Building 32 (Station Church)

Station church attached to Squadron Offices, designed in 1935–1936 by A. Bulloch, architectural advisor to the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings (Drawing No. 932/34). Constructed in Bath stone ashlar on brickwork with concrete floors and plain tile roof covering.

The building is composed of two principal elements linked by a narrow connector, forming an H-shaped plan. The large single-storey church faces the approach road to the north-east, with a recessed altar-sanctuary and small storage or office spaces flanked at the south-east end. A narrow two-storey link containing toilets connects this to the principal office range, which faces south-west towards the Officers' Mess. The office range is two storeys with wings at either end, also forming a very flat H plan. An open well staircase sits off the central axis adjoining the link unit, with a central corridor serving double-banked offices. Larger classrooms close off each end in the wings. All roofs are steeply pitched with hipped ends. A large flat-roofed later addition is attached to the most southerly wing but is not included in this listing.

All windows are original multi-paned wooden sashes in flush boxes, some of considerable size, breaking through the modest box eaves-line. The main two-storey range displays seven 24-pane sashes at first-floor level above 21-pane units with segmental arched heads, flanking a central pair of panelled doors with a full arched over-light with intersecting bars in a flush arch, featuring keystone and respond capitals. The outer hipped ends of the wings have large 40-pane sashes breaking through the eaves into hipped half-dormers, with two similar units on the long returns flanked by 20-pane windows at each end (the right example partly obscured by extensions). At the inner end of the left wing the roof steps down over two small 9-pane windows; the right wing retains three lights. These wings are single-storey. The rear of the two-storey range has square-headed 16-pane windows to the ground floor; the link contains sundry small lights. The church features three very large 45-pane windows breaking the eaves-line, alternating with four 24-pane windows, and five 24-pane on the inner flank. The right return contains a small pair of plank doors within a large area of restructured stonework. The left-hand end has later attached units. The ridge of the church block has three deep slots, possibly for ventilation.

Interior finishes are generally simple, with dado rail moulded into plain plastered surfaces and plastic tile or linoleum flooring. Doors are panelled and half-glazed. The staircase—now enclosed at the upper level for fire safety—is an open well structure of concrete construction with a closed string, featuring a rectangular steel bar balustrade with paired balusters and four raking rails supporting a swept hardwood handrail in Art Deco style. The church hall is simply finished with internally expressed roof sweeps and windows set into recesses.

Hullavington opened as a Flying Training Station on 6 June 1937 and represents the improved architectural quality characteristic of RAF air bases developed during the post-1934 expansion. Building 32 is a striking, carefully detailed composition that retains its original varied and varied-sized windows, which by breaking through the eaves-line create a powerfully modelled architectural ensemble. The station's location in the west of England with other training and maintenance bases led to its selection in 1938 as one of a series of Aircraft Storage Units for reserves destined for operational front-line use.