Harwell Homes

In 1936 colonial-style Air Ministry development houses were built in the Harwell area, constructed by a John Laing. These homes are now some of the oldest surviving properties of the former airbase. RAF Harwell became operational as a bomber station in 1937 and inherited by UKAEA in 1946. By the end of the 1980s UKAEA no longer needed houses to attract employees, and one by one the homes fell empty.

There were plans for builds submitted in 2013, to demolish 13 homes and rebuild a massive 120 dwellings, with associated infrastructure, parking and landscaping. But these have been challenged a number of times by local residents, on the grounds of traffic, parking, impact on wildlife, loss of privacy and effecting existing community amenities.

You can find the disputed plans here. 

This is unfortunately one of our failed explores, as we were unable to actually enter any of the homes. This is not an explore I recommend at the moment as security is quite intense. But we do want to revisit in future, and I wanted to note it for the amazing background the area has. Below is the only picture I thought to take, with another showing some of the properties a few years ago before it was so overgrown.



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