The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park will open its doors for free this September as part of Heritage Open Days. On 12, 13, and 15 September, 25 free tickets will be available each day to explore the world’s largest collection of working historic computers.
Visitors can book up to two tickets per reservation, with advance booking essential via Eventbrite. The museum, housed in Block H on the Bletchley Park estate, opens from 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM during the festival. Exhibits span wartime codebreaking—including Colossus, the first programmable electronic computer—to the machines that shaped modern digital life.
Heritage Open Days, England’s largest festival of history and culture, runs from 11 to 20 September. Coordinated by the National Trust and backed by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, it offers thousands of free experiences nationwide. The National Museum of Computing has taken part before, including a similar free-ticket arrangement during the 2025 festival.
Located at Block H, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes MK3 6GX, the museum sits on the site where Alan Turing and his team cracked the Enigma code. Later this month, Colossus computers will receive an IEEE Milestone honour at a ceremony on 29 September, coinciding with the 2026 Tony Sale Award for Computer Conservation.
About this article: This story was put together with the help of AI tools and checked by a real person on our team. We're a small crew trying to cover as much of the UK as we can on a limited budget. We're getting better every day - but we're not perfect yet. If something looks off, let us know. You're part of the process.
