Jodrell Bank Observatory: Link Hut (Cosmic Noise Hut)

Research hut using a standard construction system, 1949 with 1953 extension, altered 1955 for Robert Hanbury Brown and with later modifications.

MATERIALS: pre-cast concrete frame, concrete block walls, metal windows, felt roof.

PLAN: single-storey, L-plan building with the front facing south.

EXTERIOR: standing at the north-west corner of the part of the site known as ‘The Green’, and attached by the Development Lab (not included) to the 21ft Telescope Control Room (also not included) to its east.

The windows are metal-framed, multi-paned casements with concrete surrounds, except in the extension where they have only sills. The walls are of large block-work, now painted. The front wall has a doorway at the left (now blocked). To the right of this are two windows, a further doorway with paired replacement part-glazed timber doors with vertical timber panels and an overlight, and a further window. The central window has a mullion. A grey plastic gutter runs the length of the eaves, with a down-pipe at either end. The extension is set back at the right, with a large central window and a lower flat roof.

The west wall returning at the left has two windows close to the centre, and the roof falls very slightly to either side of a central ridge. Returning at the left again, the rear (north) wall has a half-glazed timber door at the right with a window to its left, and a further two windows at the left of the original building. Metal ducting* carries cabling out of the building. Further to the left, the extension has a lower roof, and a window at either end. The east wall of the extension is obscured by the attached Development Lab. The northern half of the east wall of the original hut is obscured by the extension, but the southern half with its window is visible.

INTERIOR: the concrete frame is visible in the original hut, comprising posts with projecting heads that support the roof beams; the extension has load-bearing walls, of concrete block at the front and sides, and brick at the rear. The walls are unlined, but painted. The floor is of herringbone parquet throughout, with linear edgings indicating the original location of partitions. Modern electrical and heating services have been fitted throughout. The ceilings are of fibreboard panels fitted into a metal grid. Within the extension, two concrete pads within the parquet floor relate to the first experiments in optical intensity interferometry, which took place here.

*Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the aforementioned items are not of special architectural or historic interest.