miss a few million going missing here and there? These are schemes and projects that only want a few tens or hundreds of thousands pounds as well.

This is exactly the sort of thing that the National Lottery was supposed to help, and exactly the sort of thing that has been let down.

Never mind

[Wowsers]

Don't worry, the pathetic English hating UK government will spare no effort in wasting £17bn on an 2 week politicians / IOC orgy at the London Olympics games that only the freeloaders want (as opposed to the taxpayers who don't want it).

The things that are important to a nation are discarded, and what gives no benefit gets taxpayers money thrown at it like taxpayers money was going out of fashion.

Re:The British did not break Enigma

[91degrees]

I think the most significant act of the Polish cryptographers was proving that the code could be broken. Without that, it's possible that the British government would have directed the resources elsewhere.

No exaggeration

[hcdejong]

I was there a few years ago. Some of the exhibits were in WW2 vintage barracks (i.e. temporary buildings never meant to stand for more than 5 years, let alone 50. In one hut, there were puddles on the floor. The whole place is falling apart.

As for the argument 'you can always move the exhibits to the Science Museum and sell the land': The exhibits are important, but the accomodations themselves make a point that's worth remembering as well. The most vital project of the entire war was being run out of a collection of sheds, basically. To think that 9000 people worked there on the most advanced technology in existence back then, boggles the mind.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[__aamnbm3774]

ugh, what-ever.
every single inch of soil has some history to it.
If you really think saving this place is worth time and effort, please donate some of your money.

My guess is not many people feel like you do.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[CmdrGravy]

The British Government decided quite a while ago to get rid of any responsibility it had for looking after any of our historic buildings. Instead they set up the National Lottery to directly tax poor and stupid people with a remit to help good causes such as this one.

Even before that though most of these things are maintained ( or not ) by organisations such as the National Trust or museums and charitable organisations. I can't think of a single thing such as this building which is directly supported by the government, it's just something that in the UK has never been up to the government but is left to private individuals or charitable organisations to deal with. In general the government through it's local councils have no interest at all in maintaining any of our more historic buildings being quite happy instead to let them stand around empty for decades until they have rotted sufficiently to be knocked down and redeveloped. All most all of Birminghams historic Edwardian public baths are currently suffering from this treatment.

There was recently a BBC programme which allowed viewers to vote on which one of a dozen or so worthy historic buildings was given money for maintenance whilst letting the rest continue to fall into disrepair. Britains long range Vulcan bomber is being preserved and renovated by a private group of enthusiasts and BA are refusing to sell Concorde to a similar group of enthusiasts for preservation so in general here in the UK what is preserved and what is not is more or less a random lottery with many things falling by the wayside and being crushed underfoot.

The irony.

[Anonymous Coward]

That the foundation setup by the man once made the richest in the world by the computing industry, declines to fund the museum documenting the crucible of the first programmable computing machines, such as Colossus.

Ingrates.

TFOAE

Misguided

[Anonymous Coward]

"Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation turned them down for financial assistance (since it doesn't have to do with the Internet)"

So Bill, there's no encryption used on the internet & no Microsoft programmer has ever used it to secure Microsoft systems (albeit poorly)?

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[l-ascorbic]

If the government won't spare the money to protect Stonehenge of all places, it's unsurprising that other stuff is neglected too.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[Shakrai]

That written, I view the demise of Bletchley Park the same way I look at copyrights: Doing something great a long time ago shouldn't guarantee you a lifetime of financial benefits

Your comparing efforts to save an important part of our history to copyrights?

Figure out how to pay your own way.

Am I the only one that sees value in preserving important parts of our history for future generations?

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[Telvin_3d]

But what does preserving the history mean? In a case like this, the history is extremely well documented. Not only that, but the value of the site itself lies solely in the fact that it IS well documented. The building and grounds are not inherently historically valuable.

When you talk about preserving a site like this it's not the same way you would talk about preserving an area of Greek or Roman ruins. It's not like they are going to excavate it at a later date and discover unknown relics.

