Building 52C (Main Depot Offices)

Building 52C (Main Depot Offices)

This is the Airmen's Institute at the former RAF Netheravon airfield. It was designed in 1913 and completed in the middle of 1914 by architect D M Franklin, with drawings counter-signed by Colonel A M Stuart, Assistant Director of Fortifications and Works.

The building is constructed with a softwood timber frame faced with asbestos-cement panels and linings. The joints between panels are covered with painted softwood battens. The structure sits on concrete levelling slabs with a plinth offset, and the roof is covered with asbestos-cement slates laid diagonally. The building has a rectangular plan with a verandah to the front.

The exterior features sash windows set within a grid of vertical and horizontal battens that frame the window openings and cover the panel joints. A flat-roofed open verandah stretches the full width of the front, supported on eight slender timber posts, and covers a concrete apron. This verandah shelters three sash windows and two panelled doors. A further door and small sash window are located in a projecting porch at the far right. The rear elevation is detailed in a similar manner. Two small ridge stacks are present on the roof.

The building is similar in date and architectural detail to the principal domestic group on the western side of the airfield. The interior has been stripped of most fittings, though some partitions remain. The composite roof trusses feature iron raking tie-rods which are exposed below the sloping ceilings.

This is the most distinctive and best-preserved of the technical buildings on this exceptionally well-preserved and historically important airfield site. Netheravon comprises one of three sites around the Army training ground at Salisbury Plain (along with Upavon and Larkhill) that relate to the crucial formative phase of military aviation development in Europe prior to the First World War. It was the first new squadron station selected and developed by the Royal Flying Corps' Military Wing. Development of this part of the airfield began in January 1913. The surviving technical buildings from the Motor Transport Depot include three workshops (Buildings 43B, 43C and 57) lining the main service road, and the main depot offices represented by this building.

The Royal Flying Corps made its first move to Netheravon prior to Christmas 1912. In June 1913, the men and machines of the Royal Flying Corps' 3 and 4 Squadrons were relocated here from Farnborough, at which time the technical buildings were ready, though tented accommodation was still in use as the barracks had not yet been completed. Netheravon was developed as a prototype flying base with distinct separation between domestic and technical camps, with buildings designed to fulfil varied requirements from workshops to recreational facilities, organised according to rank. Before the First World War, the Royal Flying Corps' squadrons were mobilised from stations including Montrose in Scotland and Farnborough before deploying to France with the Expeditionary Force in August 1914. The layout of pre-1914 buildings on the domestic site has been retained intact, and the principles established for the base layout—combining topography with its historical significance as a prototype military air base—have formed the template for subsequent phases of rebuilding and development.