More information : The former Airmen's Institute at the onetime RAF West Malling was recommended for Listed building status in May 2003. (1)
CHURCHILL SQUARE, 15-APR-04, Kings Hill (former RAF West Malling). Former Airmen's Institute. A Grade II Listed Building. Airmen's accommodation, dining room and Institute, now in commercial use. 1939-40, to 1938 design by J. H. Binge of Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Reinforced concrete floors and roof on stretcher bond cavity walls, roof finish not
visible, originally asphalt. PLAN: A broad-fronted U-plan, with a wide 2-storey reception block, originally with reading, games and recreation rooms, linked on its central axis to the large single-
storey dining room to the rear. A single-storey link corridor each side leads to 2-storey bedroom blocks, at right angles to and brought forward from the central range. To the rear the kitchen and service areas lie to the right of the dining room. EXTERIOR: Windows are all steel casement, mainly 2-light, with a transom and horizontal bars, set to a wood sub-frame, in slight plain reveals, and with concrete sills; the centre range has smaller 2-light in cast stone surrounds. This range has 5 windows each side of the central doorway, those to the ground floor deeper than at first floor, and to continuous lintel bands, the sillband to ground floor. A pair of part-glazed doors with overlight and sidelights is framed in painted piers with channelled capitals in stepped recessed jambs to a flat canopy with moulded edge. There is one brick stack, off-centre to right. The returned ends have a single
casement above the flat roof to the links, and the back has various windows, including a deep unit to the stairs, and two escape doors from the upper level opening to the flat roofs. The link corridors have two windows to the front, and five
to the rear. The accommodation wings are in 7 x 1 bays, with deep 2-light casements at each level on the outer elevations, and a variety of openings, including a deep stair light, facing inwards; the wings project forward 6 bays, and in the centre to each is a
part-glazed door on 2 steps and in channelled painted responds, to a segmental flat canopy. The short returns have one window to each level, but the rear of the left wing has a ground-floor door. These three ranges have a plain square roof edge, and a
3-course brick 'frieze' above the upper lintel band. The rear dining room is in 5 x 3 bays, with windows and detail as for the front ranges. The kitchen, to its left, has a large ventilating roof lantern, and beyond this is a large boiler room with doors, overlight and vents to the outer end, wide doors and louvres on the return, 4 roof
vents, and a large square stack. INTERIOR: Original joinery including panelled doors. The principal features are the
solid string concrete staircases with terrazzo finish, hardwood swept handrails on steel Art Deco balustrades. (2)
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