Gymnasium. Lions Gym (see below) was opened on 4th Dec 2000. The old one was situated in Slim Barracks close to 54 AEC and was knocked down early in 2001.
Officers’ Club. The British Authorities at the beginning of their colonial rule used the location of the Officers’ Club as a quarantine station. The diseases were varied and included cholera, typhoid and leprosy. In the 1920s when Unwin was the director of forests, the Quarantine Station was used to house approximately one hundred prisoners who were planting trees in the local area and the Achna Forest. Finally towards the end of WW II the old Quarantine Station was used as a maternity hospital for the Jewish Refugees who were accommodated at the site of 16 Flight.
Watson’s Mole. The first Mole at fishermen’s cove was built in 1966 but collapsed in bad weather during the winter of 1968. Its replacement was completed in February 1974. In June 1976, 62 Cyprus Support Squadron started work on the jetty which was extended from the mole, and was to include a roll-on roll-off facility. The project was completed on 28 October 1976 and enabled the Dhekelia Cantonment to be effectively administered by Royal Naval Shipping (Dietz).
Kingsfield Airfield. Kingsfield Airfield was constructed during the 1950s adding an important strategic dimension to the new Garrison. It was refurbished in 1994, and on 19 May 1994 a C-130 Hercules aircraft took off from Dhekelia with one hundred soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, who were dropped onto ‘Ladies Mile Beach’, Akrotiri (Cyprus News Agency, 1994).
Richmond Village. Richmond village was originally used to accommodate families of troops serving within the Garrison, and was serviced by a small NAAFI shop. The BFBS radio station was originally based in Richmond village. The building was completed during 1964 but the station moved to RAF Akrotiri in 1991 and the building was knocked down in 1994 (Taylor, 1983 & Antoniadou).
NAAFI. The original site of the NAAFI families’ shop was behind the current site of George’s Flower shop. The site was also home to Barclays and Lombard Banks, a Central Services Shop and the Jacaranda coffee shop. The Jacaranda is now located in the Amenities centre and the NAAFI shops have moved to their locations on the old site of the British Military Hospital. The only facility to remain in its current location is the taxi rank.
Amenities Centre. The building that is now home to the Amenities Centre was originally built in 1954 and was a ‘Sisters’ Mess’ for the staff of the British Military Hospital. When the hospital closed, the need for accommodation was reduced and the building became the Amenities centre.
George Centre. The George Centre was built in the mid-fifties. It was run by the NAAFI and housed many facilities for families and soldiers. The function room was used for many large social events but the centre closed in 1999 and was handed back to the Army in 2000. Recently the centre has been used to house refugees, and there are current plans to replace it with a modern entertainment facility (Soteris).
Key Cinema. The Key cinema was built in 1958/ 59 and was opened on 14 March 1959 with the premiere of, ‘Carry On Nurse’.
Telephone Exchange. The telephone exchange was originally based behind the original guardroom, close to the Officers’ Mess. In 1962 the original comcen was added to the same location. During the construction of the comcen a tunnel was discovered. On closer inspection it was ascertained that the tunnel ran all the way to 16 Flight, and the question of how the Jewish refugees (see page 8) escaped was finally solved. In 1991 the telephone exchange moved to the Garrison Headquarters and in 1992 it was closed permanently (Ioannides).
Fund Raising. Dhekelia Garrison has a long history of fund raising for a wide variety of charities and good causes, not least local community projects. The Garrison donates an average of twenty thousand pounds a year to charity. The methods of fundraising are also varied. One of the more popular events is the Dhekelia Dash, which was first run in 1966 with a total of nine teams, and was organised by Major Thornton, OC of the RAOC depot that was based in the ESBA. The original competition was run from Ayios Nikolaos with teams of fifteen people each running one mile. The only qualifying rule was that the combined team age had to be over 400. For safety reasons the Dhekelia Dash is now run as a relay competition around a circuit that starts and ends on the Area Two sports pitches.
