Davey Winder
Friday, 04 July 2008 18:35
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Which begs the question, if the Museum of Computing is so
successful and such an important technological archive, why has it
closed? Actually make that two questions: will it ever open again?
It would appear to be a combination of two things:
The University of Bath is closing its Oakfield Campus, part of which it
has allowed the museum to use as its base without charge for many
years. Quite simply, the museum has been made homeless.
Relying, as it does, on a team of dedicated volunteers the museum
cannot up sticks and relocate outside the Swindon area. So despite
having been offered a couple of suitable locations which would enable
it to keep open, it has opted not to accept them.
This seems to me to be folly. After all, surely retaining that
technological archive is more important than retaining the same set of
volunteers? Without wishing to diminish the work they have done, the
importance of what they have achieved, the brutal truth is that new
volunteers can always be found no matter the location.
And so it is that the British are left without a national museum of
computing. What's more, unless the curator, Simon Webb, finds the
museum a new home within 18 months the future of the collection itself
is in doubt. Because that is how long he has been given the use of the
office space where the exhibits are in temporary storage.
Is there an alternative in the new National Museum of Computing, housed
in the historic Bletchley Park with its connections to wartime code
breaking? Read on to find out...
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