PRESS RELEASE: 24 April 2025
The Trent Park Museum Trust has announced Dr Giuseppe Albano MBE as the new director for Trent Park House of Secrets, which is due to open in Enfield, London in Spring 2026.
Trent Park House is one of England’s great country houses, remodelled by Sir Philip Sassoon in the 1920s and home to World War Two ‘Secret Listeners’ whose operations helped turn the tide of war.
Albano is a museum director with over 14 years’ experience running museums and cultural heritage sites. Most recently he was Director of the Freud Museum London from 2022 to 2025, and prior to this he served as Curator and Director of the Keats–Shelley House in Rome.
He will be responsible to the Board of Trustees and accountable for the opening and overall operation of the museum as it is transformed into a major UK visitor destination. Albano will join Trent Park House of Secrets in June 2025.
Dr Giuseppe Albano says: “Trent Park House has heard (and overheard) a lot of stories in its time. As someone who’s always been passionate about historic houses and the tales they have to tell, I’m honoured to be taking on this role and look forward to opening Trent Park House as a museum and sharing its extraordinary history with everyone.”
The Marquess of Cholmondeley and Jason Charalambous, Co-Chairs, Trent Park Museum Trust welcome the appointment saying: “We are delighted to welcome Giuseppe as our first director, an accomplished heritage leader and most recently Director of the Freud Museum in London, who brings a wealth of experience to the role, together with tremendous passion and enthusiasm for the tasks ahead.”
Trent Park House of Secrets will open in 2026 as a visitor attraction featuring magnificently restored and furnished rooms that were the backdrop to Sir Philip Sassoon’s socialite and political world, as he hosted some of the most influential statesmen, journalists, royalty and politicians in the 1930s.
It will reveal the extraordinary story of the ‘Secret Listeners’ – the intelligence operators hidden in the basement of Trent Park House – whose wartime eavesdropping of senior German prisoners of war led to some of the most important intelligence breakthroughs of WWII.
It is an astonishing story of espionage, courage and creative deception, that has remained hidden in the house for over 70 years.
Trent Park is recognised by Historic England as being of national and international significance on a level with Bletchley Park.
Press Information:
For further information or media enquiries please contact Lauren Gildersleve, Communications Consultant at lauren@gilderspr.co.uk
