INSIDE STORY THE DESIGNERS James Alexander, Alexandra Fitzsimmons and Steve Lumby of Event Communications explain the restoration of Bletchley Park and how its complex story might be its trump card. ‘When you cross the threshold into Bletchley Park there’s an opportunity – not so much to go back in time, but to be immersed in a place that is uniquely special.’ James Alexander is CEO of Event Communications, the exhibition design group tasked in helping Bletchley Park tell its remarkable story. ‘My father, who was a boy during the war, loves Bletchley Park, but it also has the power to mean something to young people visiting for the first time. If young people can relate to what happened at Bletchley Park, then it can become a site for cross-generational communication.’
‘Our aim was to bring together Bletchley Park’s three key assets – the site itself, its history, and the stories of the incredible raft of people who worked here – into a cohesive visitor experience,’ says James. But how to accommodate both family groups who want an overview of the Bletchley Park story, and technical groups hoping to get into the nitty-gritty of Codebreaking? The solution, remarkably, lay in the site’s challenging and multi-layered history. ‘I am continually intrigued by how compartmentalised the process at Bletchley Park was,’ James says. ‘Not only was it top secret outside, but even within Bletchley Park the process was broken down so nobody had a sense of what was happening from start to finish.’ Indeed, at its peak, thousands of men and women worked in temporary buildings with little or no idea of what was happening only yards away in the next hut; one Veteran Sarah Baring described the site as ‘a labyrinth from which there was no exit.’
Bletchley Park’s history has allowed the designers, says James, to ‘layer the various narrative strands,’ appealing to both new and returning visitors. ‘We have put considerable effort into getting the basics across to visitors quickly,’ Alexandra explains, ‘but there are lots of more complex materials on display, some that have not been displayed before – and we’ve incorporated the Veterans’ voices.’ Each visitor can choose how deeply they burrow into the Bletchley Park backstory. The unique selling point for the visitor is that it actually happened here’, says Event’s lead designer on the Bletchley Park restoration project, Steve Lumby. ‘Visitors will immediately feel that they’re standing in the place where thousands of people deciphered everything the German war machine was doing and kept it a secret for 30 years – and some for even longer than that.’ James is keen to reaffirm another key aim: making clear Bletchley Park’s continued relevance in the modern world. ‘One of the things we are seeking to do is allow people of all ages to understand the connections that Bletchley Park can make to different points in history, something we’ve hoped to achieve with the Cyber Security exhibition.’
© Event Communications LTD
Working with KOC Architects, Event Communications have overseen the project to bring Bletchley Park into the 21st Century. It is vast and storytelling is key. Event’s work comprises the Cyber Security exhibition in Block C as well as an introductory exhibition giving context to the Bletchley Park story. Huts 3 and 6 are being refurbished to capture their unique wartime environment, and Hut 8’s interactive displays will allow visitors to follow the Codebreakers’ mental processes. Displays and soundscapes around the site will add to the recreation of wartime atmosphere.
Hut 11 was first to be completed, expedited by a significant legacy from Veteran Maureen Jones. ‘We got a good response from the Veterans who came to the opening,’ says Alexandra Fitzsimmons, who as Interpreter at Event, is in charge of developing exhibition storylines: ‘If they approve, we’re doing something right!’
42
Bletchley Park Magazine