History
The headquarters is based on the grounds of Eastbury Park, the estate purchased by David Carnegie in 1857. During the Second World War, in 1939 the Royal Air Force took over the site for the use of RAF Coastal Command which made use of the Eastbury house and also created a network of underground bunkers and operations blocks. The house was used as an Officers' Mess though it was subsequently damaged by fire. The RAF vacated the site in 1969.
In 1953, the NATO Commander-in-Chief Eastern Atlantic Area, who was also Commander-in-Chief Fleet, established his Headquarters at Northwood.
In April 1963 the Naval unit at Northwood was commissioned as HMS Warrior and in September 1971 the Royal Navy took over responsibility for the whole site. In 1978 the Flag Officer Submarines also moved his Headquarters to Northwood.
As HQ of the Commander-in-Chief Fleet the site was the controlling Headquarters for Operation Corporate, the Falklands War.
The site falls under the authority of Chief of Joint Operations following a handover from the Commander-in-Chief Fleet in 2002.
In 2006 major construction works commenced to improve the functionality of the site: the works, which involve the refurbishment or replacement of many of the key buildings for the Permanent Joint Headquarters, are being carried under a Private Finance Initiative contract by Carillion. Elizabeth II visited the site on 6 May 2010 to open one of the new buildings, part of a £150 million redevelopment of the site.
The main entrance to the base is located on Sandy Lane, Northwood.
Read more about this topic: Northwood Headquarters
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“They are a sort of post-house,where the Fates
Change horses, making history change its tune,
Then spur away o’er empires and o’er states,
Leaving at last not much besides chronology,
Excepting the post-obits of theology.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)