A war-time home for new communication technologies
The Cabinet War Rooms
Running along the outer wall of the 'New Public Offices' runs an edge of the solid concrete apron put in place to limit bomb damage to the Cabinet War Rooms below during the Second World War.
A temporary shelter from the Blitz
The New Public Offices (now home to the Treasury) was well placed between Downing Street and Parliament Square. At the start of the Second World War the military planners decided to adapt the building as a temporary refuge from the Blitz for the government and for the military staff responsible for the strategy of the war.
Code name SIGSALY
An old broom cupboard was home for the first telephone hotline between Prime Minister Churchill and the President of the United States.
Until the Bell Telephones came up with their new Sigsaly technology in 1943, there was no truly secure scrambler. Sigsaly provided the Prime Minister and the US President with an entirely secure line which, according to one historian was tapped, but which was never deciphered
At this time computers were very large. The London terminal of the new 'Sigsaly' system was so large that it had to be installed in a basement of Selfridges department store in Oxford Street. Partially coded telephone conversations were transmitted by cable from the 'hot-line' to the Selfridges site where they were fully enciphered and sent by radio to President Roosevelt in Washington.
Submitted by: Jo Hunt, 16 January 2007
