Description

374/0/10091

WEYBRIDGE
BROOKLANDS ROAD
The Restaurant, Members' Hill, Brooklands Museum

01-NOV-02

GV
II
Restaurant. 1907. Red brick with gabled corrugated asbestos roof. Central double doors, with narrower double doors to left. Ten four-light timber casements beneath eaves. Similar fenestration to rear. A courtyard area to the rear is bounded by a brick and tile range that includes flanking and angled wings, with segmental arched openings.

INTERIOR: plain, with curved bracing to exposed trusses. Cast-iron range in kitchen.

HISTORY: Although a plain and functional building, the restaurant has great importance in relationship to a site of international significance in the development of motor sport and aviation in its pioneering days. It surmounts the hill (known as Members' Hill) that provided views of the world-famous motor racing track at Brooklands, and was in use by the opening of the track on June 17th 1907. The site was a favourite location for newsreel cameramen and many of the classic races were filmed from close to this spot, and in the Second World War the restaurant functioned as a billet for the anti-aircraft gunners that protected the Vickers aircraft factory below. During this period the restaurant also staged musicals and dances for local troops. It was used in the post-war period as a store.

The Members' Hill, a natural rise through which a cutting was made for the Members' Banking, was divided into four areas by railings. The Members' Enclosure at the western end contained the Members' Stand and the luncheon room, the neighbouring Reserved Lawn had the Tattersalls Stand and luncheon room, the Five Shilling Enclosure contained two stands, and the Public Enclosure on the eastern side of the hill was merely grassed over. In 1909 a narrow concrete roadway, the Test Hill, was added on the western side of the Members' Hill. A total of 352ft in length and with an average gradient of 1 in 5, the Test Hill was intended as a standard by which automobile engineers could measure engine and gearbox capabilities and braking. The western end of the Members' Hill which contains the Test Hill, a series of footpaths and steps, the foundations for the Members' Stand, the cloakrooms, kitchens and luncheon room behind the Reserved Lawn and several original lengths of railings are all included in the scheduling.

For more historical details, see entry for The Clubhouse.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26562278

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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