Moving to Cheltenham (part 2)

GCHQ (known as GC&CS until 1946) had spent World War II at Bletchley Park (BP); but this evacuation location was quite unsuitable as a permanent, peacetime, location.

Why GCHQ chose Cheltenham

In April 1946 the department moved to surplus Government buildings at Eastcote in the suburbs of London. Eastcote was only a temporary resting-place (although GCHQ was to stay there longer than it spent at BP). For wartime, GCHQ wanted a location some distance from London, as BP had been.

It was quickly appreciated that it would be best to find a single home which would serve for both war and peace, in order to avoid hasty moves under difficult conditions.

GCHQ needed:

• A large town, to provide housing, recruitment, education and amenities
• Vacant office buildings already owned by the Government
• Space for radio aerials, because it was intended to move two radio stations together with headquarters
• Above all, lots of landlines to support its large communications network

Several possible locations were considered, of which the general Bristol-Bath-Gloucester-Cheltenham area looked the most promising. The specific identification of Cheltenham was the result of private enterprise by a member of the department, who visited the town by chance in September 1947 and found the Benhall buildings, which he was told were soon to be vacated by the Ministry of Pensions.

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