Officers' Mess at the former RAF Coltishall

Officers' Mess at the former RAF Coltishall

This former RAF Officers' Mess was built between 1939 and 1940 to designs by A Bulloch. The building is constructed of yellow brick laid in Flemish bond, bearing remnants of camouflage paint, with a pantile roof.

The plan consists of a principal south-facing range with two rear wings set at right angles, the eastern wing being the longer of the two. These wings contain reception rooms, kitchens and smaller rooms devoted to the running of the mess, linked via short corridors to flanking L-shaped accommodation blocks. To the north are mess garages built in 1939.

The exterior is in a restrained neo-Georgian style with hipped roofs and bonnet tiles at the hips. The tall one-storey principal range has a long frontage of thirteen bays. The central three bays project slightly to form a triple arched loggia in front of the recessed entrance, which extends just above the eaves. The arches have square columns, two rows of brick headers around the arch rings and semi-circular fanlights with radial glazing bars. The double-leaf door in the central arch is a replacement, whilst the flanking arches contain multi-pane doors with wooden glazing bars. Two tall brick chimney stacks rise from the roof ridge in line with either end of the porch. The five bays either side are lit by tall twelve-over-twelve pane sash windows with wooden glazing bars. The return walls are lit by two windows in the same style.

The principal range is attached to the two-storey flanking wings by short single-storey corridors. The main south elevation of the wings is five window bays wide, with each bay lit on both floors by two-light, top-opening uPVC windows. The ground-floor windows have gauged brick arches. The return walls on the inner sides are six bays wide, and above the second bay a large chimney stack rises from the verge with two shafts joined to create an arch. The remaining elevations that form the long north stem of the L-shape are in a similar style.

The long, single-storey east wing, which contains the dining room and projects southwards from the main range, is eleven window bays wide, lit by the same timber sash windows as the principal range. The end five bays were added in 1953. The first of the new bays contains a two-leaf glazed door with timber glazing bars and a twelve-pane overlight; between the third and fourth bays a flat-roofed brick porch has been added. The rear elevations, including that of the shorter west wing, are subsidiary. Some original timber sash windows survive but others have been replaced with top-opening uPVC windows. The mess staff accommodation block, which occupied the central rear projection, has two storeys under a hipped roof and is lit by original six-over-six pane timber sashes. The projecting central bay has a hipped roof with sprocketed eaves and an original door with glazed upper panels under a semi-circular brick arch. A single-storey brick building under a hipped roof adjoining the west side of the mess staff accommodation block was added in the late twentieth century and is not included in the listing.

The loggia on the central range opens into a large hall joined at either end by a longitudinal corridor. The hall has very shallow semi-circular recesses on the walls to the right and left, and three recesses with semi-circular fanlights on the rear wall. The hall is flanked by a number of function rooms in a restrained Georgian style with high ceilings. They retain multi-pane glazed doors or veneered doors in moulded wooden doorframes, dado rails, plain skirting and moulded wooden cornices. The two largest rooms have wide bolection moulded stone fireplaces with a wooden surround, stone-coloured tiled insets and grate, and a stone fender. In one room the fireplace is flanked by seated alcoves. One of the smaller function rooms has a stone fireplace in a more flamboyant Tudoresque style with a depressed arch surround and Tudor roses carved in the spandrels. The long dining room, at right angles to the main range, has a barrel-shaped ceiling. The main range also contains an air-raid shelter with an escape tunnel, which was later converted into a bar decorated with military artwork created in 1970–71 by a number of artists. The murals depict playing cards and related imagery, including a pilot, a helmet and a life-size Queen of Hearts. Parallel to the main range are extensive service rooms including a wine cellar, a valuables store with steel door, and a series of kitchens with modern fittings.

In the accommodation wings a central corridor gives access to bedrooms, bathrooms and box rooms. There are two types of rooms: bed-sitting rooms for junior officers, and bedrooms with an adjoining sitting room for senior officers. Not all the rooms were inspected in 2017, but the majority of the doors and interior detail is of recent date, and most, if not all, of the fireplaces have been removed. There are two staircases: one for the officers, which is a dogleg stair with a closed string, square newel post and turned balusters supporting a moulded handrail; and a much plainer one for servants with metal stick balusters. The west wing contains a bar on the ground floor with military artwork created in 1986, which features aircraft and squadron crests from the main squadrons stationed at Coltishall.

On the north side of the Officers' Mess is a long range of sixteen contemporary garages constructed of yellow brick with a tile-clad pitched roof and tile-creased kneelers. The garage doors do not appear to be original and are of less interest.