Horbury Gas Decontamination Centre

Horbury Gas Decontamination Centre

A gas decontamination centre built in 1939, constructed of red brick laid in irregular English bond (five rows of stretchers to one row of headers) with blue brick cills. Steel I-beams support a flat asphalted concrete roof.

The building is a single-storey rectangular structure approximately 25 metres by 7 metres, oriented broadly north-south. At the south-east corner stands a water tank tower with a flat concrete roof and a boiler room beneath it. Projecting airlocks provide access at the north and south ends. Historical plans of similar examples indicate that casualties moved through the centre from south to north, progressing first to an undressing area and then to a shower area with eye douches, a drying space, and a dressing area where casualties were probably also given first aid treatment before exiting through the north airlock.

The south elevation is largely blind, rendered in its lower half, accessed through a projecting entrance and airlock under a flat roof at the west end. This entrance retains the original steel airlock doors, apparently still painted in green wartime paint, complete with rubber seals. Above the elevation rises a red brick parapet, and at the east end stands the water tank tower and a square chimney stack serving the boiler room. Sockets in the wall beneath the parapet suggest a lean-to structure was once attached here, supported by roof beams.

The west elevation features six top-hung Crittall metal windows with four or six panes forming a clerestory just below the eaves of the concrete roof. These windows were positioned high in the wall to minimise injury from shattered glass in the event of external blast. At the north end of this elevation are steel double doors, probably inserted in the late 20th century. The north elevation is largely blind except for a projecting exit and airlock under a flat roof at the centre. The east elevation contains Crittall windows matching those in the west elevation positioned under the eaves, with a flush timber door to the boiler room at the south end. The boiler room is walled off internally and accessible only through this single external entrance.

Inside, the entrance at the south may originally have been a lean-to or open shed containing a foot bath or bleach tray, benches and possibly gas warning posts. An airlock with original steel doors featuring rubber seals leads into the centre. The shower and eye douche area is indicated by drainage channels in the floor. Narrow partitions that may have separated the shower area from a drying space and dressing room have been removed, creating now an uninterrupted view of the dressing room—a large open space with steel I-beams running down the middle supporting the concrete roof. Black wooden frames around the windows probably originally contained black-out blinds, and angled metal frames or brackets that may have supported heating and water pipes remain in place. A low opening between the shower area and dressing room was probably a hatch for transferring items between the 'dirty' and 'clean' areas. A small room at the south-east corner next to the boiler room originally housed lavatories, entered through a flush timber door beside which a late 20th-century kitchen sink unit has been installed. The north end of the dressing room provides the exit through another airlock, which retains its original outer door.