Saturday 21st March, and I decided to see actually just IS happening at RAF Hendon. It was a nice sunny day, and there was a lot of visitors there. I must report that some aspects are MUCH better than I had previously seen and was expecting.

The infrastructure was better than the last time I visited. The outside of the original building looks as if the paintwork has been recently patched over to conceal the worse effects of weathering. This gives a ‘bright-white – dirty white’ effect.

For a change, there was very few traffic cones in evidence, the only ones being in a small area close to the Battle of Britain Hall.

My arrival – and my age – dictated a somewhat urgent trip to the Mens Room which brought forth the first of many ‘out of order/cannot go there/do not enter/closed’ signs

From the entrance, Milestones of Flight, is light, bright and airy. I will not comment on the ‘rights and wrongs’ of the aircraft displayed therein, but I will say this, a;; the visitors seemed facinated by what they were looking at.

The walk down the ‘tunnel’ takes the visitor to the sygian gloom of the Bomber Command building. I remember this from when it first opened, and it was not bright then, but today there were areas that really were very dark. It was not helped that quite a number of areas were roped off – one for building and floor work to happen, and one that contained a large number of gilded chairs. Other ropes off areas contained builders equipment, unfinished display woodwork, and piles of aircraft parts including a rudder and a chin radiator. Apart from ‘Keep out’ and ‘Do Not Enter’ signs there were no explanations as to what was going on, and the staff did not appear to want to make eye contact to offer any verbal suggestions. The carpeting was patterned throughout with a combination of blue and black Duct Tape covering rips and regimented lights of bright red buckets each with a small amount of water in the bottom.

The Main Hall was certainly brighter, quite full of children of an age I would estimate between 8 and 16, many of which appeared to be Scouts. There were a few adults supervising them, and again a few RAFM staff, none of which seemed to want to make eye contact I looked at then they turned their head away. The cafe area – which you had to walk through to get to a number of helicopter exhibits – was full, again mainly of quite vocal children.

Walking around the exhibits towards the main stairs towards the upper galleries, the upper surfaces of the lower wings of the Stranraer were very dusty, with what appeared to be either dead flies or bird droppings there.

The upper galleries of the main hall was closed, with a custom-made sign announcing ‘We regret the Upper Galleries are closed today’. . I eventually found someone to ask why – and was told they were short-staffed.

Making my way towards the exit – as was, and is now the Conference Centre – I discovered that the ‘RAF Today’ area was closed, with a sign that said ‘Private Function’ blocking the way. There did not appear to be anyone around, and all the lights were off in this area.

I decided to make my way over to the Grahame-White building which had signs to say it was open – indeed it was. The first bit of good news in the day. This took me past Building 52, signed up as SCAF – Supply Control & Accounting Flight. Here the visitor could see severe fennestraion of the windows, broken panes of glass, and panes with plywood filling in the holes. No doubt it will be said that these buildings are not part of the RAFM, but they form part of the site, and need to be considered.

The Grahame-White building was open, with just me and a RAFM Staff Member in there – he scowled at me when I entered, did not reply to my ‘good afternoon’ and appeared almost pleased when I left has he headed back to sit down.

The came the Battle of Britain Hall. I was watched intently by another member of the RAFM staff as I walked in – and discovered the second surprise – the Sunderland Interior was OPEN!!!! But disapointment rapidly set in, for about 80% of the entire BoB Collection was ‘out of bounds’ behind the barriers and inevitable signs. I found a member of staff to ask what was going on to be told that despite the fact that no internal work had been done, a crew had been working on the roof during the week to weatherproof it and that – even though they were not working at ALL on a saturday, due to Health and Safety reasons, no one was allowed beyond that point.

I tried to take pictures – but the low light levels were just too bad, even for my Nikon.

On my way out, I spoke with another member of RAFM Staff, who was just returning from his lunch that I was surprised to see the Sunderland interior and Grahame-White Hangar open – he said, and I quote: ‘Yeah, someone complained I think”.

I walked outside the site to check on the Grahame-White Gates – they have been roughly re-painted, but the corrosion is already breaking through again, likewise much of the concrete and steel perimeter fencing is severely discoloured by what I think is deposits from the nearby trees, which could be Plane trees, which I know leave a nasty, sticky substance over everything.

