Control Tower at former Greenham Common airbase

Control Tower at former Greenham Common airbase

The control tower stands to the north of the former runway in a roughly central position along its length. This location, known as Area A during the Cold War, also housed a number of dispersed buildings including some occupied by the Bomb Squadron, though these have since been demolished.

The tower is a type 5223a/51 design. This comprises a central two-storey tower, almost square in plan measuring 33 feet 6 inches by 32 feet 6 inches, surmounted by a roof-mounted visual control room forming an additional floor. Single-storey wings extend to each side, measuring 25 feet by 23 feet. The façade features three metal-framed windows to each floor of the tower and three further windows to each wing. Plant and storage occupy the rear of the building. Construction is in brick laid in stretcher bond with cavity walls and concrete floors. The first-floor level has suspended floorboards supported on concrete dwarf walls, allowing cable runs to be concealed in the void beneath.

The internal layout follows the regulation plan used in all 5223a/51 towers. The main entrance is positioned in the north-west of the building, with a pyro store for flares and similar items and a ventilating plant room also in the north-west, and a roofless transformer enclosure accessed by external steel gates to the north-east. The main double-doored entrance opens into a west-east corridor with stairs to upper floors in the centre rear (north), flanked by WCs for both sexes and storage. Ground floor technical rooms include a GPO equipment room (identifiable by under-floor ducting), radio equipment room, signals workshop, medium voltage switchgear room (usually with steel door), battery room, and the 'A' Centre equipment with external side access. The first floor is largely occupied by a large southern radar control room accessed through double doors and via steel stairs onto the flat roofs of the side wings. Also on the first floor are the Senior Air Traffic Control Officer's office and a rest room. The top floor comprises a single octagonal visual control room with a steel frame and single glazing. Heating ducts arrange beneath the windows to prevent misting, and the interior is clad with soundproof tiles. An escape hatch doorway provides access to the upper roof with a vertical escape ladder to the rear (north). All flat roofs are edged with steel safety railings.

Since closure of the base, the control tower has not been operational. Though it has experienced some vandalism, it survives largely as it was left. The original 1950s staircase remains with its curving metal balustrade. Internal solid wooden doors survive, some with Bakelite handles consistent with the 1950s date, though some have been replaced in metal. Under-window electric heaters with heater guards are present, along with lighting cables, sockets and switches. Remnants of switchgear and cabling for tower operation survive, some running within substantial in-wall or under-floor cable ducts. Internal signage remains, including identification of the junction box for the Active Runway Identifier and a military badge applied to a ground floor doorway. The second floor steel frame survives, though glazing does not, with soundproof tiles and under-window wood-clad heating ducts intact.

Modifications to the original form include insertion of suspended ceilings and replacement of the majority of original window frames in brown plastic. These changes are historic, dating to the 1980s cruise missile era on the base. A pair of 1950s metal-framed casement windows do survive in situ in the south-west corner room of the ground floor. Parts of the interior show evidence of re-decoration, with an earlier blue-green scheme over-painted with the brown and cream colours of the USAF.

Externally, steel safety railings and the roof-top escape ladder survive, though the latter is damaged. Some original cast iron rainwater goods also remain.