Hangar, Heston Air Parks

This aircraft hangar was built in 1929 to designs by L M Austin and H F Murrel, constructed by A Jackamann & Sons Ltd of Slough with structural engineer C E Holloway, for Airwork Ltd. A single-storey extension in the Art Deco style was added to the west around 1935. Late 20th-century alterations and extensions have also been made.

The building is constructed of reinforced concrete with a corrugated roof and metal windows. The main hangar is rectangular, measuring approximately 30 metres west-east by 24 metres north-south (100 feet by 80 feet), with the circa 1935 single-storey addition to the west. Modern extensions and a substation to the south are not of special interest. A single large modern roller shutter door provides access to the main hangar from the south. Pedestrian access to the west aisle is from the south, and the roof space is reached via stairs over the roof from both west and east.

Exterior

The hangar presents a highly distinctive curved profile, with the curve of the roof extending to ground level on both the west and east sides. The principal elevation now faces south and has a peaked profile at the apex of the roof, concealing a pitched central rooflight behind. This elevation features concrete ribs with several blocked openings at upper level and one surviving metal-framed multi-paned window, plus access via high-level double doors. The main hangar space is accessed at the south-east corner via a large up-and-over rolling metal door, with access to the western aisle from the south-west.

The northern elevation is partly hidden by a modern abutting industrial unit, but the horizontal tie beam marks the position of the former folding doors, and original metal casements survive above. The attached flat-roofed single-storey extension to the west, dating from around 1935, displays Art Deco styling with a curved roof line and piers. Long, flat and pitched rooflights are visible at the apex and to the west and east. The eastern elevation also has small roof lights illuminating the east aisle. Access to the roof is provided by L-shaped external concrete staircases on both the west and east sides, fitted with metal rails and leading to rectangular projecting concrete porches that protect pedestrian doors.

Interior

The main hangar space has concrete floors and walls with piers, some chamfered, and concrete corbels to the east. Evidence of blocked openings is particularly visible along the north wall, which originally opened onto the airfield where a modern unit now abuts. Against the south and north walls at ceiling height are projecting concrete ribs and sectional panels forming a part-ceiling. The central ceiling space, originally open to the roof, now has an inserted modern tiled ceiling. Modern inserted two-storey offices along the south side and ablutions in the eastern aisle are not of special interest. The western aisle remains a single space with visible roof ribs and blocked windows to the west showing visible metal frames.

The roof space, accessed via the external stairs, is impressive, with massive curving ribs supported on narrow struts, concrete tie beams and purlins. Concrete 'walkways', originally offices, run along the south and north walls, with the central space now having a modern ceiling insertion. The space is well lit by central pitched and flat roof lights running north-south the length of the hangar. The position of original window openings is all evident, although most are now blocked. Surviving chain-hung bell-shaped lights remain in place.

History

Heston airfield opened on 6th July 1929 and was operated by Airwork Ltd, a company created for that purpose. It initially served as a location for flying schools and aircraft sales. The early airfield buildings were grouped on the southern edge of the airfield with hangars to the west and east of the clubhouse, customs facilities and control tower. In January 1930 the Secretary of State and the Air Ministry designated Heston a customs airfield, making it the first unsubsidised commercial airport in the United Kingdom to have this facility.

Heston was at the forefront of airfield development in the early 1930s, with night-flying under floodlights tested here. It became the favourite departure point for long-distance flight record attempts and was used for air races. In September 1931 it was renamed Heston Airport, with scheduled services flying to the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands, and serving as a stop-off point on routes between the north of England and France. Aircraft were also manufactured here from 1933 onwards, and British Airways operated out of Heston during this decade. In 1938 Heston was the airfield from which Neville Chamberlain flew to and from Germany for his ill-fated Appeasement talks with Adolf Hitler.

During the Second World War the airfield was home to Heston Flight, under II Group Fighter Command controlled from RAF Northolt. Numerous other units were based here, including the United States Army Air Force in the later years of the war. Heston was significant as the home of wartime photographic reconnaissance and survey, with the first high-altitude photographic mission flown by Heston Flight paving the way for all subsequent use of photography by the RAF.

Following the opening of Heathrow in early 1946, the Minister of Civil Aviation announced that Heston no longer had a future and was to close. It did so in 1947. The M4 motorway and Heston motorway services now occupy part of the former flying field. The clubhouse and control tower were demolished in 1978, and the hangar is now the only survival of the earliest airfield buildings.

The hangar is one of the original airfield buildings, constructed in 1929 by A Jackamann & Sons Ltd of Slough with structural engineer C E Holloway for Airwork Ltd. As one of four hangars on the early airfield, it was distinguished from them by its unusual design: it was the first all-concrete aircraft hangar built in Britain and was therefore quite a departure from both contemporary and earlier civilian or military hangars. Its reinforced concrete frame was constructed in a unique arched shape with a single set of wooden folding doors (of Esavian type and 18 feet high) at the north end. It was a substantial 100 feet by 80 feet and functioned as a lock-up hangar for the aerodrome.

The building was discussed in the architectural press at the time, including the Architects Journal (August 1929) and The Structural Engineer (September 1930), and was photographed by the architectural photographer Herbert Felton for The Architect and Building News (December 1929). These articles attribute the design to Leslie Magnus Austin and Harold Franklyne Murrell, who were also responsible for Heston's terminal building and control tower. The hangar featured integral workshop facilities and first-floor offices to the north and south with separate external entrance stairs to each side. Later an extra row of Art Deco single-storey offices were added to the western elevation, illustrated in The Architectural Review of October 1935. Late 20th-century additions and alterations are not of special interest.

The building is listed for being the first all-concrete hangar built in Britain and thus technologically innovative in a national context, for its unusual and elegant curved design, and for its historic interest as an original building of Heston airfield (later Heston Airport), an early civilian airfield which had no military antecedents and which became one of London's first airports.