So, there you have it – the real state of RAF Museum Hendon – in some respects it’s not as bad as we thought, in others, I think it is way worse, but now I have evidence to take it further – and I intend to.

I’ve heard lots of opinion and subjective comment but only Graham Simons has shown me any proof. I’m sure Graham has researched the subject and I may have missed it in his posts but I would like to know who owns those additional buildings near the RAFM site.

I haven’t been to the RAFM for around 5 years and it looked fine then; so I would really like to see some examples of what’s been claimed in this thread.

As far as I am aware, the MoD land was sold off to a Property Developer called St George (I cannot be bothered to do a Land Registry search to discover the actual owner). I sought and gained permission from the Site Manager there to access the site, to discover the ‘remains’ of two buildings there – The Control Tower and complex of structures loosely ‘connected’ into what used reach to street-side to form the Main Office Entrance to the Grahame-White site. Both had been wire-screened off within the site to prevent access, and frankly, from their appearance, I did not want to go into them!

According to the Site Manager, both structures had some kind of preservation orders on them, both had been offered to the RAF Museum and both had been turned down.

As to the poor standards of infrastructure to the RAF Museum site, look closely at the ‘Gates’ picture – apart from the peeling paintwork showing a pale blue underneath there is severe fenestration corrosion showing red-rust under the name titling and what remains of the locking mechanism at the join, both in the middle and bottom of the two gates. For this kind of corrosion to show up in a photograph, it must have been well-established for some considerable time – indicative of an ongoing lock of care for an historic artifact, for I believe that these are the ORIGINAL gates, incorporated into the perimeter in the early 1970s. The look as if they have not been cared for since.

The concrete posts and steel fencing erected then also show clear signs of severe weathering – and remember, this is directly by the Main Entrance Gate the first thing a visitor comes across!

This same form of severe weathering can be seen all over the facia and facade of the Main structure surround the Belfast-truss hangars. What used to be gleaming white now looks grubby and unkempt. There is also what appears to be fungal growth over parts of the BoB Hall.

Go deeper into the site and apart from the poor condition of the launches which have been left outside for years since they first arrived, a visitor comes across Building 52, which used to be the old wartime workshops and later was used for Exhibition Flight buildings. Here some of the walls still carry traces of their wartime camouflage – but also green fungal growth covering their red bricks, with broken window-glass, peeling paint on windowframes and that common complaint that affects many RAF buildings, the original Crittall windows that were installed painted, but not corrosion-proofed by glavanising. Thus they have suffered severe fenestration.

All of these points individually are very minor but when put together as a whole, build up to create an image of unkempt neglect.

Layer on top of that, the unwelcoming attitude of many of the Wardens, the gallery and building closures with little-to-no information available to the enquiring visitor, the apparently poor lighting and even the area it sits in now – it is not surpising that a whole raft of valid views and and strong opinions have been expressed in the manner in which they have been here.

I for one am proud of the RAF Museum collection – both at Hendon and Cosford – but I am NOT proud of how the visitor is greeted and what meets them when they get to Hendon. It is this I for one am trying to fix.

My point is – as I have said before – how should these views and the clear evidence be acted upon? Individually? Collectively? or not at all? Should (or would) Flypast do anything?

I’ll go along with a letter campaign, but I for one would be more than happy with a face-to-face meeting.

I suspect, unlike many of you; I’ve met Michael Fopp and Jack Bruce. I found them both personable, professional and highly experienced gentlemen.

Oh well that’s ok then – all is right with the world Mr Gaff.

Did you actually READ my posts – or look at my pictures?

I think I better lay out some facts here – I used to be a member of the Friends of the RAFM, indeed I have given a number of lectures to said members in the theatre there – I’ve done volunteer work at Cardington, I’ve worked on the Walrus, the Southampton and the DH9A. A R-R Merlin I helped restore is still, as far as I know on display in the BoB Hall. So please do not lecture me about what I should or should not do or should or should not join!

I cannot and will not speak for other forumites who have posted here, but all MY comments have been aimed at the clear and ongoing downward spiral of decay and neglect that hangs over of the site infrastructure and a truly shambolic policy of facilities closure within the site on what appears to be a totally random basis.

