29 And 30, Vincent Square

Pair of houses, part of a former terrace of four and part of a group of 26, built in 1929 by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. These are the last two houses on the east side of Vincent Square at its southern end.

The houses are constructed of rendered brickwork with plain tile roofs. They feature bay windows and gabled ends with face gables above windows to both front and rear. Windows throughout are wood casements with one horizontal glazing-bar, set in plain reveals and fitted with concrete sub-sills. At first floor, centred to the gables, a square bay contains a 3-light window above a 4-light window with plain cheeks and a hipped roof. To the right of each house is a panelled door with a part-glazed upper part, set between plain pilasters and surmounted by a flat hood with a bold rolled edge on a bed-mould, carried on concrete consoles. One central ridge stack and one to the left outer gable serve each house, both with deep stepped capping. The rear elevation features 2-light casements to the face-gables and a smaller 2-light at the eaves to the left, with a 3-light window, door and small side-light to the ground floor.

The interiors were not inspected; the houses were restored by a Housing Association as part of the renovation of the whole square.

These houses form part of the best preserved group of married quarters, designed on Garden City principles, predating the post-1934 expansion period of the RAF. They relate to Biggin Hill, a nationally important historic aviation site. The group, originally numbering 26 houses arranged around a central grassed area, was planned to form an elongated square. Six houses were demolished following the 1940 raids. The land for the new married quarters had been purchased in 1923–5.

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 retained its freedom and independence through air power. It was developed as a key fighter station in the inter-war period and played a critical role in the development of the air defence system based on radar, which was instrumental in the Second World War. Of all the sites involved in the Battle of Britain, none resonates more in the popular imagination than the sector airfields of 11 Group, which occupied the front line in this battle. These sector stations—Northolt, North Weald, Biggin Hill, Tangmere, Debden and Hornchurch—were commanded from underground headquarters at RAF Uxbridge by Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park and bore the brunt of the Luftwaffe onslaught, sustaining the most severe attacks especially between 24 August and 6 September 1940, when these airfields and later aircraft factories became the Luftwaffe's prime targets.