Duxford: Control Tower (Building 209)

The Control Tower (Building 209) is an airfield control tower constructed in 1942 to a standard design by the Air Ministry’s Directorate of Works and Buildings. The tower is built of rendered brick with an asphalt roof. The windows are metal framed, although those on the upper floor of the south elevation have been replaced with slightly thicker frames.

The building is square in plan, with a balcony extending around the southern portions of the south, east, and west elevations. It is two storeys high, with a metal and glass rooftop addition. The main entrance is centrally located on the north-west elevation, accessed via a single-leaf door. The south elevation, which faces the runway, features large multi-pane steel casement windows to provide wide visibility. A concrete balcony, originally cantilevered and now supported by later-added iron columns, wraps around the airside elevations and has a tubular steel safety barrier. External steel staircases provide access to the balcony and the roof, which also has a tubular steel safety barrier. A modern metal and glass control room structure was added to the top of the building in the late 1980s and is not considered to be of particular architectural interest.

The north elevation has two ground floor windows and a small window for a WC to the far right. A window between the floors illuminates the staircase, and there are three windows on the left side of the first floor. The east and west elevations feature an irregular arrangement of steel-framed casement windows, with a timber-boarded door in the centre of the east elevation.

Internally, the finishes are utilitarian, with plain, plastered and painted walls and exposed trunk and pipework. Some half-panelled doors remain. The ground floor contains offices, WCs, and a small kitchen, accessible from a central passageway. The first floor, reached by a steep, single-flight staircase in the north-western corner, includes the former control room, now a briefing room. The control room has internal windows into an adjacent signal room and a small cubicle, believed to have been used for radio. A further room on the first floor served as the controller’s rest room. Modern air traffic control equipment and associated services are excluded from the listing.