Without the knowledge of what has happened there, the site is meaningless. And if you have the documentation the site becomes more about the emotional and symbolic attachment than historical value.

And eventually it gets down to the fact that if we faithfully preserved every place that anything interesting had ever happened at it wouldn't be long before our entire society would be static.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[Shakrai]

And eventually it gets down to the fact that if we faithfully preserved every place that anything interesting had ever happened at it wouldn't be long before our entire society would be static.

I would agree with that, but you have to weigh the "anything interesting" part against the bigger picture. In this case, the "anything interesting" was an Allied effort that saved thousands of lives and probably shortened the war by a year. I tend to think that's worth preserving and that the value to society is greater then allowing a developer to build a strip mall or cookie-cutter condos over it.

Re:Who cares ?

[Peter Simpson]

Bletchley should be preserved, because so much that is important to technology today happened within those walls. Alan Turing worked there. The German domination of the North Atlantic was broken there.

It's hard for us in the US to imagine what the Brits went through during the war. Bletchley, along with the Battle of Britain, was one of their big successes on the home front.

It's all well and good to read about history, but there's something more gripping about a visit to where history was made.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[MightyYar]

Here's the thing, though: The site was not important to their work. They could have done this in a trailer somewhere. I'd bet that they could sell the land and then set up a big enough endowment to save one lot for a small museum to display the equipment and such.

I think people want to save this site because it happens to be a grand old mansion... if this thing were a blah standard-issue 1940s military brick building people would be so sentimental.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[Comboman]

I would agree with that, but you have to weigh the "anything interesting" part against the bigger picture. In this case, the "anything interesting" was an Allied effort that saved thousands of lives and probably shortened the war by a year. I tend to think that's worth preserving and that the value to society is greater then allowing a developer to build a strip mall or cookie-cutter condos over it.

But you could make the same argument for preserving a factory that built tanks, a shipyard, an airfield, a university laboratory that developed a slightly improved radar. Eventually you have nothing but museums. Some are necessary, but you have to draw the line somewhere. The building didn't shorten the war; the people who worked there did. We honour them by documenting their successes and continuing to build on their work in cryptography, not by turning their workshop into a shrine.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[MightyYar]

You really do a disservice to everyone when you compare modern-day Britain to Germany under Nazi rule. Public cameras? Gimme a break - let me know when they start tattooing people and invading Poland.

Re:This is truly sad

[dave420]

Not to mention the centimetric radar fitted to some of the first ASW planes ever put in action, but most definitely - Bletchley park changed the world.

Hard to Visit

[CohibaVancouver]

The few times I've been to the UK in recent times I've tried to visit Bletchley Park. Each time, the hours of the museum didn't work. In checking the website, I now see that things have improved considerably, but with an infant at home I likely won't be back to the UK any time soon :(

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[iapetus]

Why would the Gates family feel any obligation to fund a war museum in another country? How is not doing so a lack of 'class'? This makes so little sense that I can only assume it's some variation on the Chewbacca defence...

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[photomonkey]

I'll bite because you're obviously (AC) embarrassed by your own opinion.

Many of those pictures you have hanging in your home and/or office exist BECAUSE of copyright. That music and video hogging space on your iPod... you know, the stuff that helps you make it through your workout? It's there precisely because of copyright.

Sure, some aspects of copyright law have gotten out of control. But it is copyright that allows artists to fully pursue their art, and to make the work that you (or others) deem socially, culturally and personally important.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[greensnake]

It's chicken and egg. Only by the site persisting can people become educated as to its significance and then realize its worth. Those of you who take the self-sustaining stance are those who see the price of everything and the value of nothing.

What's significant is what those people did, not where they did it. The Trust should sell the place for what they can get and use the money to fund math scholarships, etc.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[jonbryce]

But it is near Milton Keynes, and therefore impossible for anyone other than a local to find.

Re:Why would they expect Gates Foundation funding?

[ek_adam]

In the US we think 100 years is a long time.

In England they think that 100 miles is a long way to drive.