CONTEXT & BACKGROUND Historic England has been asked to assess the control tower at Fairoaks Airport, Surrey for listing. The whole airport is the subject of pre-planning discussions relating to the redevelopment of the site as part of a proposed ‘garden village’. The application site is not situated within a conservation area and is not locally listed. Alongside the control tower application, three further listing applications have been made for the blister hangar (1445752), the maintenance hangar (1445749) and the storage hangar (1445743) at Fairoaks and these are considered separately.

HISTORY AND DETAILS Fairoaks was founded as a private airstrip in 1931, being commissioned by the Air Ministry in 1937 to meet the growing demand for training centres for new pilots. Construction of the airport buildings commenced in 1937, with the Control tower, along with two hangers. The No.18 Elementary & Reserve Flying School was established at the airfield in October 1937 and oversaw the training of pilots during the war. In the early post-war years, the airfield was managed by Universal Flying Services, which operated a flying training school and provided aircraft maintenance services. The airfield was sold in 1967 and has been operated privately since then. The control tower is situated to the west of the runway. This is a temporary structure with a steel frame and corrugated sheet cladding, three storeys in height, consisting of a fire station at the base, with offices and a control tower cab above. No specific internal original features or equipment of note has been specified in the application.

DISCUSSION In assessing this site for listing, the Principles for Selection (DCMS, March 2010) and the Listing Selection Guide for Military Structures (2011) are relevant. As the Listing Selection Guide for Military Structures outlines, Fairoaks was one of around 740 flying stations or aerodromes operating during the Second World War. Although many of these have since been lost or heavily adapted, the Selection Guide makes clear that there is a need for selectivity when assessing such sites and their related structures for listing. As the guide states, it is only examples with ‘strong intrinsic or associational importance, particularly those with key historical episodes of the Second World War, which have been recommended for protection’. Selection principles for military aviation sites include rarity; technical or structural interest; group value with related structures; and operational importance (such as direct involvement in an important campaign such as the Battle of Britain or the Battle of the Atlantic).

Fairoaks control tower (along with the two hangars) was built as part of the adaptation of the private airfield for use as a training facility for the Air Ministry from 1937. Such was the urgency to increase training capacity for new pilots in the run up to war that the new Fairoaks structures were built to standardised and economised specifications within a matter of months in order to be immediately operational. Whilst the control tower demonstrates a form of temporary structure employed by the Air Ministry to quickly adapt existing sites for military purposes, the structure is of a standard form and is not considered to be technically innovative or particularly advanced in its construction, planning or design. In architectural terms, the tower is of a very simple design, without any specific features of distinction. When compared to listed control towers of the 1930s at civil airports, there is a clear gulf in architectural quality. The Grade II listed control tower at Barton Aerodrome, Salford (NHLE: 1067500) for instance displays an innovative triple-tiered octagonal tower, whilst the Grade II listed former Brooklands control tower, Surrey (NHLE: 1030123) is part of a sophisticated symmetrical block designed by Graham Dawbarn in the International Modern style. Fairoaks Airport, taken as a whole, has some local interest in testifying to the role of the area in the war effort, although there is no specific connection to any notable military operations or key developments in the history of aviation, which would elevate its historic interest.

Overall, it is considered that the control tower at Fairoaks Airport does not have sufficient special architectural and historic interest to meet the criteria for listing. Whilst the airfield and its associated structures have some local historical interest, this does not justify statutory listing.

Judged against the Principles of Selection and the relevant criteria, the control tower at Fairoaks Airport, Surrey is not recommended for listing for the following principal reasons:

* Lack of architectural interest: the control tower is of a standard and economical form, without any specific technical, planning or design interest; * Lack of historic interest: there are no known associations with notable military operations, nor any key developments in the history of aviation.

CONCLUSION It is concluded that the control tower at Fairoaks Airport does not meet the criteria for listing from a national perspective, but has some local interest as an Air Ministry commissioned site with some original structures remaining from its use as a Second World War training site.