At last hopes are high to preserve the historic buidings at former RAF Biggin Hill after 20 years of campaigning. Plans are to create and preserve the wartime feel of the site by restoring the existing buidings and to create a Heritage Centre, shop and cafe.There will also be a series of exhibitions, walkways and veiwing points to take visitors through the 90 years history of the famous airfield. This is really good news as Biggin Hill is arguably THE most famous fighter airfield in the world. The amount of times I have driven past those buildings and commented on how much of a shame it is to let such a historic place especially in the Battle of Britain, become a crumbling ruin, it surely must be preserved.
By: SADSACK - 6th September 2007 at 10:25
re
You have a good point. I was thinking the same about Scampton. All these idiots are saying the dambusters new movie must be filmed there, yet when you look at aerial pictures, ther base was almost entirely rebuilt in the 1950s/60s. Apart from the hangars there is very little wartime a/f left, even the control tower has been replaced.
By: Paul F - 5th September 2007 at 12:04
While it would be good to have a permanent museum of this type, how much of the “original” Biggen Hill actually remains to be viewed? As I said on a past thread (about preserving the Brooklands site IIRC) how is “original” defined in this context? An airfield will, by it’s very nature, evolve over time, and buildings and features will be added, replaced, and removed – with or without the added impetus and practical intervention of a world war.
Sure, Biggen is probably most famous to the world at large in it’s “WW2 fighter station” incarnation, but what about its’ pre-war use by the radio telephony trials unit. One could argue that the legacy of that work is at least as important to modern aviation/society as the role the station played in helping to defend London/UK in the second world war?
In terms of how much of the WW2 period remains, the excellent museum at the former RAF Tangmere proves that you don’t need too much in the way of “original” buildings left to be able to build a popular, imaginative, and informative museum that can tell the wider story of a famous airfield.
No criticism intended, I’d love to see a Biggen Hill museum come to fruition before it’s too late, I just hope the “revisionists” (as under discussion in a another recent thread)are kept at bay. I hope the end result is a well presented history and not something that simply focusses on WW2 in order to attract the masses.
Paul F
By: G-APDK - 5th September 2007 at 11:23
Has there been any further progress on this initiative, as when I passed by recently there seemed to be a considerable amount of building work going on on the West Site?
If anyone can give me a contact point for the work it would be most appreciated
G-APDK
By: Dan Hamblin - 19th April 2007 at 22:02
Having read the article in the local paper (Bromley Messenger), I would advise a bit of caution about this. Yes, there is to be a museum and heritage trail centred on the brick buildings that make up the West Camp at the airfield i.e. the stuff that survived the Battle of Britain.
But, there is a lot of stuff mentioned in the article that is purely commercial interest (well, it has to be funded somehow I suppose :rolleyes: ). One of the Grade 2 listed buildings is quoted as being ‘extended’ while the remaining bit of wall that was the triple bay Belfast type hangar, destroyed in August 1940, will be demolished to make way for a permanent access road. There are also some other non-listed buildings on the Control Tower side of the West Camp that it is proposed to demolish.
Regards,
Dan
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April 19, 2007 at 9:10 pm