Building 66 (Guard And Firehouse)

STANTON ST QUINTIN

1384/0/10026 HULLAVINGTON BARRACKS 01-DEC-05 Building 66 (Guard and Firehouse)

GV II Guardhouse and fire-party quarters and garage. 1935 - 6. A Bulloch, architectural advisor to the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Drawing No 4734/35. Bath stone ashlar on brickwork, plain tile roof covering.

PLAN: A rectangular single-storey block around a small central courtyard; an open arcade/verandah across the central section at the front. Principal offices to the front, with a later glazed lobby inserted to part of the arcade, cell, garage, offices and WCs to side and rear, slightly modified from original use.

EXTERIOR: A compact building with high-pitched hipped roofs behind parapets - the main front range behind the arcade has a higher ridge than the remainder, the slight wings stepped back behind the 5 arched bays on broad piers and responds to a high plinth. Simple capital and flush voussoirs with keystones; an arch returns at either end. Behind the arcade remain 3 of the original wooden 15-pane sashes, but the entrance modified, with a timber framed and glazed kiosk. To the left a high level grilled light, and on the return high level lights, with a door at the far end. The right-hand end, also slightly set back, has a door to the front, and on the return a large casement, 3 smaller vertical lights, a door, and the wide vehicle doorway. The back has 3 central blind arches containing 12-pane sashes and to a lightly higher parapet, flanked by a 9 and 6-pane each side.

INTERIOR: Not inspected.

HISTORY: This building is one of a group of buildings at this nationally important site that are both substantially complete - with original windows and other fitments - and which display the successful fusion of functional and aesthetic requirements that distinguished the early phase of the post-1934 expansion of the RAF. As befits the first building seen by visitor and staff, the guardhouse is presented as a dignified structure with careful detailing and finish; in this case the open arcade, besides being functionally necessary, enhances the overall quality of the range.

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).