Thursday, July 16, 2009

Is this the most important wooden structure in the world?

In Kate Muir's nice piece in The Times for National Shed Week, she spoke to Simon Greenish, directof of the Bletchley Park Trust, since Hut 6 at Bletchley won the 'hut' category in Shed of the Year. This of course is the hut in which the Enigma code was broken, one of the turning points in the Second World War. Greenish was obviously, and quite rightly, bullish about the hut's history, saying: "Hut 6 is perhaps the most important wooden structure in the world.” It's a bold claim and I wondered what other readers thought?
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4 comments:

  1. Buildings can serve to "mark the spot" where history was made but it is not always the building that is significant.... such as "Hut 6". Buildings, like people have lives and I think it was Neil Harris who wrote that buildings are not really complete until they are torn down. Such thinking makes people uncomfortable of course. I'm always suspect of such terms as "most" or "best". Qualification is always required.... in what way or what does it represent? Does the humble Hut6 explain the significance of breaking the code better than a marker plaque on a post? Was it the "best" building in which to break the code? It certainly is a building "of its time" and of very common origin. r.montena

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  2. God Alex you ask such difficult questions

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  3. paul at Roomworks10:35 PM

    ...---... !

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  4. I must admit that although this was the building in which the enigma code was broken, r.montena's post captures my views as well, as it is significant only in what happened inside and not the structure itself that is of historical significance.

    As I am not familiar with the Bletchley Park area, and have no knowledge of the buildings there or their age, for me it just as well that a plaque be erected and the space used for something of more value to those in the present.

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