Dowty Rotol - Front Office Building Refurbishment

Dowty Rotol – Front Office Building Refurbishment

In 1990 the iconic white Front Office building and adjacent red brick buildings were extensively refurbished.

Below are some of the photographs showing the works that were involved.

John Herring states that it was built by Rotol Airscrews – originally with just two storeys and a third was added later. It’s now the Safran Landing Systems ‘East Block’. I ran a refurb’ project in the early 1990s to modernise it and the neighbouring West Block.

It cost around £750,000 and both blocks were completely gutted and new office accomodation built within. The windows were replaced with double glazed units, but had to have false bars in them to comply with listed building status. And lots of lovely parquet floors were covered up with carpet tiles.

Photographs and description of work courtesy of John Herring