Established 2007 Director Jason Fitzpatrick Phone +44 1223 214446 | Nearest car park On Site Founded 2008 | |
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Location Cambridge, Cambridgeshire Website computinghistory.org.uk Address Rene Court, Coldham's Rd, Cambridge CB1 3EW, UK Hours Open today · 10AM–5PMSaturday10AM–5PMSunday10AM–5PMMondayClosedTuesdayClosedWednesday10AM–5PMThursday10AM–5PMFriday10AM–5PMSuggest an edit Similar Cambridge Museum of Technology, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sci, Museum of Cambridge, Whipple Museum of the Histor, Burwell Museum Profiles | ||
The centre for computing history
The Centre for Computing History is a museum in Cambridge, England, established to create a permanent public exhibition telling the story of the Information Age.
Contents
- The centre for computing history
- Silicon heaven the centre for computing history nostalgia nerd
- History and status
- Activities
- Move to Cambridge
- References
The museum acts as a repository for vintage computers and related artefacts. The museum is open Wednesdays through to Sundays from 10am to 5pm. On display are key items from the early era of computers (and even before) from aging comptometers through the Altair 8800 to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Apple II series. The museum also holds vintage games consoles, peripherals, software and an extensive collection of computer manuals, magazines and other literature.
Silicon heaven the centre for computing history nostalgia nerd
History and status
The Centre is a registered educational charity. It is funded by a combination of sponsors from local business, private individuals and local authorities. Venture capitalist and entrepreneur Hermann Hauser was involved with funding discussions. He became patron of the museum in December 2011, 30 years after the launch of the BBC Micro.
Activities
The Centre for Computing History runs regular educational activities for schools and the general public. These range from programming workshops using 1980s BBC Micros to gaming tours to coding using software like Scratch for the Raspberry Pi.
The centre also loans artefacts for film and TV productions and has helped with props and sets for The IT Crowd, Brits Who Made the Modern World on Channel Five with Peter Snow and in April 2009 produced the Gadget Hall of Fame stand at The Gadget Show Live exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.
The centre collects and preserves historical computing related artefacts and has undertaken a project to preserve the data from the BBC Domesday Project and make it available online. They already have data from both the National Disk and Community Disk online and are currently investigating copyright issues before releasing the URL to the general public.
Move to Cambridge
Plans to relocate the museum to Cambridge, led to a report in October 2011 that negotiations were underway for a site. The museum was informed in June 2012 that planning permission for the new Cambridge site had been granted, subject to complying with current building regulations. The museum moved to a 10,500 sq ft (980 m2) site in Renee Court, Coldham's Road, off Coldham's Lane in the east side of Cambridge in summer 2013. Prior to the move, the museum had been situated in Haverhill, Suffolk.