The Doughnut

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The Doughnut

Gloucestershire


An aerial view of The Doughnut
Type: Office
Location
Grid reference: SO91542234
Location: 51°53’58"N, 2°7’28"W
Town: Cheltenham
History
Address: Hubble Road
Built 2000-2003
By: Chris Johnson
Material: Steel, concrete, glass
and Cotswold stone
Office
Structural expressionism
Information
Owned by: HM Government
Website: www.gchq.gov.uk

"The Doughnut" is the nickname given to the headquarters of the Government Communications Headquarters (known as GCHQ), the government cryptography and intelligence agency. It is located on a site of 176 acres in Benhall, in the suburbs of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.[1][2] The Doughnut houses 5,500 employees; GCHQ is the largest single employer in Gloucestershire.[1][2][3] Built to modernise and consolidate GCHQ's multiple buildings in Cheltenham, The Doughnut was completed in 2003, and GCHQ moved into the building in 2004.[4] It is the largest building constructed for secret intelligence operations outside the United States.[5]

After the building was completed, it was found still to be too small for the number of staff and a second building in a secret and undisclosed location in the 'Gloucestershire area' now also accommodates staff from GCHQ.

The Doughnut is surrounded by car and bicycle parking in concentric rings, and is well protected by security.

The building is modern in design and built primarily from steel, aluminium, and stone. GCHQ management aspired for the building to be as well known internationally as The Pentagon in the United States.[6]

Background

The construction of the Doughnut in 2003 consolidated the operations previously spread across two sites into a single location, replacing more than 50 buildings in the process.[1] The last staff from the nearby GCHQ site at Oakley were transferred to the Doughnut in late 2011.[7]

The design of the Doughnut reflects GCHQ's intended new mode of work after the end of the Cold War, with its design facilitating talking among staff, and between them and the Director of GCHQ and his subordinates.[1] It was estimated that anyone in the building could reach any other worker within five minutes.[1] The director of GCHQ has no office; in 2014 director Iain Lobban described his desk as being located "within the shouting distance of lawyers".[3]

The Doughnut from Leckhampton Hill

The building was designed by the British architect Chris Johnson for the American architectural firm Gensler, and constructed and built by Carillion.[8]

The creation of the Doughnut was the largest private finance initiative project to date for the British government,[1] and costs escalated alarmingly far beyond original estimates, as these things do, bringing the impotent wrath of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee upon the project..[9][10]

For security reasons, GCHQ moved its own computers and technical infrastructure to the Doughnut, which caused the cost of its move to increase from £41m to £450m over two years.[9] The moves of MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service to new buildings had also cost more than three times their original estimates due to issues with transferring computers.[11] The final cost of GCHQ's move to their new headquarters was more than seven times the original estimate.[10]

Design

The Doughnut is divided into three separate four-storey structures, identical in design and connected at the top and bottom.[1][12] With a total floor area of 1,500,000 square feet, the building contains two circular blocks, internally divided by a "street" covered in glass.[1][12] Construction materials were primarily steel, aluminium, and stone, particularly granite and local limestone from the Cotswolds; designers incorporated recycled materials in the steelwork and the construction of desks.[1] The design of the Doughnut was subsequently nominated for an award to "highlight improvements to the built and landscaped environment" given by Cheltenham's Civic Society.[13]

A circular walkway named "The Street" runs throughout the building.[14] An open-air garden courtyard lies in the middle of the Doughnut; this garden is large enough to contain the Royal Albert Hall.[15] The courtyard has a memorial to GCHQ staff who have been killed on active service; some five staff died in the War in Afghanistan.[3] Below the garden are banks of supercomputers.[1] The Doughnut is 70 feet high and 600 feet in diameter.[15] Individual spaces in the Doughnut include the 24/7/365 area where people working in "small 12-hour shifts monitor GCHQ systems and news bulletins."[3] The 'Action On' programme enables the 24/7/365 staff to act "quickly and freely" to supply information to British armed forces to help their operations.[3] The Doughnut's Internet Ops Centre (INOC), is where "the best technical capabilities [are matched] with the most urgent operational requirements" according to Charles Moore who visited the Doughnut in 2014 for The Daily Telegraph.[3]

The structure of the Doughnut is designed to minimise any potential effect of a fire or a terrorist attack on the building; it also includes independent power generators which can supply power to the facilities in an emergency.[1] About 1,850 miles of fibre optics were installed in the Doughnut by British Telecom, and about 6,000 miles of electrical wiring were used in the building.[1]

The Doughnut is surrounded by car and bicycle parking in concentric rings, guarded by a six-foot metal fence and half a dozen vehicle checkpoints.[15][2] The Doughnut is served by an underground road.[15]

Facilities available to staff at the Doughnut include a 600-seat restaurant, shops, a gym, and a prayer or quiet room.[1] Exhibits from the history of GCHQ are displayed throughout the building, including the radios used by the Portland Spy Ring.[14]

