Building 259 (Station Headquarters)

Headquarters building for the Central Flying School at RAF Cranwell. Built in 1934 by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Dark brown brick in Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings and Westmoreland slate roof.

The building is a double-banked office structure of two storeys arranged in an L-plan, with its main entrance facing west towards the main parade ground. A central lobby and staircase hall provides access, with secondary entrances to the wings.

The entrance front is arranged in 3:7:3 bays. A central pair of glazed doors on two stone steps sits within a stone surround with channelled pilasters and alternating quoins, topped by a straight cornice above a frieze that carries the carved date 1934 and octagonal finials with flambeaux. Above this, in a 'Gibbsian' surround with moulded segmental head, is a 12-pane sash window. Each wing pavilion has a glazed door in channelled quoins beneath a flat cornice with keystone to the architrave and frieze. The outer end of the right wing has a similarly detailed door. All windows throughout are 12-pane sashes in flush boxes with brick voussoir heads and stone sills.

The return to the right features a central section of five bays with raised brick parapet coped in stone and a large stone urn at each end. The central bay contains an oculus at first floor level in a square stone panel with raised decorative swag surround. This section is stepped down by slightly projecting brick piers beneath the urns, with one standard bay on each side beyond. The rear of the main range has a large 21-pane staircase light with segmental head, flanked by three bays either side—a long wing to the left and a projecting pavilion wing to the right. The outer ends are treated as three bays, with ground floor central 12-pane sash above stone apron and surround.

Roofs are hipped with concealed gutters. A moulded stone cornice with lead dressing runs around the building at consistent level (except for the raised parapet to the south), with lead ridges and hips to all roofs. A large eaves stack stands on the left return, with external downpipes.

The central entrance hall contains a concrete dog-leg staircase with nosings and heavy square steel paired balusters supporting a broad swept hardwood handrail, detailed in Art Deco style.

This headquarters forms part of the 1932-1934 replanning of West Camp and represents the Air Ministry's commitment to high design standards. The studied neo-Georgian design reflects the RAF's response to standards advocated and monitored by the Royal Fine Arts Commission. The building stands as part of the institutional framework established under Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard's vision for the RAF as an independent, technology-based air force. Cranwell had been established as a Training Depot Station in early 1918, inheriting temporary hutting from the Royal Naval Air Service, and later housed a Radio Training School (1918-1945) and the RAF Cadet College (from 1919). The entire establishment was renamed RAF College in 1929, becoming a Service Flying Training School from 1939. The major domestic buildings, including this headquarters, were not built until after 1933, replacing the earlier West Camp hutting and forming a dramatic example of Air Ministry planning designed to enhance the overall architectural effect of the college grounds through high quality materials and considered layout.