The Doughnut

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. 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. In 2004, Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, criticised the increasing cost of GCHQ's move to the Doughnut. Leigh said that "It was astonishing GCHQ did not realise the extent of what would be involved much sooner". For security reasons, GCHQ moved its own computers and technical infrastructure to the Doughnut, which caused the cost of its move to increase from £41 million to £450 million over two years. HM Treasury paid £216 million toward a newly agreed budget of £308 million, having initially refused to finance the original high figure. The final cost of GCHQ's move to their new headquarters was more than seven times the original estimate. The complexity of the computer network at GCHQ was responsible for the increase in costs. Issues with the network were found while preparing computers for the 'Millennium bug'. Simply shutting down each computer individually before restarting them in the Doughnut would have left GCHQ unable to complete key intelligence work for two years, while moving their electronics according to the original schedule without "unacceptable damage" to intelligence gathering would cost £450 million. In a review of GCHQ's move in 2003, the National Audit Office (NAO) said government ministers might never have approved the consolidation of facilities had the final cost been known. ==Design==

, 2010 The Doughnut is divided into three separate four-storey structures, identical in design, and connected at the top and bottom. With a total floor area of , the building contains two circular blocks, internally divided by a 'street' covered in glass. A circular walkway named The Street runs throughout the building. An open-air garden courtyard lies in the middle of the Doughnut; this garden is large enough to contain the Royal Albert Hall. The courtyard has a memorial to GCHQ staff who have been killed on active service; some five staff died in the War in Afghanistan. Below the garden are banks of supercomputers. The Doughnut is high and in diameter. Individual spaces in the Doughnut include the GCHQ archive holding 16 million historical artefacts, and the 24/7 operations centre where people working in "small 12-hour shifts monitor GCHQ systems and news bulletins." The 'Action On' programme enables the 24/7 staff to act "quickly and freely" to supply information to British Armed Forces to help their operations. The Doughnut's internet operations 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. 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. About of fibre optics were installed in the Doughnut by British Telecom, and about of electrical wiring were used in the building. The Doughnut is surrounded by car and bicycle parking in concentric rings, guarded by a two-metre metal fence and half a dozen vehicle checkpoints. The Doughnut is served by an underground road. Facilities available to staff at the Doughnut include a 600-seat restaurant, cafes, shops, a gymnasium, and a prayer or quiet room. Exhibits from the history of GCHQ are displayed throughout the building, including the radios used by the Portland spy ring. ==History==

Doughnut The Doughnut was officially opened in 2004 by Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh. In 2008, the then Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, visited the Doughnut and praised the staff working there in a speech. The Doughnut has been visited three times by the then Charles, Prince of Wales since its opening. Charles was accompanied by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in 2011, on his second visit to the Doughnut. The staff numbered almost 6,500 by 2008. The new buildings were intended to facilitate the arrival of 800 staff from GCHQ's former site at Oakley. 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, Charitable efforts to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia in 2015 Originally an annual event, a Community Day is held at the Doughnut to highlight the charitable and volunteer work by GCHQ staff in the local Cheltenham community. More recent Community Day events are held approximately every 18 months. In October 2014, 1,308 GCHQ staff formed a giant red poppy in the Doughnut's central courtyard to mark the start of the Royal British Legion's (RBL) Poppy Appeal. The poppy was in size with a long stalk. and by a rainbow spectrum of colours to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. In early 2018, the Doughnut among others was again lit up in rainbow colours in support of LGBTQ causes. ==See also==