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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.

Royal Air Force Uxbridge

Non-flying administrative, headquarters and support station

46 hectares (110 acres)[1]

Royal Flying Corps (1917–1918)
Royal Air Force (1918–2010)

Closed

1917 (1917)

1917–2010 (2010)

  • Site sold by MOD for redevelopment, majority of station buildings demolished.
  • Operations room now Battle of Britain Bunker Museum

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 in the history of mankind has so much been 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 installations 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.[2] A small part of the station incorporating the Battle of Britain Bunker retains the RAF Uxbridge name and is owned by Hillingdon Council.


The River Pinn runs through the site from north to south, passing Hillingdon House and the Battle of Britain Bunker. The land around the river is mainly wooded and designated as greenbelt, and Hillingdon Golf Course borders the south of the station.[3] A footpath through the site that had closed in 1988 was reopened in 2011.

List of Battle of Britain airfields

List of former Royal Air Force stations

Bristow, Mark. (2005) A History of Royal Air Force Northolt. RAF Northolt: No. 1 AIDU (Aeronautical Information Documents Unit)

Crozier, Hazel. (2007) RAF Uxbridge 90th Anniversary 1917–2007. RAF High Wycombe: Air Command Media Services

Crozier, Hazel; Wren, Chris; Askew, Sam. (2010) RAF Uxbridge – A Fond Farewell. RAF High Wycombe: Air Command Media Services

Jackson, Robert. (1983) Douglas Bader: a biography. London: Littlehampton Book Services  978-0-213-16857-5

ISBN

Pearce, K. R. (2009) Uxbridge From Old Photographs. Stroud: Amberley Publishing  978-1-84868-390-7

ISBN

Sherwood, Philip. (2007) Around Uxbridge Past & Present. Stroud: Sutton Publishing  978-0-7509-4794-7

ISBN

Skinner, James. (2008) Growing Up in Wartime Uxbridge. Stroud: Tempus Publishing  978-0-7524-4543-4

ISBN

Citations


Bibliography

A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4, 1971, pp. 55–69

Archived 7 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine

British History Online

R.H.Cox records

English Heritage record for RAF Uxbridge

English Heritage record for the No. 11 Group Operations Room, RAF Uxbridge

Account of a visit to the restored ops room, with photographs

London Borough of Hillingdon – RAF Uxbridge Planning Project

Royal Air Force Association Battle of Britain Club

1083 Squadron Air Training Corps

St Andrew's Park Uxbridge redevelopment