| Summary : Site of RAF Eastcote, also known as RAF Lime Grove. It was to be used as a military hospital however, the buildings were not required and instead became barracks for Navy Wrens and known as HMS Pembroke V.In late 1943 the site was established as a Bombe outstation to Bletchley Park Code and Cipher School (Monument HOB UID 1222785), known as Outstation Eastcote 'OSE' . The outstations Wavendon (Monument HOB UID 1535472), Adstock (HOB UID 1535589), Gayhurst (HOB UID 344934) and Stanmore (HOB UID 1535542) operated Bombe machines used in the breaking of the German Enigma Code. By the end of the war the outstations housed over 200 Bombes. It was the largest bombe outstations housing 80 Bombes. At the end of the War the outstation closed and in April 1946 became the home of the Government Code and Cypher School which had transferred from Bletchley Park. It was renamed Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).In 1947 the site was purchased by the Crown and the buildings were used by the General Post Office and GCHQ. The United States Air Force established a non-flying base at RAF South Ruislip in 1949 and during the 1950s a school for the children of American service personnel was established on the Eastcote site. Between July 1952 and February 1954 GCHQ relocated to purpose-built buildings in Cheltenham. The site comprised of four spider block buildings, the earliest of which, Block 1, had been erected by April 1942 for an unknown purpose. Construction on Block 2 and the northern part of Block 3 had started in late 1943 to accommodate code-breaking machinery and the naval operators respectively. In April 1946 Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) moved to this site and the remainder of Blocks 3 and 4 were erected in 1947, for GCHQ. The site was sold for redevelopment in 2007 and demolished in 2008. It is now occupied by a housing development named Pembroke Park. |