Buildings 1 To 5 (Airmens Barrack Blocks)

Group of five airmen's barracks blocks at West Camp, RAF Biggin Hill, dating to 1930. Designed to Air Ministry Directorate of Works drawings 99-109/23, the buildings are constructed in red brickwork in stretcher and Flemish bond to cavity walls with slate roofs.

Each block consists of two rows of gabled two-storey buildings with a central pediment and entry, flanked by a short T-arm to the rear at slightly lower eaves and ridge level, with a hipped outer end. The interior layout comprises a central lobby and staircase flanked by small rooms for NCOs, followed by dormitories accommodating 64 airmen, with the rear wing containing ablutions and services. Building 04 (Croydon) is larger, accommodating 80 airmen.

The exterior features a 3-bay centre stepped forward to an open pediment, with a central feature in painted concrete containing a part-glazed panelled door with 5-pane overlight on two steps, flanked by pilasters to a simple architrave and cornice. Above this is a 12-pane sash in flat architrave surround flared out on a blocking-course below with a central keystone. To each side are 8-pane sashes at each level in brick panels brought forward from the central panel, with the eaves and pediment mould broken to the centre. A small ventilation slit appears in the head of the gable. Four bays of 12-pane sashes, grouped 1:2:1, flank each side. Small brick stacks stand either side of the centre unit. The gabled returns are treated as open pediments with short returns of the eaves moulding, containing a single 12-pane sash to each floor and a ventilation slit at the gable head. Windows throughout are wooden glazing-bar sashes set in slight reveals with brick voussoir heads and concrete sub-sills. The rear facade has four 12-pane and one 8-pane sash to each floor on either side of the wing, which features two broad 4-pane and a narrow 8-pane sash on one side, a paired sash and a similar opening faced with glass block to leave level, and an 8-pane above a blocked door to the other. The outer end has two small sashes above one and a flush door with 4-pane overlight or louvres. A small box eaves on a bed-mould runs around the whole structure.

Building 01 (Tangmere) has one storey only to the left of centre, the result of aerial bombing in 1940, and the rear has two blocked openings and no glass block fill. Building 02 (Kenley) has smaller plain sashes in rebuilt jambs in bays 8–11 upper floor front and bays 1–3 upper floor rear. The service wing has plain casements to the rear, and the window above the door with louvres has been blocked in brick. Building 04 (Croydon) has 5 bays each side of centre with 3-bay returned ends in 8-pane sashes, but the ground floor sash to bay 1 at the front is replaced by a steel casement, and on the left return steel replacements flank a blocked centre light to the ground floor. The service wing has slit windows each side but retains 6-pane sashes to the outer end. Building 05 (Manston) is the most fully retained externally.

Interiors retain original joinery including panelled doors and dog leg staircases with simple steel balustrades.

The buildings are located at the north end of the domestic site immediately adjacent to the public highway (A233), set in two parallel rows following the curve in the road. This barracks format was devised in 1923 during the Trenchard Home Defence years and developed with minor variations and extensions until the introduction of the 'H'-plan after 1938. Considering the many sustained attacks on the base, especially during the Battle of Britain, these buildings are surprisingly well retained. The loss of an upper floor to part of Tangmere block is a poignant reminder of that period.

Biggin Hill acquired a reputation as the most famous fighter station in the world, primarily through its associations with the Battle of Britain, the first time in history that a nation had retained its freedom and independence through air power. It was developed as a key fighter station in the inter-war period, playing a critical role in the development of the air defence system based on radar that played a critical role in the Second World War. Of all the sites involved in the Battle of Britain, the sector airfields within 11 Group commanded by Air Vice Marshal Keith Park from his underground headquarters at RAF Uxbridge bore the brunt of the Luftwaffe onslaught. The nerve centre sector stations at Northolt, North Weald, Biggin Hill, Tangmere, Debden and Hornchurch took some of the most sustained attacks of the battle, especially between 24 August and 6 September when these airfields and later aircraft factories became the Luftwaffe's prime targets. In Churchill's words, 'on whose organisation and combination the whole fighting power of our Air Force at this moment depended'.