The Bungalow and attached wall to east and stable range to the south

Cottages for estate staff, now a single dwelling house, with attached stables. Built for Sir Herbert Samuel Leon between 1883 and 1887. Converted in 1938-39 to provide accommodation for the Government Code and Cypher School by Hubert Faulkner, a local builder. Further modifications circa 1990-2000 included the creation of a new west-facing gable at the junction with Fenella and the removal of a brick structure in the rear angle.

Construction and Materials

The Bungalow is built of red brick in Flemish bond above a chamfered plinth of variable height. It has applied timber framing above, painted black, with whitewashed pebbledashed infill panels. The plain red tiled roof has wide spread open eaves, boarded soffit and arcaded bargeboards. Three brick chimneys (one recently removed) have square bases carrying diagonally set brick shafts, with three-course out-stepping heads and red clayware pots. The stable range is built of red brick, with plain tiled roofs and crested ridge tiles.

Plan

The stable range extends from a short return west of the gatehouse on the south side of the stable yard, and runs north enclosing the yard on the west side. It was later extended to terminate at the south gable of The Bungalow at its north end.

Exterior

The Bungalow is one and a half storeys. The east elevation has three-light timber casements to a three-window front and a central gable with decorative bracing in a central panel. A later flat-roofed extension on the west side encompasses the former coal house, now the entrance and breakfast area of the kitchen. A projecting gable on the west side has applied framing to the gable with a late 20th-century casement above two three-light timber casement windows set in cambered openings.

The stable range is single storey. The centre bay has a jettied gable facing the yard, timber framed with pebbledashed infill panels, carried on shaped brackets. A further small gabled dormer opens towards the yard on the south end of this range, perhaps lighting the smithy, the chimney of which is on the rear slope. There are three boarded stable doors and two similar double doors on the ground floor. The garage door below the jettied gable was extended forwards in the early 20th century to accommodate Denniston's Rover. The range is windowless at the rear, but the jettied bay on the east front extends to form a half tile hung gable at the rear. At the north end, a high brick wall extends east to enclose the yard, interrupted at the centre by two tall brick piers with pyramidal stone caps and ball finials (one missing), carrying wrought iron gates. In front of the walls are semicircular bases for railings for the dog kennels.

Interior

The Bungalow was altered in 1938 when split into two dwellings immediately prior to occupation by the Government Code and Cypher School, and has since been extensively altered.

Historical Background

The stable range was originally used as a blacksmith's shop and a range of hunter stables of six loose boxes and four stalls, with a pigeon loft over in the central jettied gable. During the Second World War it was used as garages for VIP vehicles, the central bay built out in 1939 to accommodate Denniston's Rover car. The loft over was used for carrier pigeons, usually flown out through Thurleigh to occupied Europe, for communications from resistance groups.

The group of buildings intimately associated with, and lying to the north of Bletchley Park consists of two ranges of buildings forming the south and west side of the former stable yard, a row of three cottages now forming the north side of the yard, and two estate buildings, now private dwelling houses known as The Bungalow and Fenella, continuing the west range further to the north beyond the north gate. The range of eight loose boxes enclosing the stable yard on the east was demolished in 1937.

Bletchley Park is the successor to Water Hall, a fine mansion built in 1711 by the eminent historian Dr Browne Willis, co-founder of the Society of Antiquaries of London, on land purchased by his ancestor from the second Duke of Buckingham in 1694. The house was demolished in 1798 by Thomas Harrison, steward to Earl Spencer, the then owner. The estate was split up and was bought in 1865 by a descendant, Spencer Harrison, who sold it in the 1870s to a Mr Coleman, who erected a new house, which now forms the rear part of the house now known as Bletchley Park. This was enlarged by a succeeding owner, Samuel Beckham in 1881 who had bought it with 430 acres. The estate however was again sold in 1883 to Herbert Samuel Leon, an eminent stockbroker, financier, company director, later a county councillor, Liberal MP for North Division of Buckinghamshire (1891-1895), newspaper proprietor, successful farmer and a good friend of the Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who frequently stayed at the house. He was created baronet in 1911, and through his local interest and beneficence, the town benefited considerably. Sir Herbert considerably enlarged the house immediately following his purchase, adding an opulent new south front range. The identity of his architect is not known. He also developed ancillary accommodation to the north around a stable yard and his extensive nursery gardens, which included a walled garden and orchid houses. Further buildings on the estate, which at one time had about 200 staff, included the Lodge, built in 1886, Dauphin House (for mechanical and electrical engineer) 1886, the Laundry 1888, Lodge and Pavilion on Buckingham Road 1896-7, a house in School Lane 1899 and the eight Noel Cottages on Church Green Road of 1904. He died in 1926 and Lady Fanny Leon continued to live there and actively support the community until her death in 1938. The estate was then further split up and sold.

After March 1938, with tensions in Europe rising fast following the Austrian Anschluss, the property, then vacant, was identified from a list of available properties by Commander Alastair Denniston of the Ministry of Works as a new dispersal location for the Foreign Office's Code and Cypher School, later renamed GCHQ. The first elements of the organisation, known flippantly as Captain Ridley's Shooting Party, moved in in August 1939. The accommodation in the house was soon insufficient for the rapidly growing organisation, and personnel spilled over into all outbuildings, and a range of hastily erected prefabricated huts.

The organisation, under Rear-Admiral Sinclair, who was later referred to simply as 'C', was equipped with and developed the Enigma electro-mechanical deciphering machines originally designed in the 1920s. The enemy coded messages deciphered here by the 7,000-plus staff were greatly instrumental in the prosecution and successful outcome of the Second World War. The accommodation was soon expanded into a series of huts, a further expansion occurring in response to German expansion into the Balkans and North Africa. The Station was responsible for developing methods to penetrate up to 58 German Enigma codes, and to sift the intelligence, termed top secret ULTRA, for direct transmission to the Prime Minister, Whitehall and to operational field stations, the Special Liaison Units. One of its most significant early successes was the interception of the German Knickebein beam guidance system in June 1940. Later, it became the hub of the Battle of the Atlantic and was able to forewarn accurately the disposition of German defences prior to Operation Overlord. It also identified secret work at Peenemünde and forewarned the V-weapon attacks.