Watch Office flooring colored?

In considering how to proceed with details of the RAF Goxhill Watch Office (AM 518/40 built 1940) now open to the public, we would like to hear from anyone if they know of specific directives or standards regarding wartime floor coverings and covers.

We have seen many photos of Watch Office rooms that have red floor covering. We have seen suggestions of lino floor covering backed by heavy fabric, and more than a few photos show a deep wine-red color on the floor (either lino or paint). Was this typical of early war or pre-war, with it disappearing during the war? Many people remember only gray natural concrete floors, and we suspect that like everything else, almost "anything goes" depending on supplies, what point in the war, etc.

Any thoughts on this and especially sources or other provenance would allow us to move forward in this area.

As an aside, we also have lots of questions about R/T and ATC procedures under both RAF and USAAF if anyone is particularly knowledgeable in those area!

Photo attached shows status (long way to go) of the Control Room. Lots of co-op from other control tower museums and of course our friends at ARG have gotten us this far!

Mike Potter
Board Member
Military Aviation Museum
www.militaryaviationmuseum.org
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I'm only guessing here, but I'd suggest heavy brown lino for the main room with the floors of the rest painted non slip grey or maybe cardinal red. Walls in Eau-de-Nil (top half) and (lower) in Chocolate Brown. These were the "institutional" colours of the time (think prison, workhouse etc.) It has been a while since I was in that building. I'd like to visit it again someday.

Floor finished were simplified as WWII progressed, becoming more and more austere over time.
Areas with lino flooring were reduced as part of this process.

The AM Type Drawing for the Watch Office will give the appropriate wall and floor finishes as-built, without any later wartimne or post-war alterations.
Lino would have been red or brown depending on supply and date of laying, but the vast majority of wartime lino I have personally seen in-situ has been brown.

Peter wrote:

Just had a thought about the colour. Could the brown be a faded red? In my limited experience of lino I suspect not.

No, on occasion I've found red and brown at the same location.

Seeing those photos of a billet brought back the memories ( and the smell of polish).

Wherever I came across lino, I remember it as being brown in billets. Somewhere along the line I think there were other colours like a 'marbled' blue in a couple of places - but not billets.

Like others... drifting slightly off topic.

Started at RAF Bridgnorth (in freezing weather) January 1962. Billets with lino supposedly highly polished - but sort of destroyed by the previous flight after passing out. We were under all sorts of dire threats from the DIs as to what we might receive if we did the same thing when we passed out (oh yeah?). I think we had coke stoves? But, the level of bull? Ginormous! Bull nights every evening. Bed packs every morning, Webbing belt wrapped round the bedpack and No.1 SD hat on top Boots, shoes etc lined up under the foot of the bed. To top it off, full kit inspection at least once a week (I think).

Then to Compton Bassett for phase 1 of my technical training . More wooden billets with coke stoves; but nowhere the same level of bull as Bridgnorth. But... we were there in that great freeze of 1963. I'll leave it to your imagination as to how much 'stuff' we would pile on our beds at night in an endeavour to keep warm. But the tins of floor polish did make make lighting the stoves a lot easier! Generally easier going than Bridgnorth. Didn't even have bed packs!

Next came RAF Locking. More wooden billets in the furthest reaches of the camp (to keep us away from the apprentices in their nice brick-built blocks?)! But, at least, central heating was in our billets! Offset that luxury with the ignominy of bed-packs every morning (one or two tried to 'opt out', but five days jankers was a good guide that that was not such a good idea)!

The off to operational bases. Always 'H' Blocks. (in the days of billets and before singe/double rooms). One thing that confused me was the differences between the 'detail' in the blocks considering they were all built to the same spec. when it came to flooring. In the billets, some had wood floors with strips running longitudinally along the room and others had the strips going across the widths (all this was way back before the blocks were brought into the 20th century!). And in the common halls/corridors, there were variations in surface finishes.

Mike Potter: Maybe contact the museums at Elvington & East Kirkby. Their towers are restored and open to the public. It could be that someone there had a memory of wartime colours.