The Post Office Research Station was first established as a separate section of the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific ...

in 1909. In 1921, the Research Station moved to

Dollis Hill Dollis Hill is an area in northwest London, which consists of the streets surrounding the Gladstone Park, London, Gladstone Park. It is served by a London Underground station, Dollis Hill tube station, Dollis Hill, on the Jubilee line, providi ...

, north west

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, initially in ex-army huts. The main permanent buildings at Dollis Hill were opened in 1933 by Prime Minister

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...

. In 1968 it was announced that the station would be relocated to a new centre to be built at

Martlesham Heath Martlesham Heath is a village in Suffolk, England. It is east of Ipswich, This was an ancient area of heathland and latterly the site of Martlesham Heath Airfield. A "new village" was established there in the mid-1970s and this has developed in ...

in Suffolk. This was formally opened on 21 November 1975 by Queen Elizabeth and is today known as Adastral Park. The old Dollis Hill site was released for housing, with the main building converted into a block of luxury flats and an access road named Flowers Close, in honour of

Tommy Flowers Thomas Harold Flowers Order of the British Empire, MBE (22 December 1905 – 28 October 1998) was an English engineer with the British General Post Office. During World War II, Flowers designed and built Colossus computer, Colossus, the world's ...

. Much of the rest of the site contains affordable housing administered by Network Housing.

World War II

In 1943 the world's first programmable electronic computer, Colossus Mark 1, was built by

and his team, followed in 1944 and 1945 by nine Colossus Mark 2s. These were used at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher was the process that enabled the British to read high-level German army messages during World War II. The British Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park decrypted many communications betwee ...

. Dollis Hill also built the predecessor of Colossus the

Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine) Heath Robinson was a machine used by British codebreakers at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park during World War II in cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. This achieved the decryption of messages in the German teleprinter ...

. The Director, Gordon Radley, was also told of the secret Bletchley Park establishment. Members of Flowers' team included Sydney Broadhurst, William W. Chandler, Harry Fensom; and Allen Coombs (who took over for the Mark II version of Colossus).

Paddock A paddock is a small enclosure for horses. In the United Kingdom, this term also applies to a field for a general automobile racing competition, particularly Formula 1. Description The most common design provides an area for exercise and is ofte ...

, a

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

concrete two-level underground bunker, was built in secret in 1939 as an alternative Cabinet War Room underneath a corner of the Dollis Hill site. Its surface building was demolished at some point, later in the post war period.

Research

The first transatlantic radio telephone service (in the 1940s). In 1957

ERNIE Ernie is a masculine given name, frequently a short form (hypocorism) of Ernest, Ernald, Ernesto, or Verner. It may refer to: People * Ernie Accorsi (born 1941), American football executive * Ernie Adams (disambiguation) * Ernie Afaganis ...

(Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) was built for the government's

Premium Bond Premium Bonds is a lottery bond scheme organised by the Government of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom government since 1956. At present it is managed by the government's National Savings and Investments agency. The principle behind Premium ...

lottery, by Sidney Broadhurst's team. In 1971 Samuel Fedida conceived Viewdata and the

Prestel Prestel was the Brand#Brand names and trademark, brand name of a videotex service launched in the UK in 1979 by BT Group#Post Office Telecommunications, Post Office Telecommunications, a division of the British Post Office Limited#History, Po ...

service was launched in 1979.

Notable staff

* John Bray * William W. Chandler * Allen Coombs * Dick Dyott * James H. Ellis * Samuel Fedida * Harry Fensom *

* Gil Hayward * Ralph Archibald Jones. Developed espionage and counter equipment, helped invent the listening devices used for locating buried bomb victims in London and helped devise the standard for telephone systems in Europe. * Arnold Lynch * Frank Morrell * Gordon Radley * Stephanie Shirley * Haakon Sørbye * Eric Speight * Henry John Josephs (H. J. Josephs). Entered the Research Station as a draughtsman but eventually rose to a senior research position being known for his mathematical skills. He was a great admirer of

Oliver Heaviside Oliver Heaviside ( ; 18 May 1850 – 3 February 1925) was an English mathematician and physicist who invented a new technique for solving differential equations (equivalent to the Laplace transform), independently developed vector calculus, an ...

and his work, of which Josephs wrote a monograph on the Heaviside

Operational calculus Operational calculus, also known as operational analysis, is a technique by which problems in Mathematical Analysis, analysis, in particular differential equations, are transformed into algebraic problems, usually the problem of solving a polynomia ...

. Josephs was also involved with the IEE (now

Institution of Engineering and Technology The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is a multidisciplinary professional engineering institution. The IET was formed in 2006 from two separate institutions: the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), dating back to 1871,Engin ...

) in which he presented a number of papers at the Heaviside Centenary Meeting in 1950 and went on to examine, repair and study papers of Oliver Heaviside found under the floorboards of a house in Paignton, Devon, where Oliver Heaviside had once lived. *Captain Bertram S. Cohen (1876 or 1877 - 4th January 1943), O.B.E., Director of Post Office Research Station (? - December 1939). Author of "A Handbook of Telecommunication (Telephony and Telegraphy over wires)", published in 1946 after his death.

References

{{Coord, 51.561629, -0.238401, display=title, format=dms Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Brent General Post Office History of computing History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom 20th century in London 1921 establishments in the United Kingdom 1921 in London