17, Stores, East Fortune Hospital

A former sick bay from circa 1916, this single-storey rectangular building with three bays formed part of the Royal Naval Airship Station at East Fortune. It is constructed with a concrete plinth incorporating an integral drainage channel, a brick base course, and walls of white-painted corrugated iron. The roof is a pitched structure also of white-painted corrugated iron, with painted timber eaves course and bargeboards.

The principal entrance, positioned at the centre of the gabled south elevation, consists of a timber panelled 2-leaf door with a 4-pane rectangular fanlight, set within an advanced single bay on the left side. Windows to the side elevations are positioned close to the eaves; these are multi-pane metal-framed casement windows with top hung hoppers, though some glazing is non-original.

The interior, as observed in 2010, is lined throughout with painted vertical timber boarding to both walls and ceilings.

This building is one of the few surviving original structures from East Fortune, a significant First World War airship base established following Admiralty approval in September 1915 to protect east coast shipping from German submarines and Zeppelins. The Royal Naval Air Station was officially commissioned on 23 August 1916. East Fortune is the most complete example of a purpose-built First World War airship base surviving in the United Kingdom. The rigid airship shed was constructed in winter 1916 to 1917, followed by expansion including additional hangars and brick replacement of wooden barracks.

Following the First World War, the station launched the pioneering airship HMA R.34, which made the first East-West trans-Atlantic flight and the first return crossing by air. The airship station closed on 4 February 1920, and the large sheds were dismantled in 1922. In 1922 a portion of the station was sold and operated as a sanatorium until 1997, though it was requisitioned during the Second World War as part of an RAF and WAAF training base. The Air Ministry Record Site Plan of 1945 records this building as a ship recognition building; it subsequently served as a sewing room and stores when the site functioned as a sanatorium.

The building is largely unaltered and represents a rare surviving example of a corrugated iron military structure of this period. It forms part of an A-Group listing which includes the East Fortune Hospital Welfare Office, Offices, Nursing Administration Block, Driver's Office, Loading Bay, and Recreation Hall.

The site is situated north of the disused East Fortune airfield (a scheduled monument) and has operated as the National Museum of Flight since 1975.