The site is clearly lacking care and attention – anyone with only half an eye open can see that – peeling paint, corrosion, water-staining… and that is just the Entrance to the site. You say you first visited in 1974 – I suggest you go and have a look now from your position half-way around the world and see just WHY this thread is called ‘faded glory’ – then perhaps you can tell me how is it possible to be proud of the sights I list above which currently greet the first-time visitor?

Go deeper in and you see cones and barriers everywhere closing off tranches of the car-park – then inside you discover that galleries are closed off for no apparent reason – then we come to the Grahame-White hangar.

That building MUST have spent more time closed than open – and for why?

The usual ‘excuse’ given is ‘staffing problems’ but that’s a load of garbage – the UK is the most CCTV’d country in the world – indeed, the Shuttleworth Collection have for a number of years quite happily and successfully used CCTV to police their entire site both on flying and non-flying days. Has not the management of the RAFM heard of that and how it can be applied?

Yes, I am being critical – but I am not, as you say ‘venting my spleen’. Sometimes it needs to be cruel to be kind and someone needs to bring failures into the light – this thread clearly shows that a number of people are concerned as to what has been and is happening. So people seem to be attacking Mike Fopp – and just who do you suggest any critical comments are made to – the lady serving in the cafe?

Mike is the Director – as someone once said – the buck stops here.

I am being critical because I care for the work that has been done in the past – and I can see how the decline needs stopping or we WILL lose what is one of the world’s great aeronautical museums!

Why doesn’t Flypast write an article on Hendon and discuss these observations with the management.

I doubt it will happen – too many magazine editors don’t want to upset the management of these places for fear of losing their nice little exclusives or any paid advertising that might come their way – heaven forfend anything even remotely controversial get written about any of the Nationals!

Only changes I would make –

1 – clean-up and re-furb the buildings.
2 – make sure they had knowledgable, friendly and informative staff
3 – make sure ALL the buildings, levels and annexes were OPEN during museum opening hours.
4 – Display aircraft and equipment that are pertinent to RFC/RAF history
5 – Establish a completely separate Civilian Aviation Museum

Congratulations to all concerned!!! Something must’ve been in the air Bruce – yesterday I went through Amiens, and took these couple of pics of the jail that Percy Pickard and 140 Wing 2TAF attacked back in February 1944.

Hi David

That Rapide pic came my way as part of my ongoing collection of DH multis. I have no idea as to it’s history, other than it appears to be contemporary. As to scanning historical images – that’s a an ongoing task we have. We have ‘saved’ stuff from car-boot sales, dustbins, dumpsters and even once from a garden incinerator about 5 minutes before the guy’s wife lit the match!(he had not long passed away, and she was ‘clearing out’).

Currently here we run a pair of 5 Terrabyte hard-drives with auto back-up,but as we scan everything at a minimum of 600 dpi, that’s not going to last long. Unfortunately no-one knows the long term implications or lifespan of e-storage. We have a policy of ‘rolling over’ and re-activating our CD library every five years.

A few years ago myself and David Lee of BAPC organised ‘G-DASH’, a one-day conference at Cosford for discussing preserving the civil side of things, and electronic image storage played a part of the discussions. Lots of well-intentioned high-and-mighty talk occurred, but unfortunately the twin-terrors of ‘Copyright’ and ‘Reprographic’ rights raised their heads and that frightened everyone off. In the end nothing really long-term came from the G-DASH conference, because more seem interested in preserving military than civil.

We at GMS Enterprises would love to see more of a ‘Historic Image Library’ created somehow, but the cost would be high and legal implications difficult to overcome. And that is without attempting to tackle the collector mentality of ‘I’ve got, you’re not having’! Yes, we collect, but we also use and we also try and share where we can – as shown by the pics we post in this forum. We do try and trace copyright owners, but often that is not possible, (indeed, we are trying to sort out one example as I write this) so in all our publications we print this:

The author and publisher are indebted to many people and organisations for providing photographs for this history, but in some cases it has not been possible to identify the original photographer and so credits are given in the appropriate places to the immediate supplier. If any of the pictures have not been correctly credited, the author and publisher apologise.