Everest Base Camp for Hut 6

I'm off to Bletchley Park again this weekend and will be concentrating on Block C and Hut 6. Block C will be the first building to be transformed into a new entrance and introduction to the site. I'll also take more  photographs of Hut 6, which has inspired a trip to Everest Base Camp. No, not me, another BP enthusiast. Read about Asti's fundraising expedition here.

Hut 3 : the red L-shaped building

Entrance to Hut 3. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

Kitchen of Hut 3. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

Interior of Hut 3. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

Kitchen sink in Hut 3. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

Taps in kitchen of Hut 3. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

Window handle in Hut 3. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

Window handle in Hut 3. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

Corridor ceiling in Hut 3. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

The huts of Bletchley Park have a very different atmosphere to the larger blocks. Like most of the disused buildings on the site Hut 3 has had various post-war uses. The interior feels more domestic, due to its scale and the carpets and curtains in some rooms. The L-shaped building has a long central corridor with rooms off to either side. 

Information from Bletchley Park Trust website about Hut 3:


The codebreaking huts worked in pairs. The decoded messages from Hut 6 were passed to Hut 3 for translation, analysis and dispatch. Between Huts 3 and 6 was a connecting chute, added to speed up the passing of information from one hut to the other.

Hut 3 is perhaps the only hut constructed to be totally independent, should the need have arisen. It has its own boilerhouse and central heating system, the only hut to be afforded this comfort. For the most part, the huts were cramped and spartan, cold and draughty.

As the importance of the huts grew, so did their staffing needs, so that by the end of the war Hut 3, for example, was no longer a single wooden 1939 structure, but a whole range of locations and buildings on the Park. The same is true of the other huts.

John Herivel and Hut 6

Detail of entrance to Hut 6. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

This evening I planned to edit the photographs taken at Bletchley Park on Saturday - more of Block C, a few from the interiors of huts 3 and 6, and lots of details of the exteriors of huts 3 and 6.

And then I learned that John Herivel had passed away just the day before I was there. Herivel worked in Hut 6 and it was here that the 'Herivel tip' was tested day after day until suddenly it worked. It's sad and strange to see this shabby old building and imagine the excitement there must have been when his idea first worked.

Here's a picture of the front door of hut 6.