Building 132 (Ration Store)

WHITTLESFORD

1767/0/10027 NORTH CAMP, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM (FORME 01-DEC-05 R RAF DUXFORD) Building 132 (Ration Store)

GV II Ration store. 1933. By the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Drawing No. 503/29. Stretcher bond cavity wall brickwork, slate roof.

PLAN: A small single-storey L-plan gabled building, immediately behind the Institute (Building No 6, qv), and set to the main N/S axis through the parade ground to the heating plant at the far rear. Two rooms, office to left and store to right, behind verandah incorporated under roof slope.

EXTERIOR: Windows are timber, with concrete sub-sills and slightly cambered brick voussoir heads. The front has two 4-pane sash to the gable, left, then a small high casement and wide pair of plank doors, set back to a deep verandah, the front eaves carried on slender timber posts set to concrete base pads. The end returns are plain, and the back has two high lights, and two 4-pane to the gable end, all this in one plane. All windows are barred. There is a slight rendered plinth, and the slate roof is brought to tight eaves and verge finishes.

INTERIOR: Not inspected, but appears to have office to the gabled unit, with store to the right.

HISTORY: A very modest structure with little architectural pretension, but a standard unit essential to the operation of the base which was erected in conjunction with the Institute (Building No 6, qv). 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).