Bletchley Park House

Bletchley Park House, Bletchley Park, Sherwood Drive, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1125409
Date first listed:: 10-May-1990
List Entry Name:: Bletchley Park House
Statutory Address:: Bletchley Park House, Bletchley Park, Sherwood Drive, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB

User submitted image — Uploaded by David Lovell This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 1999-09-02
Reference:: IOE01/00976/27
Rights:: © Mr Nick Jarvis. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1125409
Date first listed:: 10-May-1990
List Entry Name:: Bletchley Park House
Statutory Address 1:: Bletchley Park House, Bletchley Park, Sherwood Drive, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Bletchley Park House, Bletchley Park, Sherwood Drive, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Milton Keynes (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: West Bletchley
National Grid Reference:: SP 86390 33873

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 28/09/2020

SP 8633-8733 4/82 SHERWOOD DRIVE Bletchley Park Bletchley Park House

(Formerly listed as Bletchley Park House, WILTON AVENUE)

II Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-86 and c1906 for Sir Herbert Samuel Leon, a Jewish financier, Liberal party politician, and prominent Rationalist.

Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung; Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to gables.

Large rambling house, of two storeys with partial attic. Entrance elevation: six bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including architraves. Entrance in bay two has internal, vaulted, porch protecting panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which flank base of four-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting from porch, and attached to it are two seated griffins on bracketed plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay one has projecting two storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single storey wooden conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia. Paired, gabled, bays two and three have ashlar framed triple window to ground floor with gableted buttresses, and two canted bay windows over. Across bay four is three bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate panelled double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted first floor window. Bay six has polygonal two storey bay window with shaped pediments screening finialed polygonal roof.

Right return: three left-hand bays in same style as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like structure: octagonal, of two stages, having plinth; inserted ground floor windows; ashlar upper stage with two-light windows below string; and plain tile roof with gablets and finial.

Rear: plainer having tradesmen's entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date (former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front, with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays two and three decorative half-timbered first floor; shaped pediment to bay four; and former loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays.

Interior: high quality, elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall and panelled area beyond with elaborate two-stage, columned, ashlar fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof. Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground floor arcade and deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair; fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to stair panelled stair well. Library: elaborate wooden Jacobethan inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze; compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom: linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room: brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors, plasterwork and cornices to first floor.

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of the important visitors to the house.

Information about the building's former appearance from photographs in the building.

Listing NGR: SP8639033873

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 45454
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.