ZE7 Lippitts Hill: Spider Block, Waltham Abbey, Essex

Summary

Spider Block Accommodation Range, built 1939-40 by the War Office.

Description

The Spider Block Accommodation Range, built 1939-40 by the War Office.

Materials: six timber-framed and weather-boarded, single-storey ranges linked by corridors, the whole standing on brick plinths, with felted, shallow-pitched timber roofs and metal casement windows. A later extension to the north-east is brick built with roofs of corrugated metal or asbestos sheeting, and metal casement windows.

Plan: the original ‘Spider’ block has a complex plan arranged in two parallel rows of three, joined at their ends by corridors and linked by two cross corridors. Soon after 1951 a brick built extension was added to the west side adding three ranges of similar proportions to the original.

Exterior: each of the six ranges of the original Spider Block are of six bays defined by metal casement windows with a horizontal pattern of glazing bars and timber doors in each gable end. Each is supported on a brick plinth with a shallow pitched, felted roof. The principal entrances are located on the eastern side; in the southern gable of the north range and the north gable of the southern range. A former entrance in the corridor linking the two blocks is now blocked forming a concrete lined niche, possibly a fire point. The post-1951 extension, although brick built and with a corrugated metal or asbestos roof, takes on a similar appearance to the original block in terms of proportions and the metal-framed windows with a horizontal pattern of glazing bars. A small flat-roofed extension with a plastic water tower above was added to the southern end of the central northern range to provide more bathroom facilities.

Interior: the interior is utilitarian. Most rooms are open to the roof with exposed king-post trusses and rafters. Where this isn’t the case in bathrooms and corridors for example, suspended ceilings have been inserted but the main structure remains virtually unaltered beneath. The roof structure in the later phase is different with concrete posts and wooden angled braces supporting a common rafter roof. Overall, the majority of the carpentry survives intact with one-over-three panel, timber doors in all but the later extension where the style of door changes to four equally sized horizontal panels. Within the corridors small timber fire bucket shelves survive and at the west end of the corridor of the southern ‘Spider’ range, a linen cupboard with shelving. All the windows within the original Spider Block retain the 1940s ‘crittal’ style window furniture.

Within the dormitories of the southern half of the ‘Spider’ (the east and west ‘legs’) each bay of the building defines a single living space divided by fitted storage furniture, and with space for a single bed. The central southern range is the ablution block with later C20 toilet and shower fittings. Within the northern half of the ‘Spider’ some stud partitioning has been inserted to create smaller rooms, which changes the original configuration but does not alter the main structural components of the building. The northern ‘legs’ were also used as dormitories but there is no evidence of fitted furniture surviving here and where access was possible these rooms remain as single open spaces.

History

Until just before the Second World War the site of Lippitts Hill, currently a Police Training Camp, was a rural setting of open fields bordered by the Owl public house and Pipers Farm on the east side. The 1882 1:2,500 Ordnance Survey map shows a series of enclosed medieval fields on the site. By January 1940 a Heavy Anti-Aircraft battery known as ZE7 Lippitts Hill had been constructed to guard the eastern approaches of London. War Office documents record that the battery was operational in January 1940, and by January 1943 the battery was manned by American troops under the command of Major M F J Emanuel. In March 1944 Battery B, 184th Anti-Aircraft Artillery, equipped with Mark 1, 90mm guns, became the first American crew to fire in the defence of London.

In late 1944, the Americans moved to France and the site was converted by the British into a Prisoner of War camp. A reminder of this phase of use still exists on site today in the form of a concrete sculpture of a man carved by prisoner Rudi Weber in 1946 (NHLE 1390665). The Prisoner of War camp was closed in 1948. Sometime in 1951, or shortly afterwards, a Cold War Anti-Aircraft Operation Room (AAOR) was built on the site. It acted as a control centre for a number of anti-aircraft guns protecting the north of London. By 1956, with the advent of high flying jet bombers and evolving missile technology this role was obsolete and the system was abandoned.

In 1960, the site became a Metropolitan Police Training Area, a function retained until 2003. Following the murder of three police officers in West London in 1966, it was used as a centre for training police officers in the use of guns, although the construction of a new pistol firing range was not approved until 1973. From 1976 Lippitts Hill became a base for police helicopters, which were loaned from the Army and operated over London. However, in 1980, faced by a change in flight requirements, the Metropolitan Police purchased their own aircraft, and in November that year the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit was officially launched and based at Lippitts Hill. Changes to the Metropolitan Police area in 2000 placed Lippitts Hill, and the surrounding area under Essex Police. The helicopter unit joined the National Police Air Service (NPAS) in 2014.

The subject of this case is The Spider Block accommodation range built 1939-40 by the War Office as part of the domestic infrastructure for military personnel serving the ZE7 Lippitts Hill HAA gun emplacement. Other buildings in this group include The Mess Block (NHLE1390670), Commander's Office (NHLE 1390666), Long Range and Adjoining Officers Accommodation (NHLE 1390668), Officers Accommodation (NHLE1390669), Office and Chapel Building (NHLE 1390671) and a K6 Telephone Kiosk (NHLE 1390664) all of which are listed at Grade II. The Armoury is not currently listed but is being considered for listing as part of this case.

Soon after 1951 the building was extended to the north-east, with three additional ranges. A small flat roofed extension with a plastic water tower above was later added to the southern end of the central northern range to provide more bathroom facilities.

Reasons for Listing

The Spider Block, one of a group of buildings erected pre-1940 by the War Office as part of the supporting infrastructure for military personnel serving the ZE7 Lippitts Hill Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) gun emplacement, is listed for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* As a near complete example of a Second World War spider block accommodation which survives close to its original form and within its original context, the best preserved anti-aircraft gun site in England;

Historic interest:

* As an integral component of one of Britain's premier HAA gun sites of the Second World War, a nationally important military site which retains evidence of continuity and change in the use of the site from the Second World War to the end of the Cold War;

* As part of the accommodation for the first American troops to fire in the defence of London during the Second World War;

Group value:

* For its strong group value with the other accommodation units, the HAA gun emplacement, the AAOR, the Concrete Sculpture of a Man and the Monument to US servicemen which collectively allow a thorough appreciation of the war time operation and chart the subsequent development of this nationally important military site.

External Links

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