01/06/2021
Tour must be booked in advance, but available 7 days a week.
Meet in the hotel lobby of University Arms, Cambridge.
Alan Turing was the founding father of computer science and a hero of the Second World War for his work at Bletchley Park, Britain’s ‘Ultra Intelligence’ centre, where his team cracked the code of Nazi Germany’s Enigma machine and intercepted messages that led to Allied victories in many theatres of war.
This walk-and-talk is led by Anthony Rodgers, Life Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Hughes Hall, who in his 50 years in the city has not only earned his degree and won three rugby blues, but managed the University’s estate and buildings and coached the University rugby team. Anthony’s enthusiasm is infectious, and he discretely shares some of the many secrets that have made Cambridge one of the most influential cities in the world.
Focusing on Turing’s dramatic life before, during and after his studies at Cambridge – where he graduated from King’s College with a degree in mathematics and became a Fellow in 1935 – the tour also covers Cambridge’s long history of code-breaking and intelligence work. Learn about the Elizabethan court astronomer, John Dee (a founding Fellow of Trinity College and the first ‘007’); Sir Francis Walsingham (Elizabeth I’s ‘Spy-Master General’); and Turing’s Bletchley Park colleagues – Gordon Welchman (who developed the ‘traffic analysis’ intelligence-gathering technique that most recently located Osama Bin Laden) and Bill Tutte (who cracked the Lorenz Code).
Book your place
Tickets £80 for a private tour.
For reservations, please contact our Concierge team on concierge@universityarms.com.
Tour is approximately 1 hour and suitable for all levels of walking ability. The route takes in the historic centre past the Cavendish Laboratory, The Eagle pub, Alan Turing plaque on King’s Parade, King’s College, and Trinity College.