Summary
Security police headquarters building, built in 1977 for the United States Air Force. It was designed by JE Gray, structural engineer to the Public Services Agency, and constructed by George Wimpey Limited.
Reasons for Designation
The Alert Facility Building (Building Number 103), built in 1977 as a security police headquarters, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* it embodies the strong political ties and co-operation that existed between the United Kingdom and United States (‘the special relationship’) throughout the Cold War;
* for its contribution to the overall significance of RAF Alconbury as one of the most significant Cold War airfields.
Architectural interest:
* no examples of comparable buildings are known from other Cold War airfields nationally at the present time and it is therefore possible that this is a unique design and survival;
* the presence of military wall art representing the buildings’ former use, along with the reaction of servicemen to the spaces in which they worked, adds further to its interest.
History
AIRFIELD
RAF Alconbury began life in early 1938 when the Air Ministry acquired 150 acres of farmland on Alconbury Hill to test its viability as a satellite airfield. After a successful test in May by the Fairey Battles of Number 63 Squadron from nearby RAF Upwood, Little Stukeley landing ground, as it was probably known at the time, was provisionally accepted as Britain’s first satellite airfield on 2 June. Although Battles arrived again on 1 September 1939 with Number 52 Squadron, they left again just six days later, and Alconbury quickly became a satellite airfield to RAF Wyton, Cambridgeshire. The facilities at this time were rudimentary, consisting of a briefing room and bomb stores. However, this changed in 1941, when three runways were laid out, and a watch tower and operations room (listed Grade II) were added, along with around 26 additional aircraft hardstandings and two T2-Type hangars for aircraft maintenance. Numerous pre-fabricated buildings were also erected for accommodation and specialist technical purposes along a unit headquarters.
Alconbury’s long association with the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) commenced in 1942 with the arrival of the 8th Air Forces 93rd Bomb Group with their Consolidated B-24 Liberators. The airfield subsequently filled a variety of roles under the 8th Air Force, including the activation of the 482nd Bomb Group (Pathfinder) on 10 August 1943, the only USAAF group to be activated outside the United States, with a specific role in developing radar and other electronic navigational devices for ‘blind bombing’ and ‘bombing through cloud’.
On the 1 March 1944, Station 547, the Abbots Ripton Strategic Air Depot, built immediately to the east of the airfield, became operational. It consisted of four T2 hangars, technical shops and additional hard standings. A taxi-way was also laid out across the Abbots Ripton road to allow aircraft to pass between the airfield and the depot.
In November 1945, the airfield was handed back to the RAF and taken over by Number 264 Maintenance Unit. On 28 March 1949 Abbots Ripton was placed in care and maintenance, and in 1954 it was administratively combined with RAF Alconbury.
On 1 June 1953, with heightened international tension following several major crises, including the Berlin Blockade (1948-1949) and the Korean War (1950-1953), the airfield was reactivated under the United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE) as one of the bases for the US 3rd Air Force. Major construction work subsequently took place in 1954, including a new 9,000ft runway, a new control tower and numerous other infrastructure, including hangars and bomb stores for both nuclear and conventional weapons.
From 1959 Alconbury assumed what was to be its principal Cold War role as the home to various reconnaissance squadrons, with the 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing with their Douglas RB-66b Destroyer aircraft being the first to arrive in August. The airfield was substantially remodelled between 1977 and 1980, being provided with a new set of bomb proof, hardened structures. Most notable was the construction of 28 Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS), built to a standard NATO design, and intended to hold, initially, reconnaissance Phantom aircraft. A series of Squadron Operations and Command Centres were also built along with ‘Hush Houses’.
