Building No 87 (Fire Party House)

Fire Party House, RAF Bicester Technical Site

A fire-party garage and rest-room built in 1938 by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings, to drawing number 3344/37. The building is constructed of dark red brick in Flemish bond with an asbestos-cement slate roof.

The building follows a compact T-plan, consisting of a single storey throughout. The long front range serves as the fire-tender garage, while the short transverse rear wing contains an office and rest-room. Both sections are topped with hipped roofs.

The south-east front elevation facing the access road features a broad recessed garage door with protective concrete blocks set into the external paving, flanked to the right by a single window. To the left of the garage door are three windows, while to the right are three further windows set high and flanked by deep doors with over-lights. Windows are wooden sash type, set to flush lintels with stooled sills. The cross wing displays three windows to the rear and two windows to each hipped end. A small ridge stack stands near the front hip.

The interior retains a parquet floor and panelled doors where original.

This building was added to the Technical Site during the 1930s Expansion Period to house the duty fire crew, who previously occupied quarters in the nearby Guardhouse. The architectural treatment is consistent with 1920s designs, with brickwork properly bonded, including closers to the window and door openings. The building remains externally unaltered and forms part of a uniquely important group of structures at the airfield.

RAF Bicester is the best-preserved of the bomber bases constructed during Sir Hugh Trenchard's expansion of the RAF from 1923 onwards, based on a philosophy of offensive deterrence. It 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 up to 1939, documenting how expansion reflected both domestic political pressures and international events. During much of the Second World War, RAF Bicester functioned as an Operational Training Unit, training Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand air crews alongside British personnel for service in Bomber Command. The Technical Site, separated from the Domestic Site, preserves many original buildings dating mostly from 1926, with others added during successive phases of the 1930s expansion. The grass flying field survives with its 1939 boundaries largely intact, bounded by bomb stores built in 1938–9 and airfield defences erected in the early stages of the Second World War.