Memorial Chapel

Memorial Chapel

This memorial chapel at the former RAF Biggin Hill stands as a tribute to airmen lost whilst flying from the station during the Second World War. Consecrated in 1951 and designed by architect W Wylton Todd ARIBA, the building was constructed following the destruction by fire of an earlier memorial chapel in 1946. The chapel was funded through a public appeal, backed by Winston Churchill himself and by friends and relatives of aircrew who had died in action. Lord Dowding laid the foundation stone in July 1951, and the chapel was opened and dedicated on 10 November 1951.

The building presents an elegant and relatively austere interpretation of a Lombardic Early Christian church, constructed entirely in red brick laid in Flemish bond with a clay Roman tile roof on steel trusses. The structure comprises a wide unaisled nave with sanctuary, entered through a slightly narrower ante-room or narthex, both gabled and with the nave at a higher level. An attached oblong campanile rises over a small entrance lobby on the south side, with a flat-roofed sacristy beyond. On the north side is a flat-roofed setback link, formerly a vestry, connecting to a large gabled chapel of later construction.

The building is neatly detailed throughout in brick and tiles with a continuous brick offset plinth. The west end facing the road is gabled, featuring a tall casement window set beneath a half-brick arch with herring-bone brick tympanum, all recessed within a blind arched panel with a tile sill. Below this panel runs an inscription recording that the stone was laid on 25 July 1951 by Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding GCB GCVO CMG. Side returns each contain two tall casements of similar detailing. The tower is of plain brickwork with a setback top stage containing louvred openings, rectangular to the sides and arched to front and rear, with the gable roof ridge parallel to the main roof. The west face displays an open clock face, while the main entrance consists of an arched opening in three recessed orders leading to a pair of framed diagonally boarded doors. The flat-roofed vestry adjoining the tower features triple steel casements to brick piers on its west and south sides. A similar unit with triple light and arched doorway now acts as a corridor link to the later chapel. The nave itself is a plain gabled rectangle with five tall oblong steel casements to each side and a blank east end with verge, kneelers and a broad recessed blind panel to a tiled sill. The larger northern chapel displays more complex detailing, with an arched doorway in recessed brick orders and half-brick voussoirs leading to diagonally boarded doors within a recessed panel with splayed jambs, elaborate kneelers and eaves in three brick-on-edge courses. The gable contains an oculus with double half-brick voussoirs, while the returned side has blank recessed panels with a small vertical light. The east end features a sunk panel with elaborate quoins, weathered plinth and a complex frieze with prominent lead dressings.

The interior narthex has a plain parquet floor, unpainted brick walls in three bays with internal piers, and a fibre-boarded ceiling. This opens through wide doors into the six-bay nave, similarly finished in unpainted brick with internal piers and a floor of square laminated wood blocks made from aircraft propellers. A near-flat ceiling in three facets crowns the space. The simple sanctuary at the east end features a broad memorial record panel listing squadron losses, which include Polish, East Indies, French, Dutch, RCAF and RZNA names.

The chapel contains significant fittings including a fine lectern, a stainless steel font with Y-shaped base, and simple benches. All windows flanking the nave contain memorial stained glass. Hugh Easton, designer of the RAF Memorial Window in Westminster Abbey, created twelve stained glass windows for the chapel, each depicting the winged spirit of a young pilot embracing a badge. The west window was installed in 1981, and four further windows in St George's Room were installed by Goddard and Gibbs in 1985 to commemorate ground support roles. The memorial tablet records the names of airmen lost from Biggin Hill and reflects the large number of nations whose pilots used the base.

Biggin Hill acquired the reputation of being the most famous fighter station in the world, primarily through its associations with the Battle of Britain, where it played a critical role as a sector airfield within 11 Group. The station was developed as a key fighter base during the inter-war period and played an essential role in the radar-based air defence system that proved decisive during the Second World War. Between 24 August and 6 September 1940, Biggin Hill, along with other sector stations at Northolt, North Weald, Tangmere, Debden and Hornchurch, endured sustained attacks from the Luftwaffe as it targeted the airfields and later aircraft factories. The chapel thus stands on the site of one of the hangars destroyed during these raids in 1940, serving as a permanent shrine of remembrance for those who gave their lives defending the nation through air power.