Building 72 (Workshops)

This building, dating to 1917, originally served as an engine repair shop, coppersmiths' shop, and blacksmith's shop, constructed by the War Office's Directorate of Fortifications and Works to Drawing No 288/17. It is built of painted brickwork with a slate roof supported on steel trusses.

The building’s plan is a simple gabled shed, extended at the northeast corner by a small boiler room.

The exterior features steel casement windows with 16 panes, incorporating a four-pane pivot hung section in the upper half. The south front has five windows on either side of a full-height pair of plank doors. The return to the right includes two matching casements, one modified with two doors—one with louvres—and a further door leading to a small, flat-roofed extension, from which rises a tall steel stack. The rear elevation is a range of steel casements, with a small brick stack at the left-hand gable end and four patent-glazing roof-lights along the ridge.

The interior consists of a plain space with exposed metal trusses.

The building holds historical significance as it represents the original 1917 layout and designs at Duxford. It has retained its external features and exemplifies the basic design used for aircraft repair shops during the early years of military aviation. It is closely linked to the main hangar group immediately to the south and is part of the most complete World War I airfield group in Britain. These Training Depot Stations, initiated in 1917, constituted the largest airfield construction program of the First World War and were crucial for training pilots for service overseas. These stations typically included flying units, general service sheds, and a repair section hangar—of which this building is a surviving example—for engine and aircraft maintenance. Other specialist buildings, such as carpentry shops, dope and engine repair facilities, and plane stores, also characterized these sites.