First house The first house on the site was built as a hunting lodge in 1717 for the
Duke of Schomberg, a British army commander of German origin. He is said to have been very argumentative, to the point where he would argue with all those around him bar the enemy. The house eventually passed to the Chetwynd family, who sold it to the
Mary Watson-Wentworth, Marchioness of Rockingham, widow of the Prime Minister
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, in 1786 for £9,000. The Marchioness lived there until her own death in 1804, upon which the estate passed to her stepsister Elizabeth, widow of
William Weddell MP. Her husband had left her
Newby Hall in
Mayfair, therefore having no need of Hillingdon House, she sold it to Josias Du Pré Porcher in 1805. In 1810 the estate was sold to Richard Henry Cox, a member of the Cox banking family and the grandson of Richard Cox, founder of the travel company
Cox & Kings.
Second house After the first house burnt down, the present structure was built in 1844, in a classical
Victorian style. The estate of Frederick Cox, Richard Henry Cox's grandson, placed the house on the market in 1914, describing it as "a brick and stone building, partly
stuccoed, with extensive outbuildings and ornamental gardens." The hospital opened on 20 September 1915 and closed on 12 December 1917, having had four commanding officers and five sisters-in-charge. Among the
aircraftmen trained at Hillingdon was
T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia'), whose book
The Mint, initially censored for its frank use of
four-letter words, describes his time there: "Hillingdon House looked forlorn, because of its black windows, behind whose wideness the clerks lounged with their first cups of tea. 'Jammy [cunts],' sneered Sailor enviously." On 1 March 1929, the
Royal Observer Corps established its headquarters at Hillingdon House, where it remained until transferring to RAF Bentley Priory on 1 March 1936. No. 11 Group formed on the same day under the command of
Air Vice Marshal Philip Joubert de la Ferté, using Hillingdon House as its headquarters. On 13 July,
RAF Bomber Command was formed from the old HQ Air Defence of Great Britain and was also based in the house, remaining there until 1940 when the command moved to
RAF High Wycombe. On 1 November, the Southern Region Air Traffic Services headquarters moved into Hillingdon House. The station had been home since the end of the war to the
London Area Control Centre, renamed the London Air Traffic Control Centre in 1948 and the Uxbridge Air Traffic Control Centre in 1957. This eventually transferred to
RAF West Drayton, which operated as a satellite station of RAF Uxbridge. HQ Military Air Traffic Operations (HQ MATO) moved into Hillingdon House in January 1965. During the final years of military ownership, Hillingdon House was occupied by the
Service Prosecuting Authority and the
Civil Aviation Authority's
Air Proximity Board. The house was Grade II listed on 5 June 1984.
Redevelopment On 31 March 2010, RAF Uxbridge closed as part of a rationalisation of Ministry of Defence facilities in Greater London. Under redevelopment plans approved by Hillingdon Council in January 2011, the house will be converted to include a restaurant. Provision has also been made to retain the carpenter's block beside the house. ==References==