On 22 February 1983 Alconbury received a pair of Lockheed TR-1A Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft, an upgraded version of the very high altitude and long-range surveillance aircraft which was better known as the U-2 ‘spy plane’. The primary function of these aircraft, with their ultra-high technology equipment, was to fill a serious gap in the collection of intelligence, particularly from the Warsaw Pact countries. To manage TR-1A operations, Strategic Air Command (SAC) had activated the 17th Reconnaissance Wing (RW) on 1 October 1982, with the 95th Reconnaissance Squadron (RS) its flying component. It became operational five months later when three more TR1-As arrived out of an eventual dozen. To accommodate aircraft with 103ft (31m) wingspans, thirteen extra-wide hardened aircraft shelters (Building Numbers 4100 to 4112) were built in the northern section of the airfield at an estimated total cost of some $42,980,900, with a further £13,610,000 spent on new taxiways, engine run-up areas and concrete aprons. To service the electronic components of the reconnaissance aircraft and process the data received, an Avionics and Photography Interpretation Centre (Building Number 210), which is listed Grade II*, was built at a cost of around $18 million, while three combined buildings housing the Physiological Support Division (PSD) and 17th RW Squadron Operations (Building Numbers 199, 200, and 201) were constructed at a total cost of around $12,470,000. Most of the TR-1A project at Alconbury was financed through NATO funding and is believed to have exceeded $134,000,000 when it was completed in 1990. In the same year TR-1A aircraft from Alconbury participated in operation Desert Shield after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait.
The supposed end of the Cold War saw the beginning of the end of flying at Alconbury. The TR-1As left in September 1993 and all flying ceased in early 1995, although part of the airfield remained in use by the Americans for communications duties, while other parts were adapted for commercial use as well as a police training centre for Cambridge Constabulary. Alconbury finally closed as a USAFE base in 2022.
The majority of the airfield is currently being developed as Alconbury Weald, a new settlement of around 6,500 homes, with supporting infrastructure and facilities, including shops, schools, health and leisure facilities.
ALERT FACILITY BUILDING (BUILDING NUMBER 103)
The Alert Facility Building at RAF Alconbury, which functioned as a security police headquarters, is believed to have been built in 1977 by George Wimpey Limited. It was designed by JE Gray, a structural engineer at the Property Services Agency (Department of the Environment), who had taken over the airfield's works services requirements from the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works in 1972. It was occupied by the 10th Security Police Squadron who, stationed at Alconbury from 1959 to 1994, conducted law enforcement duties to protect the US Air Force's operational assets, personnel, facilities, and information.
Details
Security police headquarters building, built in 1977 for the United States Air Force. It was designed by JE Gray, structural engineer to the Public Services Agency, and constructed by George Wimpey Limited.
MATERIALS: of reinforced concrete with red facing bricks to the first-floor (excluding the blast valve penthouses).
PLAN: the building is rectangular on plan, aligned roughly east to west, with the blast valves housed in two separate penthouses at the west end.
EXTERIOR: the ground floor is concealed on all four sides by a grassed earthen berm which is cut through at the south-west corner by revetment walls to accommodate a service road. A flat-roofed entrance passage projects at the north-east corner.
On the first floor, the left-hand section of the southern elevation is of painted reinforced concrete and consists of blast valve penthouses. It has four rectangular openings, two with original louvered ventilation grilles and two with replacement ventilation grilles. The remainder of the elevation is of stretcher bond red brick and is blind except for an off-centre left doorway concealed behind a blast wall. The rear elevation is also blind and has an emergency exit shaft enclosed by railings to the off-centre left. To the right, the rear blast valve penthouse is recessed and has three rectangular openings, two with original louvered ventilation grilles and one with replacement ventilation grilles.
INTERIOR: the ground-floor entrance passageway leads to a stairwell with an open-string concrete staircase with square-section metal balusters and moulded handrail. On the ground-floor stairwell wall there is a wall painting depicting the seal of the United States Department of the Air Force.
On the first floor the original room layout of a gun mount room, weapons equipment room, ammunitions store and toilets still survives, all with their original steel doors. In the wall between the weapons equipment room and gun mount room there are three steel-meshed service hatches with steel security doors with spy holes. The guard mount contains a pair of wooden clearing barrels, safety devices designed to capture a discharged round, and the ammunition store contains an ammunition cupboard along with a wall painting depicting the head of a bald eagle.
The ground floor is believed to still retain its original room layout. This includes offices for a weapons security officer, and Flight Chief, along with clean and dirty plant rooms.
Below the ground floor there is a set of three-bay underground chambers, one containing a steel oil tank and one a steel effluent tank, while the third, which is beneath the clean plant room, is a concrete chamber for storing cold water.
