Building 20 (Main Stores)

This is a main stores building, constructed between 1935 and 1936. It was designed by A. Bulloch, the architectural advisor to the Air Ministry’s Directorate of Works and Buildings, as indicated by Drawing No 2057/34. The exterior is faced with bath stone ashlar on brick walls, with profiled tile roofing.

The building is a large, square block, predominantly single-storey, with a hipped U-plan enclosing a lower, flat-roofed area containing a small central courtyard. On the airfield side, a taller garage or store projects slightly forward, topped with a plain hipped roof extending from the eaves; the remainder of the building has parapets.

The building stands on a slight plinth. The hipped roofs are set to high parapets with flush coping, and the steel casement windows, generally grouped under a lintel course, have horizontal bars. The loading front (to the southeast) has a central section with three wide openings leading to a loading platform, now blocked with brickwork, but retaining two narrow overlights, one with a three-light casement inserted, flanked on each side by narrow single lights, all under a raised parapet. To each side of the central section is a large three-light window flanked by narrow single lights, all aligned under a common lintel course. The southwest return has eleven tall windows under a common lintel course, and a plank door to the left. The northeast return has seven two-light windows, flanked by a single light at each end. The pavilion returns to these wings have the same triple window layout as the front. The northwest front features a tall hipped block without parapets, containing a full-height opening without doors. This is linked to the side wings by low annexes, each with a three-light casement and a plank door.

The interior features exposed steel trusses and original joinery, including panelled and sliding doors throughout.

This distinctive building is one of a group of technically significant structures at this nationally important site. It retains original windows and fitments and demonstrates a successful combination of functionality and aesthetics, characteristic of the early expansion phase of the Royal Air Force after 1934. Buildings 20, 22, 23, 24 and 25 face an avenue behind the hangar line and bisecting the site’s main southeast-northwest axis. Hullavington, which opened on June 6th 1937 as a Flying Training Station, exemplifies the improved architectural quality of air bases developed during that period. The station’s location in the west of England, alongside other training and maintenance bases, led to its selection in 1938 as one of a series of Aircraft Storage Units housing vital reserves for frontline operations. Further details regarding the site can be found in descriptions for Buildings 59, 60 and 61 (The Officers' Mess).