Report - RAF Uxbridge November 2013

[Matt Fellsilnet]

Visited with Southside assassin, on November 2013

The RAF Uxbridge site is very large and has a lot to offer for exploring. Spent a good few hours around the grounds and looking inside the towns buildings. Sadly the site is under demolition and some of the buildings have gone all ready.

History on RAF Uxbridge

RAF Uxbridge was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Uxbridge, within the London Borough of Hillingdon, occupying a 44.6-hectare (110-acre) site that originally belonged to the Hillingdon House estate. The British government purchased the estate in 1915, three years before the founding of the RAF. Until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the station was open to the public.
The station is best known as the headquarters of No. 11 Group RAF, which was responsible for the aerial defence of London and the south-east of England during the Battle of Britain. Hillingdon House served as the group's headquarters. A bunker, subsequently known as the Battle of Britain Bunker, was built nearby to house the 11 Group Operations Room, which controlled fighter squadrons operating within the group. The Operations Room was also responsible for providing air support during the evacuation of Dunkirk in May 1940 (Operation Dynamo) and the D-Day landings (Operation Overlord). It was here that Winston Churchill first said, "Never was so much owed by so many to so few", which he repeated in a speech to Parliament four days later.
RAF Uxbridge closed on 31 March 2010 as part of a reduction in the number of Ministry of Defence properties in the Greater London area. Many of its remaining military units were relocated to nearby RAF Northolt the following day. Plans for redevelopment, consisting of a mixture of new residential and commercial properties and the retention of all listed buildings, were approved in January 2011.[1] A small part of the station incorporating the Battle of Britain Bunker retains the RAF Uxbridge name and is maintained by RAF Northolt.

Thanks for looking.

 

[LutCelt]

Sad to see such a lovely place is such a bad way! Now most of it has gone with the development of the new houses! I went there in 2007 with a cadet camp. Here are some images (only a few) from when I was there. Apologies for the quality of some of the images, it was 2007 and they were taken on a mobile phone!

The Sgt's Mess windows from outside.

The billiard room in the Sgt's mess

Doorway to the former Park House, used by Air Vice Marshal Sir Keith Park

as you can see, we had permission (I think).....

The buildings were in a major state of disrepair....

Hillingdon House from the Sgt's Mess

Hillingdon house

Sgt's Mess window from inside

The old cinema. I believe this is a listed building so may still be there.....
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...-4KIAw&usg=AFQjCNFdFkZ4SRW_DqFvSwuNpu124XgKaA

Entrance to Mons Block

Hope you have enjoyed!!

 

[camoe]

Looks cool - its crazy how quick the vandals move in..

 

[curnock]

so much history there.i am sure the housing could have been made use of,people trying to get on the housing ladder

 

[NorfolkPete]

Gutted at how the base looks in some of these pics however really interesting all the same.

I grew up at RAF Uxbridge, we moved there when I was 10 and left when aged 16, my dad was in the military police. While I knew many years ago the base was being decommission didn't think it would be pretty much flattened. Ironically where we lived is still there on Google maps, we lived at Valley Road and I remember it so well. The surrounding streets where we lived are still there, then a ton of new housing right next to them.

I remember the Sergent's Mess very well, we used to play on the games machines there while my dad was doing things. I remember the round window and the lighting, such a shame it was vandalised.

I was considering, at the age of 50, popping in to see our street and area in a couple of months as we are at a wedding in Reading however don't think I wish to now.

Ref some of the pics, I remember a few things differently:
I never knew Hillingdon House by that name, it was nicknamed the White House, and we used to play war games round it and in the woods and the river Pinn. We would spend most of the summer holidays building dens and messing about. We always thought the White House was haunted.
The Old Cinema pic, I remember this being a gym and indoor football and netball space. We used to play softball in this building, it had a gym too. You used to see some seriously built guys working out there.
I remember the tall comms tower and the American part of the base, my parents had friends up that side of the base. Near that tower was a prefab type building that was an bar, we nicknamed it the American Bar and our parents would take us for summer BBQ's while they all got steadily hammered. Great memories of that small bar which overlooked the river Pinn.
The pics you have of smashed up housing was the other side of the base to where we lived, so I don't remember this area at all, however the comms tower would suggest it's near the American part.
I remember the barracks 'really' well, we used to play round them. I've seen pics of a bar called Churchill's. This near the parade ground and barracks. Don't think it was called this when we were there, we used to play on the arcade game Defender during the day when the bar was shut and no one was about.

So good to see the 2007 pics of the base, can't seen to find 'any' of the base prior to it being shut down and then smashed up. We left in 1982 and I think I'll hold on to what I remember rather than revisit even though the street and house we lived in still remains.

RAF Uxbridge was a great place to grow up, such good memories Pete