Building 12 (Candidate'S Club, Former Sergeant'S' Mess), West Camp

A single-storey Sergeants' Mess built in 1932 by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings, designed to drawings numbered 191/24 and 2897/35. The building is constructed with stretcher bond cavity red brick walls and a slate roof on timber trusses.

Plan and Layout

The building is organised as a single storey with an off-centre entrance positioned to the right and a gabled wing projecting forward to the right. The original layout comprised a billiard room to the right of the entrance, the mess hall with an external eaves stack to the left, and kitchen and service areas to the rear.

Exterior

Windows throughout are generally timber-bar sashes set to stone sills with brick voussoir heads. The south-facing entrance front features a projecting gable containing a striking triple sash window with an 8:12:8-pane arrangement set to flat voussoir heads beneath a flush semicircular arch. The arch contains a flush tympanum finished in herring-bone brickwork. Above this sits a small ventilation slit, with the gable above topped by shouldered coping in stone.

The inner returns of the gable feature a small sash window. The set-back long front contains a central square bay with a tall 8:12:8-pane sash to brick mullions, flanked by small 8-pane sashes on the returns. The bay rises to a coped parapet above eaves level. To its left stands the external eaves stack, finished with a bold brick capping and flanked by tall 8-pane sashes on either side, with two additional 12-pane sashes further to the left. A pair of panelled doors with glazed top panels occupies the right section, set within a cast stone surround with heavy pilasters and a simple architrave flat cornice, likewise flanked by tall sashes.

The left return displays 12-pane sashes. The rear gable mirrors the front elevation. The right return has a part-hipped outer end beneath a louvred half-gable, followed by a lower set-back wing to a hipped end connected to a wall bounding the service yard, and a further hipped wing to the rear left. A small additional bay dating to the 1970s sits to the left of the front elevation.

Historical Significance

This sergeants' mess was constructed to designs established during the RAF's expansion following 1923 and has remained externally little altered since the Second World War. It represents a building type associated with the sergeants and non-commissioned airmen who played a key role in military aviation during that conflict.

Biggin Hill acquired a reputation as the most famous fighter station in the world, primarily through its central role in the Battle of Britain—the first historical instance of a nation retaining its freedom and independence through air power alone. Developed as a key fighter station during the inter-war period, the airfield played a critical role in the development of the air defence system based on radar technology that proved essential in the Second World War. Biggin Hill was one of the sector stations of 11 Group, commanded by Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park from his underground headquarters at RAF Uxbridge, and served as one of the 'nerve centre' sector stations alongside Northolt, North Weald, Tangmere, Debden and Hornchurch. Between 24 August and 6 September 1940, these airfields and their associated aircraft factories became prime targets of the Luftwaffe's sustained bombing campaign.

The interior was not inspected at the time of listing.