Building Nos 146 And 147 (Station Offices And Operation Block)

Station Administrative Offices and Operations Block

Built in 1926 by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings to drawings numbered 1443/24 (for the offices) and 1161/24 (for the operations block), these linked buildings form part of RAF Bicester's Technical Site. The offices building stands prominently at the main gate, facing the Guardhouse across the main avenue, and housed both key operational and administrative functions that were considered important enough to warrant significant architectural treatment.

The offices are constructed of dark red brickwork in English bond with hipped asbestos-cement slate roofs. The building comprises two storeys with a part basement, arranged as a long rectangular range with slightly brought-forward hipped pavilion ends. A central entrance leads to an entrance hall with a transverse internal corridor, which connects via a link passageway to the separate operations range. A traversed brick wall that once surrounded the operations block has been removed.

The main front elevation displays 2+3+2 bays. Steel casements of 2 lights with transom and mullion are set beneath flush concrete lintels with slight stopped chamfer and stooled sills. The recessed centre features two 2-panel doors with over-light, flanked by casements and sheltered beneath a verandah. This verandah has a later corrugated asbestos-cement roof with hipped returns, supported by four square concrete posts with slight chamfering to their bases and wide impost heads. Above the verandah sits a central bulls-eye light flanked by small casements, with a flat roof at eaves level. The right return has three casements at each floor; the left has two. The plain rear elevation has regularly spaced windows. All quoins feature brick rustication, and a small ridge stack rises to the right of the door.

A simple low corridor with pitched roof connects to the adjoining operations building. This is a single-storey range with a hipped roof, extending ten bays with tall casements and two casements on each return. Later infill exists between the two main blocks. Both ranges expose their rafters to open eaves.

The interior retains original joinery including panelled doors and a circular aperture serving a camera obscura. A dog-leg staircase with iron balusters and wreathed handrail survives.

Bicester is the best-preserved of the bomber bases developed as the principal arm of Sir Hugh Trenchard's expansion of the RAF from 1923, which was founded on a philosophy of offensive deterrence. The Technical Site retains, better than any other military airbase in Britain, both the layout and fabric relating to pre-1930s military aviation and the development of Britain's strategic bomber force during a period when expansion reflected both domestic political pressures and international events up to 1939. The grass flying field still survives with its 1939 boundaries largely intact, bounded by bomb stores built in 1938–9 and airfield defences from the early Second World War. During 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 units, of which Bicester now forms the premier surviving example, fulfilled the critical role of enabling bomber crews to form and train as complete units after individual members had trained in flying, bombing, gunnery and navigation.