So I was meant to do a post on this a few weeks ago but I ended up off in Germany exploring some incredibly cool stuff for a week (probably to emerge from the backlog in half a years time). I seem to have started off a bit of a Bedford craze this summer with my 3x3 post, and whilst it's been sitting there for the taking for years it's good to see people appreciating this site once again. Now we have none other than non-forum user Gary to thank for this, because he decided to visit the site back in October last year to find the 3x3 open. Whilst telling me about it back then, it wasn't until this July when I finally got round to going. And that's how my post below resulted. I must give credit to @mockney reject who recently clocked the 8x8 and gave me the heads up after I couldn't find a way in on my first visit. I was down there within a few days of him mentioning it as I couldn't miss completing the duo, and for all intents and purposes it's the bigger sexier cousin of the 3x3.
Report - - RAE Bedford 3x3 & RAF Thurleigh Camp - July 2023 | Military Sites
This place is nothing new so I won't overdo the history. Thanks to a non-forum explorer for alerting me that it was still doable - haven't seen it done in some time. Thought it would be worth a repost both for an update and so I can share my shots! Thought I'd throw the RAF Thurleigh camp in as...www.28dayslater.co.uk
Since then, there's been a fair bit of renewed interest in the RAE Bedford site, which seemed to have its heyday between 2012 and 2019 before going quiet. The site hardly seems to have changed since, I'm guessing there was a temporary security crackdown at the end of this period but that must have been brief. Fortunately it has escaped any real vandalism and hasn't deteriorated a whole lot (save the 3x3 which is rotten af). It's worth checking out @JakeV50's recent post here which provides an excellent overview of all the explored areas of the RAE site. Whilst his post already covers it well, this building was so nice I thought I'd do my own take on it and show off the control room with all the lights on, which had me well beyond half mast. For the record I still think there's more undiscovered stuff here, and what people seem to have covered so far of the 8x8, including myself, seems to miss out the northern half of the building, so keep your eyes peeled for future discoveries people.
For the history, I'm going to just quote my previous post for this as below. If anyone is interested in a more comprehensive history of the place with some nice photographs, they should read this: https://www.bahg.org.uk/documents/L&T Release 1/Life & Times Volume 1 1950s - 20180719.pdf
The 8x8 wind tunnel facility in 1956 nearing completion.
The section covered in this report is that on the right and centre. Still don't know what's in the left half - someone else might?
FIRST CONTROL ROOM
So upon entering the building we swiftly walked through the hall towards the offices at the rear of the building. As with any building I visit containing a control room, I head straight to the jewel in the crown first as there's no way I'm accepting defeat due to loitering in other areas. I wasn't entirely sure how many control rooms there were here as it's hard to get a sense of it from people's posts, but this less-impressive one was the first one I came to and it was still enough to make the 2 hour trip worthwhile. I believe this one served the actual wind tunnel's operation. The lights unfortunately only partially worked so it was a bit dimly lit. I'm going to guess it was built a bit later than the other control room, maybe in the 70s although I could be wrong, but it was still nice. Some interesting plans of the wind tunnel had been placed on a table as a kind of informal display.
SECOND CONTROL ROOM
After looking at the first control room and a few fairly empty office rooms, I'd sort of become distracted from the possibility of finding more. Having mentioned that there might be more than one to my mate, it was only when we checked in the far corner of another room that we stumbled upon this gem. From what I understand, it was a control room for powering the facility, rather than for the wind tunnel itself. That makes me wonder if the locked up half of the 8x8 facility might contain a turbine hall, but I have no idea.
Anyway, we entered the room with a crack of light peeking through a half-boarded window and were impressed. We located the light switches and wow, they sprung to action to illuminate the room perfectly. The ceiling lights in this room are shaped quite nicely, and although this control room lacks a skylight, the electric lighting still makes a pretty pattern which adds to the room's perfect minimalist form. As my mate said, it was like being on board a retrofuturistic spaceship. It looked as though it had barely changed since the 1950s, and it was immaculate. The hum of the fluorescent lighting mirrored the buzz of the feeling of having made it into this heavenly bright space. I really didn't expect something THIS good, and it cemented itself as probably one of the nicest things I've seen in the UK.
MAIN HALL
So this was the main central space in the building. From the outside, this is the big rectangle on the southern side. There's also another big rectangle to the north, as I say someone needs to find out what's in there. A very big impressive space complete with cool old-school lights and some gantry cranes.
This room contained the exhausts for the wind tunnel jets, and when it was last popular on the urbex scene it had this nice swirly exhaust cover fan-looking thing embedded in the wall. Well the room has since been modified a bit as it's hireable for film shoots, and a false floor has been added over half of the room and the wall containing the swirly exhaust cover has been bricked up and convincingly repainted. The exhaust cover thing lies next to it propped against a support as a nod to how it once looked.
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