UK Museum of Computing shuts up shop and puts history into storage

Davey Winder
Friday, 04 July 2008 17:35

Your IT - Home IT

“We’ve had some offers to relocate, but we desperately want to stay in Swindon,” Webb said, concluding “We always thought it was the right place for the museum because of the technology in the location.” By which he means the presence of both Intel and Motorola in the area, earning it the nickname of Silicon Gorge.

What Simon does not mention, and which could have a real bearing on the future of the museum, is the fact that a new National Museum of Computing is being built within the truly historic setting of Bletchley Park. The museum is being located within Block H, most famous for being built in 1944 to house the world's very first digital computers known as Colossus. Code breaking computers which, most experts would agree, helped determine the outcome of the Second World War.

With this history behind it, as well as the support of the British Computer Society and the Codes And Ciphers Heritage Trust, it looks like the new museum has everything going for it. Exhibits will follow the development of computing itself right from those Colossus machines in the 1940s through to the mainframes of the early 1970s and out the other side of the 1980s personal computing revolution. Eventually there will be dedicated permanent exhibits covering everything from gaming to super computing.

Perhaps then, the sensible thing would be to not relocate the UK Museum of Computing at all, but rather just relocate the exhibits. Donating the exhibits to the national Museum of Computing would ensure that they get the public exposure they deserve, rather than just end up gathering dust in storage.