Sometimes when a location crops up on the forum its hard to know if whoever’s been there has seen the best of the site, or if they have just seen a fraction of it and missed all the good stuff….
I'd seen a couple of past reports on the RRL (later TRL) all of which focused on the test track. It wasn’t that high on my priority list until Dave mentioned there was a grim complex of 1960's offices, Labs and test sheds with a circular rotunda building all of which no one had really had a look at.
Demolition work started last summer so we were lucky that there was anything left to see here at all, undoubtedly it would have been better back then just before asbestos removal went in. The canteen particularly would have looked amazing with its 60's fit out. It was sadly stripped out when we got there. The demolition work has already seen a number of buildings knocked down and those that are left are in the process of being soft stripped.
The Roads Research Laboratory at Crowthorne was built during the mid 1960's fully opening in 1967. The main building on the road is a typical slice of 60's English modernist civic architecture, the design of which is echoed in countless schools, town halls, MOD buildings, colleges and hospitals.
I must confess I quite like buildings like this, I admire the modernist ideals with which they were built. Back in the day we seemingly had a Research Establishment for everything!
The RRL was setup in 1933 and its aim was simply to research and provide scientific knowledge that could be used in the construction of new roads, street furniture etc. After the second world war the rise the amount of cars on the roads and an increase in injury and deaths on the roads. In response to this RRL created a new safety division work included studies of accident data, traffic flow, junction design, street lighting, vehicle safety and pedestrian crossings. One of their first early developments was the zebra crossing. They went on to research into vehicle impacts that led to the introduction of seatbelts to production cars.
During the mid 60's the facilities at Harmondsworth and Langley Hall were closed and relocated to the new site at Crowthrone. In 1972 The name was changed to the Transport & Roads Research Laboratory reflecting its new wider role. By then subjects of research included work included studies of bridges, tunnels, road user behaviour, road pricing, public transport and the environmental impacts of vehicles. As well as developing better roads, looking at the issues of skid resistance, road materials, methods of construction, and measurement of road characteristics....
In the 1996 The TRL was privatised and by late 2008 new buildings had been built on site and most of the 60’s buildings were closed, they briefly became an under-occupied business park before demolition work began this summer. The TRL does still exist on site but now seems to be a much smaller concern.
From The Road
Sculptural 'Road' mural,
Entrance
this was Ironicly on a steel frame building:
Climatic test cells,
Fume cupboards
Photos of testing in progress,
Spine corridoor,
Library,
It's got some damp issues!
Up in the offices.
On the roof,
They have just started demolishing the building on the far right.
Observation post:
Library, with the observation post on the top of the towerblock,
Workshop for preparing crash tests, The adjacent room was the store for test dumies sadly empty.
Stairwell in the workshops, there were a few of these round the site.
Test House for concrete structures,
There was large void under floor, to allow the test samples to be properly tied down, The circular holes in the floor cover the tie down points
Funky staircase in the sturctural test building,
I'd seen a couple of past reports on the RRL (later TRL) all of which focused on the test track. It wasn’t that high on my priority list until Dave mentioned there was a grim complex of 1960's offices, Labs and test sheds with a circular rotunda building all of which no one had really had a look at.
Demolition work started last summer so we were lucky that there was anything left to see here at all, undoubtedly it would have been better back then just before asbestos removal went in. The canteen particularly would have looked amazing with its 60's fit out. It was sadly stripped out when we got there. The demolition work has already seen a number of buildings knocked down and those that are left are in the process of being soft stripped.
The Roads Research Laboratory at Crowthorne was built during the mid 1960's fully opening in 1967. The main building on the road is a typical slice of 60's English modernist civic architecture, the design of which is echoed in countless schools, town halls, MOD buildings, colleges and hospitals.
I must confess I quite like buildings like this, I admire the modernist ideals with which they were built. Back in the day we seemingly had a Research Establishment for everything!
The RRL was setup in 1933 and its aim was simply to research and provide scientific knowledge that could be used in the construction of new roads, street furniture etc. After the second world war the rise the amount of cars on the roads and an increase in injury and deaths on the roads. In response to this RRL created a new safety division work included studies of accident data, traffic flow, junction design, street lighting, vehicle safety and pedestrian crossings. One of their first early developments was the zebra crossing. They went on to research into vehicle impacts that led to the introduction of seatbelts to production cars.
During the mid 60's the facilities at Harmondsworth and Langley Hall were closed and relocated to the new site at Crowthrone. In 1972 The name was changed to the Transport & Roads Research Laboratory reflecting its new wider role. By then subjects of research included work included studies of bridges, tunnels, road user behaviour, road pricing, public transport and the environmental impacts of vehicles. As well as developing better roads, looking at the issues of skid resistance, road materials, methods of construction, and measurement of road characteristics....
In the 1996 The TRL was privatised and by late 2008 new buildings had been built on site and most of the 60’s buildings were closed, they briefly became an under-occupied business park before demolition work began this summer. The TRL does still exist on site but now seems to be a much smaller concern.
From The Road
Sculptural 'Road' mural,
Entrance
this was Ironicly on a steel frame building:
Climatic test cells,
Fume cupboards
Photos of testing in progress,
Spine corridoor,
Library,
It's got some damp issues!
Up in the offices.
On the roof,
They have just started demolishing the building on the far right.
Observation post:
Library, with the observation post on the top of the towerblock,
Workshop for preparing crash tests, The adjacent room was the store for test dumies sadly empty.
Stairwell in the workshops, there were a few of these round the site.
Test House for concrete structures,
There was large void under floor, to allow the test samples to be properly tied down, The circular holes in the floor cover the tie down points
Funky staircase in the sturctural test building,
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