Former Base Hospital

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A derelict single storey flat-roofed building in a modern style laid out on an H-shaped plan. Main entrance faces north. Walls of red brick; concrete roofs; rectangular metal casement windows. Symmetrical front elevation. Main entrance has a rectangular smooth cement rendered doorway set between projecting rounded nib walls, smooth rendered, with a flat concrete canopy over.

SETTING: The building stands in a very rural location, in flat grassland near a disused war-time airfield.

Historical information

Built in 1942 as a hospital for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation at the time that Langford Lodge airfield was being developed into an Air Depot to serve the United States Army Air Force. The base was operated jointly at the time by Lockheed and the 8th Air Force. The station hospital was completely equipped to perform all types of surgery and medical treatment and was considered to be one of the most modern installations, civilian or military, in Northern Ireland. With the termination of the contract in July 1944 the USAAF removed some of the equipment and supplies because there were other station hospitals in the country. The capacity of the three wards here was 34 patients.

The airfield had been originally opened in 1941 as a Satellite Landing Ground for the RAF; the Americans occupied the base from 1942 until the end of July 1945; briefly used for the RAF’s No. 5 Air Navigation School from 1952-3; acquired by the present owners in 1958.

References – Primary Sources
1. War time photographs in the collection of the Ulster Aviation Society.
Secondary Sources
1. E. Cromie, Langford Lodge airfield – a brief history (1998), leaflet available at Ulster Aviation Society Heritage Centre.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a mid 20th century building of no special architectural interest but of some historical interest due to its association with the Second World War and its place in the development of the Langford Lodge estate.