BUILDINGS 43, 46, 48 AND 50 (TYPE Q BARRACKS)

Four airmen's barracks blocks, type Q, built in 1935-6 at Hullavington Barracks. They were designed by A Bulloch, architectural advisor to the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. The buildings are constructed of Bath stone ashlar on brick walls, with concrete floors and steel roof trusses supporting profiled tiles.

The four blocks are arranged in parallel pairs flanking the main parade ground. All are two-storey symmetrical buildings with a central entrance and staircase hall, flanked by NCO's bedrooms and airmen's dormitories. Behind the entrance hall is a projecting service wing containing ablutions and toilets. Buildings 43 and 48 were designed to accommodate 8 NCOs and 156 airmen; buildings 46 and 50 were designed for 8 NCOs and 128 airmen. The buildings have since been modified for use as administrative buildings.

Externally, all blocks feature hipped roofs with parapets to the front range, while the lower service wing roof is taken to an eaves. Two original hopper-heads and downpipes remain to front and rear. The primary description is based on Building 46, with variations noted for the other blocks.

Building 46 has two storeys and 11 bays. The entrance comprises a central pair of fielded panel doors with a radial fanlight under a flush voussoir arch with keystone and responds. Above this is an elongated bull's-eye light, also with keystone. Each side of the entrance has four 12-pane and one 8-pane sashes to each floor. The short returned ends have a narrow 8-pane light each side of an escape door, with the upper door leading to a spiral concrete stair. The rear elevation has three 12-pane and one 8-pane casement each side of the central wing, which has a lower ridge-line abutting the parapet of the front range. The wings have seven small 6-pane casements at each level. On one side, the lower floor includes a series of small roof vents to all slopes near the lower edge of the front range, and all blocks have two small inset roof lights near the ridge. Windows are primarily glazing-bar wood casements to flush boxes.

Buildings 43 and 48 follow the same general format but have 13 bays to the front range, with five larger and one smaller window each side of centre. In these two blocks, all windows have been replaced with plastic-coated units in the original openings, though the main doors remain unchanged.

The interiors have not been inspected, though some subdivision has been made to the spaces.

These four blocks represent significant examples of airmen's barracks from the first phase of the RAF's 1930s Expansion Period. Hullavington opened on 6 June 1937 as a Flying Training Station and is considered the key station most strongly representative of the improved architectural quality characteristic of air bases developed under the post-1934 RAF expansion. The design demonstrates restrained detailing throughout, but careful consideration of massing, spacing and proportions in the neo-Georgian style favoured at this period, influenced by the impact of the Royal Fine Arts Commission and particularly by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. Although the original sashes have been lost, the original forms and composition remain, and the group possesses special interest within the station complex by virtue of its location, architectural quality, and purpose.