The Doughnut

The Doughnutis the nickname given (due to its resemblance to adoughnut) to the headquarters of theGovernment Communications Headquarters(GCHQ),a Britishcryptographyandintelligence agency.  It is located on a 71hectares(176acres) site inBenhall, in the suburbs ofCheltenham, Gloucestershire, inSouth West England.The Doughnut accommodates 5,500 employees; GCHQ is the largest single employer in Gloucestershire.Built to modernise and consolidate GCHQ's multiple buildings in Cheltenham, the Doughnut was completed in 2003, with GCHQ staff moving in the same year,and fully moved into the building in 2004.The Doughnut was too small for the number of staff at its completion, 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 fencing, guards, and CCTV systems.
The construction of the building was financed by aprivate finance initiative, and construction costs were greatly increased after difficulties in transferring computer infrastructure to the building.  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 asthe Pentagon.
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 last staff from the nearby GCHQ site atOakleywere transferred to the Doughnut in late 2011.
The design of the Doughnut reflects GCHQ's intended new mode of work after the end of theCold War, with its design facilitating talking among staff, and between them and the Director of GCHQ and his subordinates.It was estimated that anyone in the building could reach any other worker within five minutes.The director of GCHQ has no office; in 2014 directorIain Lobbandescribed his desk as being located "within the shouting distance of lawyers".
At a cost of £330 million, the construction of the Doughnut was funded by aprivate finance initiative(PFI) put forward by a collective that included the British facilities management and construction companyCarillion(now defunct), the Danish security company Group 4 / Falck (nowG4S), and the British telecommunications companyBT Group.The creation of the Doughnut was the largest PFI project to date for the British government.The building was designed by the British architect Chris Johnson for the American architectural firmGensler,and constructed and built byCarillion.
In 2004,Edward Leigh, the chairman of theCommons 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".Leigh had said in 2003 that GCHQ's original estimate for the cost of the move was "staggeringly inaccurate".
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.The moves ofMI5and theSecret Intelligence Service(SIS) to new buildings had also cost more than three times their original estimates due to issues with transferring computers.HM Treasurypaid £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, theNational Audit Office(NAO) said government ministers might never have approved the consolidation of facilities had the final cost been known.
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 140,000square metres(1,500,000square feet), the building contains two circular blocks, internally divided by a 'street' covered in glass.Construction materials were primarily steel, aluminium, and stone,particularly granite and locallimestonefrom theCotswolds; designers incorporated recycled materials in the steelwork and the construction of desks.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.
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 theRoyal Albert Hall.The courtyard has a memorial to GCHQ staff who have been killed on active service; some five staff died in theWar in Afghanistan.Below the garden are banks ofsupercomputers.The Doughnut is 21metres(70feet) high and 180 metres (600 feet) in diameter.Individual spaces in the Doughnut include the GCHQ archive holding 16 million historical artefacts,and the 24/7 operations centrewhere 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 toBritish Armed Forcesto 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 toCharles Moorewho visited the Doughnut in 2014 forThe 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 1,850miles(3,000kilometres) offibre opticswere installed in the Doughnut byBritish Telecom, and about 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometres) 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 thePortland spy ring.
The Doughnut was officially opened in 2004 byQueen Elizabeth II, accompanied by theDuke of Edinburgh.In 2008, the thenPrime Minister of the United Kingdom,Gordon Brown(Lab), visited the Doughnut and praised the staff working there in a speech.The Doughnut has been visited three times by the thenCharles, Prince of Walessince its opening.Charles was accompanied byCamilla, Duchess of Cornwallin 2011, on his second visit to the Doughnut.
The Doughnut was already too small for the number of GCHQ staff at its completion, as a vast expansion in the number of employees had occurred as a consequence of theSeptember 11 attacksin 2001.The staff numbered almost 6,500 by 2008.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.The new buildings were intended to facilitate the arrival of 800 staff from GCHQ's former site atOakley.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 to a secret undisclosed building in the 'Gloucestershire area'.The parking of cars by GCHQ staff on residential roads has caused 'annoyance' among local residents in Benhall.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.
On 1 June 2007, the building and its grounds were designated as a protected site for the purposes of Section 128 of theSerious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.  The effect of the act was to make it a specific criminal offence for a person totrespassinto the site.
Access to the Doughnut is rarely granted to representatives from the media, but it was visited for the March 2010BBC Radio 4documentaryGCHQ: Cracking the Code,byCharles Moorefor an interview with GCHQ directorIain LobbanforThe Daily Telegraphin October 2014,and by historian and writerBen Macintyrewho visited the Doughnut for a series of articles forThe Timesin October 2015 in anticipation of the draftInvestigatory Powers Bill.
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 giantred poppyin the Doughnut's central courtyard to mark the start of theRoyal British Legion's (RBL)Poppy Appeal.The poppy was 38 metres (125 feet) in size with a 28 metres (92 feet) long stalk.The staff wore redrain ponchos, with the black centre of the poppy formed by the uniforms ofRoyal Navypersonnel.
In 2015, the Doughnut was illuminated with yellow light to mark GCHQ staff's support forThe Guide Dogs for the Blind Association,and by arainbow spectrum of coloursto mark theInternational Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
In early 2018, the Doughnut among others was again lit up in rainbow colours in support LGBTQ causes.
The three other headquarters of British intelligence agencies;