Design Block, Royal Airship Works

The remainder of the buildings of the Royal Airship Works, including this substantial block which housed the design and management offices, was in use until recently as an RAF maintenance unit. The RAF have now moved out, ending an eighty-three year connection with aviation for the site, and the Design Block will now probably be demolished. So much drama was played out in this gloomy building. It was here that, at the very moment the R.101 met her end, the night-duty telephone operator was startled to see his switchboard show a repeated request for an outside line from Captain Irwin's empty office. He nervously went to investigate, but the place was deserted.