Retreat from Empire

[StopStart]

One of our last bastions of Empire has fallen to the combined enemy forces of cutbacks, Health and Safety and Modernisation. This long standing redoubt of alcoholism and hedonism recently fell despite pleas for reinforcements and it's long standing Grade I* Listed status.

It will no doubt be replaced by some sort of high quality, air conditioned luxury completely unsuited to the harsh Akrotiri conditions. I suspect nowhere in the architect's directive are there plans for high flow sinks, carpets with high brandy sour absorption characteristics and balconys suitable for hedge diving.

A dark day. I shall be raising a jug of Brandy Sour before being sick on my shoes in memory of the mighty Animal House......


©CC stolen from FB

[TheWizard]

You could write a best seller if you were to gather some of the stories of things that took place in and around that building over the years.
National Lampoons, Porkys.... all would be tame if the real 'Animal House' made it to the big screen.

Pretty sure most things won't/can't be printed on these pages. However, back in the early 90's, an impromptu BBQ involving all the furniture from the top floor during a certain Africa slip pattern will always be memorable for the wrong reasons!!

[Pontius Navigator]

Spent several years in the upstairs room next the bathroom. Far superior to the seco style huts near No 1 Mess.

What a strange arrangement it was. Two messes, No 1 and No 2, essential so there was at least one available as the other was being rebuilt after being burnt down.

So our accommodation was near No 2 mess when No 1 was open and transits were nearer No 1 mess.

[Ken Scott]

A sad day indeed - I can think of other blocks there that deserved to go before 139 - some truly awful accom was available at LCRA.

[Lockstock]

Looks like the digger is doing about £100 worth of improvements.

[Tourist]

Stopstart

Don't be too upset.
It was the people you were with and the things that you did that made the times great, not the ****hole that you lived in.

And yes, I have had the good/mis fortune to stay there on occasion.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I've made friends, cocktails, love and a fool of myself in that place. I shall always remember the ker-ching, thunk sound of popping a beer cap off with the fire bell and it dropping into the bin below.

Tourist is right; it's the people that make it.
However, I too will be having brandy sours (or maybe a horse's neck) because, in the true tradition of Animal House, who needs an excuse to get drunk?

Are we just going to lie here and take this?
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour?

You Tube

[Al R]

Home, for 4 years..



.. the Rock Block held more book reading evenings than many people realised. But when things got out of hand, the Sqn WO (BD) had us dig in on the sqn compound until we learned to appreciate civilisation once more. I called in last year and this was all that remained of our second home..



Good times. Of course, no Aki thread would be complete without..



.. the Live Aid party springs to mind, as does attacking it with a home made mortar one evening, and where I met a particular PM. The crumbling hot bricks and noisy, knackered showers didn't make a jot of difference - it was a busy time, we were young and we overdid it from start to finish - it was the time of my life.

I wonder if any Betamax copies of Animal Farm survived the Block parties..

[ricardian]

I was in the airmen's block at the end of the road, opposite number 3 airmen's mess (which was never used in the time that I was there, 1965-67). It was a short walk past 2 or 3 blocks & the WRAF block to number 3 airmen's mess & the Peninsula Club. Christmas was always a good time especially in the old-style billets with their billet bars. Good job the H&S folk didn't exist as such, all that illicit wiring etc

[Roland Pulfrew]

Oh No. IF the Animal House has succumbed, what does that mean for Block 100, Block 101 and 102? Scenes of numerous brandy sour and Keo fuelled parties?