Airport House

Airport House

Integrated airport terminal building and control tower designed by the Air Ministry Department of Buildings and Works and constructed between 1926 and 1928. Additional wings were added in 1941. The building was refurbished as a business centre in the 1990s, when a third storey was added and the north courtyard was infilled.

The building has a steel frame faced with concrete blocks, now painted white, with reinforced concrete floors and roofs. Windows comprise a mixture of original metal windows, some with distinctive margin glazing by Beacon Windows Ltd of Wolverhampton, alongside later metal and uPVC replacements.

The original symmetrical east-facing plan divided the building into two cargo areas in flanking wings, each with multiple cargo entrances later extended eastwards, and a central spine for passenger traffic. The central spine contained a large booking and waiting hall with a glazed dome projecting to the east, leading through to immigration, security and customs areas. Separate Departure and Arrival gates were positioned either side of the control tower on the west elevation. Two courtyard areas were each accessed from the east under a first-floor bridge; the northern courtyard has been infilled with a late twentieth-century single-storey restaurant. Originally two storeys in height, a third storey has been progressively added to the 1941 extensions and subsequently to most of the building.

The exterior is neoclassical in style. The symmetrical east entrance elevation to Purley Way features a seven-bay booking hall frontage flanked by the three-bay, three-storey eastern ends of the 1941 extensions. The booking hall has two-storey, two-bay wings with a projecting double-height centre of three rusticated bays defined by broad pilasters with relief panels; those to the central section bear stylised bird reliefs. The wide central entrance bay contains a semi-circular window with original metal tracery. The flanking bays have full-height arched windows with oversize keystones. The main entrance originally featured a large semi-circular glazed canopy, now removed, which bore a copper embossed emblem known as the 'Winged World', now mounted in the booking hall. The six-leaf timber doors with glazed panels in metal frames are probably original. A simple entablature with projecting cornice completes the façade, incorporating a round clock face. The outer bays have aprons with diaper pattern between metal-framed casement windows.

The side and courtyard elevations are simpler in style, three storeys in height, of thirteen bays with dividing pilasters. Alternate bays either have windows with aprons between ground and first floor windows, or recessed cargo entrances on the ground floor with deep moulded surrounds and keystones. On the north side the double door entrances retain their transoms with diamond lights, although the original canopies have been lost. An additional storey has been added with pilasters extended above the original cornice, matching the 1941 extensions at the east.

The west elevation is of twenty bays and three storeys with the central four bays containing a projecting four-storey control tower. A stepped-forward ground floor, a later addition to all but the south cargo range, breaks the original composition which was flat apart from the slightly projecting cargo wings and the control tower projecting by two full bays. The control tower has a balcony on all four sides of the top storey retaining original metal railings and circular clocks on three sides; the metal casement windows are later replacements.

The interior has been extensively modernised for use as office space and has largely lost its original plan form, except for the booking hall and control tower. Modern partitioning, suspended ceilings and fittings are throughout.

The booking hall is a square double-height atrium with a balcony on three sides, lit by a metal-framed glazed octagonal dome. Four square concrete pillars support the balcony and coffered ceiling. Most fittings, parquet flooring, dado panelling and the glazed wooden screen to the late twentieth-century restaurant are modern replacements or insertions. The post room in the south-east corner retains its original timber interior frontage with vertical sliding sash windows, panelling and counter. The geometric patterned metal balustrade is original apart from the wooden handrails. The copper 'Winged World' sculpture is mounted on the west wall. To the west of the booking hall are two bullion rooms retaining their metal security doors. A number of concrete stairs with original metal balustrades and handrails remain in the rest of the building.

The control tower retains its main stair with metal balustrade, timber handrail and metal internal glazing to the stairwell. The cast-iron spiral stair giving access to the top floor control and radio room survives.