...brown coloured industrial stuff similar to Scotch-Brite.
I guess that was the horrid 'Iron Duke' carpeting, which was widely used at the time in corridors etc., stuck down with evil smelling glue. Hard wearing and even harder on the feet.
The OM bar at Wattisham was (briefly) re-carpeted with the rubbish - until our excellent Luftwaffe exchange officers burnt a hole in it with a firework. They wanted to keep the damaged piece, to be framed with a plaque stating 'Luftwaffe attack on RAF Wattisham 1983 - 40 years late!', but some misery wouldn't allow it.