Alan Turing
2 Warrington Crescent · codebreaker and father of computing
Alan Turing was born here, at Warrington Lodge in Maida Vale. He went on to imagine the modern computer, and during the Second World War his work at Bletchley Park helped break the German Enigma cipher – shortening the war and saving countless lives.
In 1952 he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ for a relationship with another man and subjected to chemical castration. He died two years later. He received a royal pardon in 2013, and the law that pardoned others posthumously bears his name. English Heritage’s blue plaque marks his birthplace.