Bletchley Park, a mansion estate in the town of Bletchley near Milton Keynes, has a place in history for its breakthroughs in codebreaking and information technology during the Second World War. An impressive 10,000 men and women worked in the wider Bletchley Park organisation, all of whom signed the Official Secrets Act upon their arrival, making this one of history’s best-kept secrets.
When wartime information became declassified in the mid-1970s, stories from this forgotten past slowly crept into the limelight. Today, Bletchley Park is a charity-funded heritage attraction and museum that recognises and acknowledges the achievements that took place during World War Two, and, thanks to the restoration work and vision of those working there, showcases how and why these historical breakthroughs remain relevant today.
Thanks to the UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund, a Bletchley Park restoration project began in 2012. The site is being revitalised by a ten-year plan to continue its transformation and further engage with the public – 250,000 of whom visit on average each year.
To help raise awareness of its remarkable stories, Bletchley Park decided to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in 2019 with the opening of a new exhibition designed to reveal the role played by Bletchley codebreakers around the 1944 landings in Normandy, France. In 2016, PLB Projects Ltd, a specialist in creative museum design and strategic heritage services, was appointed as the main contractor for the design and build of the D-Day exhibition. PLB partnered with digital media maker Centre Screen, specialist fit-out contractor The Hub, and AV and multimedia specialists D J Willrich Ltd, transforming this into a fully integrated project.
The exhibition, located in Bletchley Park’s Teleprinting Building, presented a challenge for installation, as this part of the estate was also undergoing significant restoration. The exhibition needed to cover two spaces. The first was an introductory gallery, focusing on the lead up to the D-Day landings on 6th June 1944. The second was a timed immersive, cinematic experience that brought together the full impact of the intelligence provided by Bletchley Park.
Source: Bletchley Park’s multi-screen curved projection wall