Former Officers Mess at former RAF Kenley

Former Officers Mess at former RAF Kenley

Officers' mess designed in 1932 by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. The building is constructed of stretcher bond brick with cavity walls, concrete floors, and a slate roof on steel trusses.

The plan comprises a long, narrow principal range for recreational and dining purposes in two storeys, linked by colonnades to outer accommodation blocks placed at right angles, with kitchen and services positioned to the rear.

The exterior was originally symmetrical, featuring a hipped roof and two storeys arranged in thirteen bays. Each recessed bay is framed by pilasters rising to a dentilled cornice, with rusticated corner pilasters. Flat arches span the transomed cross windows, which contain steel small-paned lights. A tall stair window sits to the right of the porch. Glazing-bar sashes (now boarded) are set in brick voussoirs with stone sub-sills.

The parade ground front is symmetrical with a recessed five-bay centre containing 12-pane above 16-pane sashes. A Portland stone porch with Tuscan columns in antis and a balustraded parapet provides the principal entrance, with panelled double doors in a moulded surround. A Portland stone bay window to the right has a moulded cornice to a plain parapet with 1:3:1 fenestration. An equivalent bay window to the left was destroyed by enemy action in August 1940. The accommodation blocks feature similar fenestration and articulation, with hipped roofs and three-bay fronts linked to the main range by Portland stone Tuscan colonnades with balustraded parapets.

The interior has been remodelled for office accommodation. The principal surviving feature is a wooden dog-leg staircase with turned balusters.

The careful proportions of the building reflect the Air Ministry's consultation with the Royal Fine Arts Commission. Kenley has lost most of its original buildings but retains the most complete fighter airfield associated with the Battle of Britain to have survived. Kenley Common was converted for Royal Flying Corps use in 1917 and enlarged by Act of Parliament in 1939. The 800-yard runways and perimeter tracks, completed in December 1939 and extended by a further 200 yards in 1943, have all survived. All twelve fighter pens, which were under completion in April 1940, also survive, representing a unique preservation of infrastructure directly related to a military action of world historical importance.

Following Sir Hugh Dowding's proposals agreed by the Air Ministry at the end of March 1939, all-weather runways and perimeter tracks were provided for critical fighter bases prone to waterlogging, mostly in 11 Group in the south east of England. Fighter stations were designed to accommodate dispersals for three squadrons of twelve aircraft each. Subsequently, fighter pens with blast-shelter walls and internal air-raid shelters were erected on key fighter airfields. These designs, established by Fighter Command Works and based on trials conducted in August 1938 and overseen closely by Dowding, proved their value during the campaign.

Despite the demolition of the perimeter pillboxes in 1984, Kenley's flying field remains uniquely well-preserved as a Battle of Britain site. On 18 August 1940, Kenley endured one of the most determined Luftwaffe attacks on a sector airfield; photographs of the assault, including an attack on a fighter pen, were subsequently printed in Der Adler magazine. Three personnel were killed during this raid, and three hangars and several aircraft were destroyed. On 30 August, 39 personnel were killed and 26 wounded; raids the following day damaged the operations block. The scars of this action remain visible in post-war repair work to the officers mess, prominently sited on the west side of the aerodrome. This building now stands as the most impressive surviving structure from the station's rebuilding between 1931 and 1933. The last surviving hangar and the control tower were destroyed by fire in 1978. The sector operations block was demolished in 1984.