Trent Park House of Secrets, a new museum dedicated to Britain's wartime intelligence operations, has opened to the public in north London.
Located in a historic country house within the 413-acre Trent Country Park in Enfield, the museum explores both the interwar social world of Sir Philip Sassoon and a covert wartime intelligence operation.
Before World War Two, Trent Park was the residence of Sassoon, who hosted political figures and the royal family, and was a close friend of the future Edward VIII and Winston Churchill.
When Sassoon died, the country house was requisitioned by the government as a centre for intelligence operations.
Trent Park House of Secrets is located in a historic country house within the 413-acre Trent Country Park in Enfield
Senior German officers were held captive in Trent Park, comparable in importance to Bletchley Park, while their conversations were recorded through a secret network of miniature bugging devices.
In hidden basement rooms, teams of 'secret listeners', mostly German-speaking Jewish refugees, recorded and translated all of the conversations and produced crucial military intelligence.
"For decades the story of Trent Park has been hidden in plain sight," said Giuseppe Albano, director of Trent Park House of Secrets.
"Many people were aware that something unusual had happened here during the war, but its full significance only became clear much later, and that is what makes it such a compelling place to explore today.
"We are opening the house with many secrets to share, and there will be more to discover in the years ahead as the story of Trent Park continues to unfold."
Comedian, writer and trustee Helen Lederer, whose grandfather was a secret listener, said: "The fact that my grandfather was a secret listener was a secret he took to the grave.
"It means so much that this chapter of little-known history can be told through the museum. To imagine what the secret listeners may have felt as they listened to the captive generals upstairs is as important as it is humbling."
Images courtesy of Trent Park House of Secrets
