History
The Dollis Hill Estate was formed in the early 19th century, when the Finch family bought up a number of farms in the area to form a single estate. Dollis Hill House itself was built in the 1820s.
The first railway in the area was the Dudding Hill Line, opened in 1875 by the Midland Railway to connect its Midland Main Line and Cricklewood goods yard in the east to other lines to the south-west. The Dudden Hill station on the line closed for passengers in 1902, but the line still carried freight.
Dollis Hill tube station opened on 1 October 1909 as part of the second railway in the area, the Metropolitan Line, now transferred to the Jubilee Line.
In World War I the tank design team responsible for the new Anglo-American or Liberty tank, Mark VIII was located here.
The code-breaking Colossus computer, used at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, was built at the Post Office Research Station in Dollis Hill by a team led by Tommy Flowers. The station was relocated to Martlesham Heath at the end of the 1970s. The Post Office Research Station building has now been converted into 62 flats and is now known as 'Chartwell Court', with an access road called 'Flowers Close'.
The Alternative War Rooms code-named Paddock is located at the Post Office Research Station.
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“History ... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
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