Description

WHITTLESFORD

1767/0/10017 NORTH CAMP, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM (FORME
01-DEC-05 R RAF DUXFORD)
Buildings 7, 8, 9 and 13 (Airmen's Bar
racks)

GV II
Group of 4 barracks buildings. 1933. By the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Drawing Nos 7651/32 (7,8,9) and 461/32 (13). Stretcher bond red brick in cavity walling, slate roof on steel trusses. Concrete floors.

PLAN: Two- storey blocks with central entrance and staircase hall flanked by small rooms for corporals, and larger dormitory spacers, accommodating 4 NCO's and 56 airmen in the smaller units, and 4 NCO's and 64 airmen in the larger block (Building 13). To the rear, centre, a slightly lower hipped service wing.

EXTERIOR: Windows are all wood glazing-bar sashes, to brick voussoirs, and with cast stone sub-sills. The front has central 3 bays slightly stepped forward and with a small barred oculus within a closed pediment, above 8:12:8-pane sashes, with central paired panelled door to plain over-light in stone pilaster surround with cornice and blocking course - the date 1933 carved above doors. To each side an 8-pane. At either side in the main range are two 12-pane to each floor (but 3 each side to Building 13). The end gables have a closed pediment with oculus, above 8:12:8-pane to each floor, and the back has three 12-pane to each floor (four to Building 13), each side of the service wing, which has a vertical 8-pane adjacent to the main range, and two small 6-pane (8-pane to Building 13) at each floor. The outer end has a small light above a large louvred door to a battery room. The gabled ends have 'rusticated' quoins formed by recessing, for 2 brick widths, 1 course in every 5. A small flat eaves soffit all round has a small fascia and cornice mould or ogee-gutter to regulate cast-iron downpipes.

INTERIORS: Some doors and joinery survive, with central staircase, otherwise remodelled for storage purposes.

HISTORY: The architectural treatment of these buildings reflect, in their careful detailing and proportions, the impact of Air Ministry consultation with the Royal Fine Arts Commission, who were involved in airfield architecture and design after November 1931. Detail is economical, but carefully considered and carried out, with attention given to overall grouping and proportions, reflecting the impact of the RFAC monitoring of military architecture. Externally these buildings remain unchanged. They are grouped, one block each side of the parade ground (8 and 9), and one each side of the Institute (Building 6, qv). Duxford represents the finest and best-preserved example of a fighter base representative of the period up to 1945 in Britain, with an exceptionally complete group of First World War technical buildings in addition to technical and domestic buildings typical of both inter-war Expansion Periods of the RAF. It also has important associations with the Battle of Britain and the American fighter support for the Eighth Air Force. For more details of the history of the site see under entry for the Officers' Mess (Building 45).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672075

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)