DTELS - Headquarters (CCE Harrow Page 5 of 5)


	image library > headquarters >


	CCE HARROW


	page (5 of 5)

1 2 3 4 5

Antenna & Sites
Depots
Equipment
Fire Service
Headquarters
Maintenance Units
Outstations
Police Service

CCE Harrow
Cowley
Exhibitions
HQ Events
People & Places
MPG Reunion
HQ Ruddington
Vehicles
Weedon

Station Z

Directorate of Telecommunications
HEADQUARTERS; CCE Harrow
By: Steven R Cole

Introduction
This section contains a collection of scanned photographs relating to groups or activities associated with Central Communications Establishment (CCE) Harrow and were taken during the 1970’s.

from an anonymous Kodak worker
11th February 2011

“I work at Kodak and was reading about CCE Harrow with interest.

The site of the building is now within the boundaries of Kodak and is known as the Home Office site. It is still as it was when the building was demolished and the area is used for storage by contractors.

The basement levels however, are still accessible albeit when drained as they are usually flooded almost to ground level.

The entrance gates are at the end of Hailsham Drive and are now disused”

Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the following people who sent in their photographs:

Eric Davies (Page 1)
Margaret Stephens (Page 1)
David Waspe (Pages 1 and 2)
Martin Swift (Pages 3 and 4)
Chris Sturgeon and Clive Wankling (Page 4)
Alan Copperwaite(Page 5)

page updated: 20/11/13

Click on appropriate thumbnail to view the enlarged image

from Alan Copperwaite 4th March 2006
“The pictures have been taken to the best of my recollection as to where CCE was located.

Wealdstone High Street is now almost unrecognisable by the presence of a new flyover carrying traffic from Harrow through to the Uxbridge Road and the original Wealdstone High Street and Headstone Drive (the road from which CCE was accessed) being only accessible by a one-way system of Byzantine complexity.

Originally the route to CCE was adjacent to the very large Kodak factory, turn off Headstone Drive nearly up to the main entrance of the HMSO factory, then the road bore right alongside the long length of the factory up to CCE at the end, which was slightly elevated above the HMSO factory level. This of course has now all disappeared. In place of the HMSO factory is now a new Crown Court and the road to the side of this goes into the Waverly Industrial estate which makes up the remainder of the original HMSO factory area and CCE. This road is now called Hailsham Drive. See also the appropriate named Cafe opposite the Crown Court. If only teacups had ears!

My best approximation of where CCE used to stand in the industrial estate is picture “P7 of 8” which is now occupied mainly by Racal industrial units. Interestingly Streetmap.co.uk still shows in that location a building that had the same shape as CCE but as you can see it is not there now.

Looking from across the railway line from Cecil Road as per the original Time Out article, the only two identifiers seem to be the original white Kodak factory chimney (still there after all these years) and the railway overhead line gantry. My best guess therefore is that CCE location from across the railway seen in “P2 of 8” is the best approximation for the original Time Out picture, which puts CCE slightly overlapping or to the left of the big warehouse that dominates the picture. Despite wandering around for a bit of time (without rousing a security alarm!) I could unfortunately see practically nothing that would lead a clue to the fact that CCE or indeed the HMSO building were ever there.

Whilst in the area I also went up to Harrow Weald a few hundred feet high spot above Harrow where from the picture “P8 of 8” you can make out the Kodak factory chimneys and the industrial estate with Harrow-on-the-Hill in background. This site was in my time a very good location for testing out the far-field radiation patterns of antennas that we evaluated at CCE and also any low power line of sight transmitters we wanted to test.”


	Unless otherwise stated, material and web design used within this site is copyright of Steven R. Cole - All Rights Reserved ©2013


	Site Contributers and Acknowledgement