Building 11 (Airmen Pilots' Block)

WHITTLESFORD

1767/0/10020 NORTH CAMP, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM (FORME 01-DEC-05 R RAF DUXFORD) Building 11 (Airmen pilots' block)

GV II Airmen pilots' block. 1933, extended 1935. By the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Drawing Nos 437/25 and 2895/34. Cavity brickwork in stretcher bond, slate roofs.

PLAN: Rectangular plan given an L-shaped extension added to the west end in 1935. A single-storey L-plan building with main entrance from the S, and long wing returning left, and a service wing to the rear.

EXTERIOR: Windows are steel casement with small panes and steel transom. The front is asymmetrical, with three 2-light and transom to the left, and two to the right of plank doors set to a plain brick pilaster surround, set forward a half-brick distance. The short right return has a small plank door with overlight, set centrally; the long left return has three 2-light casements flanked at each end by a single light, all as to the front, set to concrete sills and tight to the eaves. The lofty hipped roof is entirely plain, without stacks or ventilators.

INTERIOR: retains original doors and joinery.

HISTORY: An example characteristic of the designs during Trenchard's post-1923 expansion of the RAF, the building forms part of a significant group with the Station Sick Quarters (qv Building 10) and the Sergeant's Mess (qv Building 288). 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).