Museum of Computing gets a new home in Swindon

The Museum of Computing has been given a new lease of life thanks to a three year lease on new premises from the Swindon Borough Council.

The UK's first dedicated computer museum was facing eviction in April last year and was forced to shut down in the Spring, but now has a new home just 30 metres from the town's brand new Central Library.

The news is welcome relief to the museum's founder Jeremy Holt, who campaigned for thirteen years to get the Museum of Computing off the ground in 2002.

"Our last venue in the University of Bath was very difficult to get to without a car," explained Holt.

"The Council's new offer puts the Museum in the heart of the town in a prominent place near bus routes. It will be good for the town because the collection of 2,500 items demonstrating Britain's role in the advances of technology has attracted worldwide interest."

According to Holt, the museum gets around 2,000 visitors a year from over 40 different countries and the new location should help bolster local interest as well.

"We're also delighted the three year lease means the Museum can apply for professional accreditation by the Museums and Libraries Association," he added.

The new Museum of Computing will have considerably more display space to house the main exhibition and themed exhibitions which change twice a year. Furthermore, the success of previous gaming exhibitions means there will be a whole section dedicated to 30 years of video game history, with 80 per cent of the collection in working order.

Although this is great news for the Museum and its supporters, it follows the announcement that another of the UK's computing landmarks, Bletchley Park, has had a bid to gain funding from the government turned down, despite its huge historical significance and winning the recent Wickes Building with Pride competition.

There seems to be a massive disconnect between desire and reality in this environment. When the Museum's closure was announced last year, the website received over 56,000 hits in 48 hours and newspapers were flooded with letters, but clearly the Museum wasn't being given the actual support it needed in the first place.

While it can be easy to be nostalgic about computers and their history, it can be difficult to fully appreciate the significance of the first semiconductor when last week's mobile phone is already shunned as an out-of-date brick.

Although it's still very young, technology plays an increasingly integral part of all our daily lives, and the speed at which it evolves and the culture of obsolescence that surrounds it means that we seem to be at great risk of losing our connection with its history and development.

The Museum is currently planning its special events calendar and particularly wants to hear from IT companies who can give talks about different aspects of computing, as well as schools, whose visits could focus on curriculum areas such as ICT, mathematics, design and technology, business studies and 20th Century social history.

I would strongly recommend that anyone who has even a passing interest in technology, how it evolved and how it has shaped our lives to head down to Swindon and check out the Museum of Computing, you won't be disappointed and you'll help ensure that an increasingly important part of our society is not just relegated to the textbooks.

22 May 2009