RAF Uxbridge - Closure and Redevelopment

Closure and Redevelopment

Prior to the closure of RAF Uxbridge, Queen Elizabeth II sent a message to the station in February 2010, via her equerry, Wing Commander A.D. Calame, who had served as Officer Commanding the Queen's Colour Squadron between 10 August 2005 and 16 July 2007:

Her Majesty was interested to hear that, in this anniversary year, the historic Number 11 Group Operations Rooms Bunker has been listed and will be preserved as a Royal Air Force asset. Hopefully, the facility will continue as a permanent reminder of those who fought and won the Battle of Britain.
Her Majesty hopes that the relocation to Royal Air Force Northolt will continue to progress well, and wishes all personnel at Uxbridge best wishes for the future.

The station closed on 31 March 2010 as part of the Ministry of Defence's Project MoDEL, a programme to reduce the number of defence sites in Greater London in favour of a core site at RAF Northolt. The closure ceremony was overseen by the Mayor of Hillingdon and included parades and the final lowering of the Royal Air Force Ensign over the parade ground. A Supermarine Spitfire conducted a flypast of the station. The final units marched to their new station at RAF Northolt the following day. The station, which had received the Freedom of the Borough of Hillingdon, returned the award to the London Borough of Hillingdon as part of the ceremony, though this was returned on 4 September to be stored in the museum of the Battle of Britain Bunker. A commemorative blue plaque dedicated to Douglas Bader was unveiled by the Mayor of Hillingdon at the entrance to the Officers' Mess.

The Middlesex Wing Headquarters of the Air Training Corps (ATC) had been based at the station together with No. 1083 Squadron ATC, which met on Mondays and Thursdays for parade nights. As part of the closing ceremony, personnel of No. 1083 Squadron were presented with the station crest to adopt as their own. The squadron continued to meet at the station until July 2010, when a newly refurbished building at the TA Centre on Honeycroft Hill became available.

The Grade I listed Battle of Britain Bunker is now preserved as a museum open to the public, while the Grade II listed Hillingdon House will be partially converted into a restaurant. The station cinema is also Grade II listed. The Battle of Britain War Memorial is a scheduled protected monument. Although not listed, several other buildings on the site were identified within the plans for possible retention: the Sick Quarters, the Officers' Mess, the gymnasium, the carpenters' block in the grounds of Hillingdon House and a building near the Battle of Britain Bunker. St. Andrew's Gate will be retained, as will the Mons barrack block adjacent to the parade ground.

Plans to develop the remaining 44.6 hectares (110 acres) of the site were approved by the London Borough of Hillingdon in January 2011 for 1,340 homes, shops, a theatre and a primary school to be built over 10 years. The council intends the development to become an extension of Uxbridge town centre. Early suggestions from the Leader of Hillingdon Council included a theatre with a statue of T.E. Lawrence outside, and a new museum built around the Battle of Britain Bunker. MP for Uxbridge John Randall called in 2009 for Hillingdon Hospital to be relocated to the site as an alternative to a planned rebuilding project on its existing site. The hospital trust ruled out such a move due to the projected costs.

The area around the Battle of Britain Bunker, including the No. 11 Group memorial, will retain the RAF Uxbridge name and be maintained by RAF Northolt as an enclave. The Royal Air Force Ensign was moved to the area, together with the Supermarine Spitfire gate guardian, a fibreglass replica of aircraft BR600. The Spitfire was refurbished and painted in the D-Day invasion colours of No. 33 Squadron as aircraft BS239, funded by the London Borough of Hillingdon. Uxbridge's first gate guardian was a real Supermarine Spitfire which was unveiled on 23 May 1973. This was sold to a collector for restoration and replaced by the current guardian in 1988. At a service commemorating the Battle of Britain in September 2010, a new Hawker Hurricane gate guardian in the markings of No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron was unveiled, also near the bunker. The guardian is a fibreglass replica of the aircraft flown by Witold Urbanowicz during the Battle of Britain.

The South Hillingdon branch of the St. John Ambulance service was based at RAF Uxbridge until the closure in 2010 led to a period of uncertainty over its relocation. Eventually, RAF Northolt provided the charity with new premises, which were available from January 2011.

In June 2011, it was announced that the public right of way from St Andrew's Gate in the north-west to Vine Lane in the north-east would be reopened, after work to fence off the pathway was completed. The path, 800 metres (2,600 ft) long, was the subject of a petition submitted to Hillingdon Council in 2010 and had been closed since 1988. The path was reopened in early August 2011.

Since closing, the site has been used extensively for filming. Most recently, scenes for the television drama Endeavour, set in the 1960s, were filmed there.

In April 2012, VSM Estates announced it would be completing the purchase of the site from the MoD, with a view to commencing building work by the end of the year. VSM were provided with a £60 million five year loan by HSBC, together with funding from joint parent companies, St Modwen and Vinci plc. Persimmon will develop 8.9 hectares (22 acres) of the site with 500 homes under an existing joint venture agreement with St Modwen. Demolition of the site in phases began in October 2012.

A wood commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II was planted within the site in May 2012. Each school in the London Borough of Hillingdon was invited to plant a tree, and the Station Commander of RAF Northolt, Group Captain Tim O'Brien, also planted one on behalf of the RAF. The wood was officially dedicated by the London Borough of Hillingdon's Representative Deputy Lieutenant, Wing Commander Edna Partridge, on 19 July 2012.