Building 77 (Guardhouse), Aircraft Storage Unit Site

1360/0/1018

ST PAUL MALMESBURY WITHOUT HULLAVINGTON BARRACKS Building 77 (Guardhouse), Aircraft Storage Unit site

GV II

Office. 1938, by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Drawing no. 2878/37. Bath stone ashlar on brick, hipped profiled tile roof covering.

PLAN: Rectangular plan.

EXTERIOR: Single-storey, 5-bay range. Parapet to lintel band, to the front being a 5-bay verandah/loggia with stylised columns and panelled double doors with overlight flanked by ashlar cheeks and each side two 2-light steel casements with horizontal glazing bars. Similar casement in each end wall.

INTERIOR: retains original joinery including panelled doors.

HISTORY: This building, a fine example of the high quality of post-1934 RAF architecture, comprises part of a remarkably complete technical group, established to the N of the main group on this nationally-important base for the purpose of providing repair and administration facilities to the Aircraft Storage Unit. Hullavington, which opened on June 6th 1937 as a Flying Training Station, is in every respect the key station most strongly representative of the improved architectural quality characteristic of the air bases developed under the post-1934 expansion of the RAF. Its position in the west of England with other training and maintenance bases also prompted its selection in 1938 as one of series of Aircraft Storage Units for the storage of vital reserves destined for the operational front-line. For further details on the site, see Buildings 59, 60 and 61 (The Officers' Mess).