Post Office Research Station

The former Post Office Research Station

The former Post Office Research Station, 2012

ThePost Office Research Stationwas first established as a separate section of theGeneral Post Officein 1909.

In 1921, the Research Station moved toDollis Hill,north westLondon,initially in ex-army huts.

The main permanent buildings at Dollis Hill were opened in 1933 by Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald.

In 1968 it was announced that the station would be relocated to a new centre to be built atMartlesham Heathin Suffolk. This was formally opened on 21 November 1975 byQueen Elizabethand is today known asAdastral 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 ofTommy Flowers.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,ColossusMark 1, was built byTommy Flowersand his team, followed in 1944 and 1945 by nine Colossus Mark 2s. These were used atBletchley ParkinCryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher.Dollis Hill also built the predecessor of Colossus theHeath Robinson (codebreaking machine).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;andAllen Coombs(who took over for the Mark II version of Colossus).

Paddock,aWorld War IIconcrete 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 after the war.

Research

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

In 1957ERNIE(Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) was built for the government'sPremium Bondlottery, by Sidney Broadhurst's team.

In 1971Samuel FedidaconceivedViewdataand thePrestelservice was launched in 1979.

Notable staff

• John Bray
• William W. Chandler
• Allen Coombs
• Dick Dyott
• James H. Ellis
• Samuel Fedida
• Harry Fensom
• Tommy Flowers
• 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 ofOliver Heavisideand his work, of which Josephs wrote a monograph on the HeavisideOperational calculus.Josephs was also involved with theIEE(nowInstitution of Engineering and Technology) 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.