Image: Trent Park House of Secrets
The museum, set to open doors next Spring, will use quarter million grant to capture and share ‘Secret Listener’ stories with schools and online
Trent Park Museum Trust has secured funding to more widely share its wartime espionage and deception stories with local communities and online.
After standing empty since 2012, Trent Park House is now being restored and transformed into a museum and heritage site which will open to the public in Spring 2026 as ‘Trent Park House of Secrets’.
The campaign to save the building began in 2014. Since last year the museum has operated as a digital museum. Now, plans for the visitor experience include historically accurate restored and furnished rooms telling the story of the operations which took place within.
The Enfield building was witness to pivotal events in WWII. After being remodelled by politician and socialite Sir Philip Sassoon in the 1920s, it was transformed into a POW camp for some of Hitler’s most loyal officers.
Covert listening devices were installed throughout the estate and the basement was transformed into the headquarters of the ‘Secret Listeners’ – intelligence operators whose eavesdropping led to wartime breakthroughs including information about Hitler’s weapons programmes and Holocaust atrocities.
The £250,000 National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, the third of its kind received by the trust, will allow for outreach programmes and new in-school workshops to share this ‘Secret Listener’ story into local school history curriculums.
Volunteer Historians will conduct archival research at the National Archives, Kew where much of the House’s wartime history remains uncatalogued and is still being declassified.
Oral history interviews will capture memories of Trend Park House, and new digital resources are to be shared online
The director of the museum, Dr Giuseppe Albano MBE, was appointed in April.
Former Freud museum director to lead new ‘Trent Park House of Secrets’
Dr Albano explained: “While the building itself undergoes careful restoration, it is the House’s stories — and the memories of those who lived them — that are at greatest risk of being forgotten.
“Thanks to this support, we can now bring to life the story of the Secret Listeners and ensure that school pupils and visitors alike can discover the pivotal role this place played during the Second World War.
Stuart McLeod, Director of England – London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, added: “By documenting and sharing this remarkable heritage with schools and communities in Enfield, as well as making it accessible online, this vital chapter of our national history is preserved for generations to come. We’re looking forward to the museum opening in 2026.”
