Building 25 (Central Heating Plant)

This central heating plant was constructed between 1935 and 1936, designed by A. Bulloch, who was the architectural adviser to the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. It is built with bath stone ashlar facing brick, with concrete flat roofs.

The building comprises a tall, thin tower incorporating water storage and a flue, positioned slightly off-centre to a two-storey boiler room and associated spaces, which are set back from the tower’s face. Behind the main structure is a fuel storage area with oil tanks.

The tower is rectangular, with straight vertical sides terminating in a flat top. Three of its faces feature a narrow, vertical slot, resolved into an arched head, and continued as a sunken panel above. An arched doorway provides access. Attached to the tower, a smaller, square stack is set back approximately 2 metres above the roofline of the lower blocks. Windows are steel casements with horizontal bars, and have slight drip courses. Two bays to the left of the tower contain two-light windows at each level. A louvered opening is above the door to the inner bay, and the side return has two windows above a three-storey unit with a tall steel stack. The rear elevation has four three-light clerestory windows. Three large storage cylinders are contained within a low spillage wall.

The interior remains largely intact and is still in use for its original purpose.

The building displays strong Art Deco influences, demonstrating a consistent attention to detail and overall impact, comparable to other buildings within the site. It faces onto the avenue behind the hangar line, which bisects the main east-south east to west-north west axis of the site.

Hullavington, which opened on June 6th 1937 as a Flying Training Station, exemplifies the improved architectural quality characteristic of Royal Air Force bases developed after 1934. In 1938, it was selected as one of a series of Aircraft Storage Units to hold vital reserves intended for deployment. Further information on the site can be found in descriptions for Buildings 59, 60 and 61 (The Officers' Mess).