The charity steps in to save a crumbling concrete ruin, while Sky Alps prepares to launch UK services
New Forest The Landmark Trust, the charity that conserves historic buildings by turning them into holiday lets, is fundraising for one of the unlikeliest projects in its 58-year history. While its 200-strong portfolio majors on castles, manor houses, half-timbered cottages and architectural follies, the new project is a utilitarian military building, built from concrete in 1940 and currently crumbling, vandalised and covered in graffiti.
RAF Ibsley Watch Office, two miles north of Ringwood on the western edge of the New Forest National Park, was the control tower and meteorological station for an airfield used by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force between 1941 and 1944. Initially a fighter base for Spitfires, Ibsley was later home to more than 150 P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bombers. It was also where Leslie Howard and David Niven made the 1942 film The First of the Few, intended to inspire the British public’s confidence in the Spitfire and thus the wider war effort.
“Watch office” was the usual British name for such structures until the USAAF term “control tower” gradually replaced it during the war. Similar buildings were hastily thrown up at airfields throughout the country, but Ibsley is a rare survivor and unique in its slender concrete viewing balcony, originally backed by floor-to-ceiling Crittall windows; others had wooden balconies, which have long since rotted away.
After the war the three runways were ripped up for construction hardcore and gravel pits were dug. These have since been filled with water, and the area declared a nature reserve, so the Watch Office now looks out over lakes and woodland. The Landmark Trust envisages it becoming a holiday rental for up to eight guests, with the main operations room becoming an open-plan kitchen, dining and living area with sweeping views. The charity needs to raise £1.03mn to complete the project’s £3.1mn budget, and hopes to start construction work next year with completion in 2025. landmarktrust.org.uk
Bolzano SkyAlps is to launch direct flights between London and Bolzano in Italy’s South Tyrol region, a potential boon for skiers, given the runway is only 10 miles from the nearest pistes. The airline had planned to launch the route in December 2021 but cancelled it the day before the first flight was due to depart because of concerns its business model might not comply with UK regulations. At that point it was running as a “virtual airline”, using another carrier, Luxwing, to operate its flights.
In January this year, however, the Italian Civil Aviation Authority issued SkyAlps with its own air operator certificate, making it a fully formed independent airline (the first in South Tyrol); it plans to grow its fleet to 14 aircraft by early next year. The London flights will leave Stansted on Wednesdays and Sundays, from December 13 to April 14, using 76-seat Dash 8 Q400 aircraft. skyalps.com
