The officers' Mess Business Centre is now officially open!

We are proud to anounce that the Officers' Mess Business Centre is now open, having been launched at a champagne reception by a RAF officer and former resident of the building, Les Millgate

Yesterday marked the official opening of the historic Officers’ Mess Duxford in its new role as a quality business centre. Following a long period of closure - to all but a few key people at IWM Duxford - this historic building has been restored to its former glory, thanks to a £2 million refurbishment project by Mantle Business Centres.

The Officer’s Mess, which forms part of the impressive Imperial War Museum airfield just south of Cambridge, now provides a unique business centre environment for small and medium sized companies, and sets a new standard for serviced offices in the Cambridge area.

In the morning, Mantle Business Centres hosted a press briefing, with talks by Guy Baker, Director at Mantle Business Centres, Simon Redman, Partner at Cowper Griffith Architects and Steve Woolford, Head of Duxford Heritage for IWM. The speakers all offered unique insights in to the building’s history and its remarkable renovation.

The original layout of the building was identified as being ideal for conversion into the range of offices and meeting spaces required by modern business centres. Central public rooms - that were originally separated from the officer’s sleeping accommodation by corridors to limit damage in the event of bombing - are once again being used as communal facilities, with former bedrooms and bathrooms now providing offices and associated toilets and showers.

“We are delighted with the fully restored Officers’ Mess, which has been completed with the support and expertise of both IWM Duxford and our project design team. The outcome is a stunning building that has retained its historic feel but still works incredibly well as a modern business centre.” said Guy Baker, Director at Mantle Business Centres.

A champagne reception in the evening saw over 150 guests welcomed in to The Heart – a large modern space created out of what had become a derelict external courtyard within the building. In its normal working day, The Heart houses the business centre reception, along with ‘The Mess Café’. Guests at the event were treated to champagne and live 1940’s swing music in the stunning Heart space. The guests also made the most of the opportunity to tour the building – and enter a competition to win a flight in a Tiger Moth!

Guest of honour at the evening event was a former resident at Duxford, Les Millgate. Les was a pilot flying Gloucester Meteors with No. 64 squadron in the 1950s, and has fond memories of his time at ‘DX’ – particularly the high jinx that took place inside The Officers’ Mess!

Les officially opened the new business centre, saying: “It’s an honour to be back in this building that I know so well, and to see it so carefully restored. We all had fun times here, but it was a working airfield, and so I would ask the people that come and work here now to remember the people that lived here, and also those that didn’t make it home.”