Wren House: Traffic Office

The Traffic Office in Wren House was a typical 1980s scene of clerical working...

Pedestal style desk tops, grey plastic in/out trays, 746 type dial telephones and not a computer in sight!

Photo: Vivian Topping is being coached by Chris James to take over the job of night manager before he takes up his new job of manager in a Mondial House unit.

The Traffic Office

Everyone worked as a team without too much formality. The traffic office (for the TTOs and TTSs) was directly connected with Malcolm Knight's office; both opened into the same corridor adjacent to the main front door to the building. A third office a bit further down the corridor was home to Fred Dowry.

Chris James and Vivian Topping

In the photo (above) spot the hand drawn graph behind Chris which was of the monthly connected call totals. Bottom section day and red bit night. You can see how they were gradually going up despite the policy of stealing routes from 108 and putting them in the 107 units.

Chris James (TTS) was responsible for the night staff and worked closely with Dennis Barratt, the night staff Senior Chief Supervisor (SCSR). After Chris was promoted and became manager of Mondial ICC his place was taken by Vivian Topping.

Richard Cadle, TTO to Chris James/Vivian. Left to go to HQ soon after Chris went to Mondial.

Pete Williamson TTO to Fred Dowry (TTS), then to Vivian when Richard left. Pete Williamson was a hockey player in the UK national team.

Clerical Telephonists

	Janice Saunders was a telephonist with clerical allowance; Clerical Telephonist was the usual description. Janice alternated with Joyce Wade in covering traffic office clerical duties. In the photo (above), Janice can be seen in the main traffic office, taking a break from the Traffic Distribution Record (portrait A4 papers) laid out on the desk. Photo: Janice Saunders in the Traffic Office. The tranquil view of grass and trees filled the space between the traffic office window and the southern flank of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Pam Price
	Pam Price was Telecoms Traffic Officer (TTO) to Bob Andrews (TTS) Day. Pam worked in Wren House from the late 1960s right up to closure in 1988. Bob Andrews managed the exchange by day; the Senior Chief Supervisor (SCSR) at the time was Doreen Scott. Doreen died in February 2004 at the age of 78. Photo: Pam Price in the Traffic Office. Note the 1982 Year Planner in the background.

The Computer Initiative

To fit Wren House into the stats format required nationally, the exchange had to be divided into 28 separate sections and producing all those statistics was an extremely onerous task leaving little time for niceties such as annual leave.

In an effort to alleviate this problem Malcolm Knight obtained a computer (which was contrary to ITp rules at the time) and since no suitable software was available, he and Fred Dowry spent six months of evenings and weekends teaching themselves how to program the machine. This was widely seen as a total waste of valuable resources until the time taken to produce Wren House's statistics suddenly tumbled from more than three man weeks a month to less than two man hours.

After that computers were rapidly deployed to all International exchanges and programs produced to cope with all their statistical requirements. Because of the initiative taken in Wren House the International exchanges were fully computerised some years before they made an appearance in Inland exchange traffic offices.

Design, images and text compiled by © Light-Straw. With thanks to Malcolm Knight.
Page last updated 19th September 2012.Checked May 2021.

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