Post Office Research Station

The former Post Office Research Station

The Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill, London, was first established in 1925 and opened by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald in 1933.

In 1943 the world's first programmable electronic computer, Colossus Mark 1 was built by Tommy Flowers and his team, followed in 1944 and 1945 by nine Colossus Mark 2s. These were used at Bletchley Park in Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher.

In 1957 ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) was built for the government's Premium Bond lottery, by Sidney Broadhurst's team.

In 1971 Samuel Fedida conceived Viewdata and the Prestel service was launched in 1979.

In 1968 it was announced that the station would be relocated to a new centre to be built at Martlesham Heath. It was formally opened on 21 November 1975 by Queen Elizabeth and is today known as Adastral Park. The old site was released for housing, with the main building converted into a block of flats and an access road named Flowers Close, in honour of Tommy Flowers.

Paddock, a two storey World War II concrete citadel, was built underneath the Dollis Hill site.

Notable staff

• John Bray
• William W. Chandler
• Allen Coombs
• Dick Dyott
• James H. Ellis
• Samuel Fedida
• Harry Fensom
• Tommy Flowers
• Gil Hayward
• Ralph Archibald Jones Worked at The GPO Research Station at Dollis Hill. Developed espionage and counter equipment, helped invent the listening devices used for locating buried bomb victims in London and helped devise the standard for telephone systems in Europe.
• Arnold Lynch
• Frank Morrell
• Gordon Radley
• Stephanie Shirley
• Haakon Sørbye
• Eric Speight
• Henry John (H J) Josephs worked at the GPO Research Station at Dollis Hill. He entered the Research Station as a draughtsman but eventually rose to a senior research position being known for his mathematical skills. He was a great admirer of Oliver Heaviside and his work, of which Josephs wrote a monograph on the Heaviside Operational calculus. Josephs was also involved with the IEE (now Institution of Engineering and Technology) in which he presented a number of papers at the Heaviside Centenary Meeting in 1950 and went on to examine, repair and study papers of Oliver Heaviside found under the floorboards of a house in Paignton, Devon where Oliver Heaviside had once lived.