RAF Eastcote
RAF Eastcote
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| Eastcote, Middlesex, England | |
The site photographed in 1945
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| Coordinates | 51°34′56″N 000°24′21″W / 51.58222°N 0.40583°WCoordinates: 51°34′56″N 000°24′21″W / 51.58222°N 0.40583°W |
| Type | Military accommodation, welfare, armoury, communications |
| Site information | |
| Condition | Demolished |
| Site history | |
| Built | c.1943 |
| Demolished | 2008 |
| Garrison information | |
| Occupants | GCHQ, General Post Office, United States Air Force |
RAF Eastcote, also known over time as RAF Lime Grove, HMS Pembroke V and Outstation Eastcote, was a Ministry of Defence site in Eastcote, within the London Borough of Hillingdon.
The British Government first used the site during the Second World War, constructing a military hospital in preparation for casualties from the D-Day landings. They were not required for the purpose and later became an outstation of the Bletchley Park codebreaking operations. During this time, Royal Air Force technicians and Navy Wrens supported the operations. The outstation closed soon after the end of the war, though became the first headquarters of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), when the Bletchley Park codebreaking operations, including two Colossus computers, were moved there and renamed in 1946. These remained at Eastcote until 1954 when the new agency moved to its purpose-built headquarters in Cheltenham.
Other buildings on the site were used by the General Post Office and to support the United States Air Forces in Europe's (USAFE) Third Air Force and 7th Air Division (SAC) activities at RAF South Ruislip.
As part of the Ministry of Defence's Project MoDEL, the site became surplus to military requirements and was sold in 2007 to be redeveloped for new housing. The site was cleared in 2008 and a total of 385 new homes were approved for construction. The name for the development, Pembroke Park, was chosen to reflect the heritage of the site.
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