Buildings Nos 29, 42, 35 And 36 (Type 'E' Barracks Blocks)

Airmen's barracks at RAF Bicester. Buildings 35 and 36 date from 1927, and buildings 29 and 42 from 1937. Designed by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings to drawing numbers 640/22, 104/23 and 965/27. Constructed in dark red brick laid in stretcher bond with concrete floors and hipped slate roofs.

The buildings follow a T-plan with short centre arm. Dormitory rooms on each of two levels flank a central entrance and staircase, with a short service block to the rear. The Type E blocks (buildings 35 and 36) accommodated 80 airmen and 3 NCOs; the later blocks held 96 airmen. All buildings are now used as offices.

Each block measures 6+3+6 bays. The earlier buildings have evenly spaced windows, while the later ones feature paired window groupings. Windows are predominantly timber 12-pane sashes, with some 8-pane examples and smaller windows in the service block. All windows are set to flush, chamfered and stopped concrete lintels with stooled sills. The centre unit has squared turrets brought forward slightly, each with separate hipped roofs, flanking a central pair of 3-panel doors under a deep recessed panel. Above the doors is a projecting flat concrete hood, surmounted by a full-width 4-light casement in concrete surrounds. The hipped ends originally featured 12-pane sashes at each level; most now have doors to escape stairs (except building 42). Building 42 has two small eaves stacks flanking the central bay. Rear walls contain 8 and 12-pane sashes, with the service wing featuring various sashes and a door on the north side. All roofs are slightly swept to the box eaves with deep soffits.

The interior features a central concrete dog-leg staircase with simple steel balustrade and handrail.

These are unusually well-preserved examples of inter-war RAF barracks, retaining the architectural style of the RAF's first phase of permanent buildings. Buildings 35 and 36 represent the first standard Type E design for RAF barracks, upon which successive designs throughout the 1930s were based. It is notable that this design was reproduced identically in two pairs built 15 years apart, demonstrating consistent architectural quality evidenced in features such as the swept roof slopes at the eaves. The four buildings relate both to the first phase of construction and to later 1930s buildings to the north.

RAF Bicester is the best-preserved of the bomber bases constructed following Sir Hugh Trenchard's expansion of the RAF from 1923, underpinned by a philosophy of offensive deterrence. The station retains, better than any other military airbase in Britain, the layout and fabric relating to pre-1930s military aviation and the development of Britain's strategic bomber force, reflecting both domestic political pressures and world events up to 1939. The grass flying field survives with its 1939 boundaries largely intact, bounded by bomb stores built in 1938–9 and airfield defences from the early Second World War. For much of the Second World War, RAF Bicester functioned as an Operational Training Unit, training Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British air crews for Bomber Command service. These OTUs, of which Bicester is the premier surviving example, fulfilled the critical function of enabling bomber crews to form and train as operational units after individual members had completed flying, bombing, gunnery and navigation training.