History

The Doughnut was officially opened in 2004 by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.[16]

The Doughnut has twice been visited by Charles, Prince of Wales, since its opening.[17] Charles was accompanied by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in 2011, on his second visit.[17]

It was found when the Doughnut was completed, that it was already too small for the number of GCHQ staff, since GCHQ had undergone a huge expansion in consequence of the terrorist attacks on New York in 2001:[5] staff numbered almost 6,500 by 2008.[5] The addition of a two-storey office block and a three-storey car park to the Doughnut was proposed in 2008, but eventually suspended in 2011.[18] The new buildings were intended to facilitate the arrival of 800 staff from GCHQ's former site at Oakley.[18] Though it was initially felt that the Doughnut would be adequate for the new staff, 600 contractors working on technical projects for GCHQ were eventually relocated in a secret undisclosed building in the 'Gloucestershire area'.[18] The parking of cars by GCHQ staff on residential roads has caused 'annoyance' among local residents in Benhall.[18] It was believed that the arrival of new staff may have further affected local parking but GCHQ stated the presence of the new employees would have been offset by redundancies.[18]

Access

The building and its grounds are a 'protected site' for the purposes of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, so it is a criminal offence for a person to trespass into the site. Access to the Doughnut is rarely granted to representatives from the media, but it was visited for the March 2010 BBC Radio 4 documentary GCHQ: Cracking the Code,[14] by Charles Moore for an interview with GCHQ director Iain Lobban for The Daily Telegraph in October 2014,[3] and by historian and writer Ben Macintyre who visited the Doughnut for a series of articles for The Times in October 2015 in anticipation of the draft Investigatory Powers Bill.[19]

See also

The three other headquarters of British intelligence agencies:

  • The SIS Building – Headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service (known as MI6)
  • Thames House – Headquarters of the Security Service (known as MI5)
  • Northwood Headquarters and Ministry of Defence Main Building - Headquarters' of Defence Intelligence

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Government Communications Headquarters)

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Richard Norton-Taylor (10 June 2003). "The Doughnut, the less secretive weapon in the fight against international terrorism". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/10/terrorism.Whitehall. Retrieved 15 December 2013. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Tom Whitworth (11 August 2011). "Inside the UK's top secret GCHQ base in Cheltenham". BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/14589956. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Charles Moore (11 October 2014). "GCHQ: 'This is not Blitz Britain. We sure as hell can't lick terrorism on our own'". The Daily Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11154322/GCHQ-This-is-not-Blitz-Britain.-We-sure-as-hell-cant-lick-terrorism-on-our-own.html. Retrieved 11 October 2014. 
  4. ↑ "Working environment". GCHQ. http://www.gchq.gov.uk/how_we_work/running_the_business/Pages/Working-environment.aspx. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Aldrich 2011, p. 9
  6. ↑ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1374817/Plans-for-new-GCHQ-go-on-view-to-public.html
  7. ↑ Steve Knibbs (21 December 2011). "A final look at GCHQ's top secret Oakley site in Cheltenham". BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-16290383. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  8. ↑ "GCHQ". Carillion – GCHQ. Carillion. http://www.carillionplc.com/media/3827/_gchq_.pdf. Retrieved 4 August 2014. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "MPs condemn spiraling GCHQ costs". BBC News. 15 June 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/3807237.stm. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "GCHQ criticised for huge move overspend". BBC News. 16 July 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/3069501.stm. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  11. ↑ Aldrich 2011, p. 497
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ)". Gensler. http://m.gensler.com/project/government-communication-headquarters-gchq?market=civic-government. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  13. ↑ "Beautiful buildings to be nominated for awards". Gloucestershire Echo. 13 October 2011. http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Beautiful-buildings-nominated-awards/story-13542304-detail/story.html. Retrieved 11 July 2014. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Mark Savage (29 March 2010). "Inside GCHQ: 'Caution: Here comes the BBC'". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8589664.stm. Retrieved 28 December 2013. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 'Fresh 'doughnut' for GCHQ office;: Bryony Jones on BBC News, 22 June 2003
  16. ↑ "GCHQ gets Royal visit at London office". Gloucestershire Echo. 30 November 2013. http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/GCHQ-gets-Royal-visit-London-office/story-20244490-detail/story.html. Retrieved 11 July 2014. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Prince Charles and Camilla visit GCHQ in Cheltenham". BBC News. 3 March 2011. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-12623275. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 "GCHQ plans shelved as new site for staff identified". Gloucestershire Echo. 14 August 2011. http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/GCHQ-plans-shelved-new-site-staff-identified/story-13131141-detail/story.html. Retrieved 11 July 2014. 
  19. ↑ Macintyre, Ben (28 October 2015). "For your eyes only". The Times (71740): p. 1. 
  • Aldrich, Robert J: 'GCHQ' (Harper Press, 2011) ISBN 978-0-00-731266-5
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