THE £1.4M NISSEN HUT
WW2 hangar becomes a 5-bedroom luxury home
IF you’re a military historian, this could be the perfect home for you – if you have £1.4million to spare.
A former Second World War hangar that once housed bomber crews is on the market after being transformed into a luxury fivebedroom home.
The property was one of thousands of Nissen huts which were built across Britain using prefabricated sections and with distinctive curved roofs clad with corrugated sheets. Many were later abandoned or used as storage by farmers.
But one hangar, set in the countryside near Dunmow, Essex, has been converted into a home with two acres of gardens.
The building, one of three surviving larger-than-average Nissen huts in the grounds of a Georgian property, was once used to house RAF and American personnel.
The hut’s original shape and structure have been retained for its conversion into a two- storey, four-bathroom property, with a lift to the upper floor with its two bedrooms.
Downstairs are three more bedrooms and a large open- plan kitchen and a living room. Bi-fold doors lead to a terrace with countryside views.
Karl Manning of Savills estate agents, which is selling the house, said: ‘It’s certainly a unique building. You look at the outside and you feel like it shouldn’t really work as a home. But when you go inside, the curved back wall, which has been converted in the style of how it would have looked originally, is really quite impressive. It’s kept its original shape, structure and footprint, too.’
The three hangars, which were converted into homes three years ago, are seven miles from the former RAF Great Dunmow site. In use from 1943 to 1948, it was one of the bases used by American B-24 and B-17 bombers to take off for strategic raids across Germany and France. Mr Manning added: ‘These huts were formerly used as lodgings for service personnel, and then after the war a lot of them became used for storage.
‘But because of the size of these three huts, they were converted about two or three years ago. The other two huts are also currently lived in.’