West Barrack And Attached Perimeter Wall, Berwick Barrack Museum

A barrack and officers' block was built between 1719 and 1721, likely designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor for the Board of Ordnance. The building is constructed from sandstone ashlar, rendered to the front, with brick axial stacks and a slate valley roof, demonstrating a Vernacular Baroque style. It has a double-depth plan with a section for officers on the north side.

The building is three storeys and an attic, featuring a sixteen-window range on one side, and a four-window range on the other. The right-hand section is set forward, with blocked quoins to the stepped gables. The main range is largely symmetrical, with entrance bays projecting forward at the centre and at three points along each end. Segmental-arched doorways are topped with imposts and tall keys, with small-paned fanlights above double boarded doors. The ground floor and second floor have flat-arched eight-pane sash windows with ashlar surrounds, while the first floor has round-arched sashes with keys and imposts. The five accentuated right-hand bays have segmental-arched windows on the first floor, and these features are replicated on the rear elevation, which has 20th-century service blocks attached. The right-hand gable onto the Parade has a segmental-arched, horned two-pane sash window on the ground floor, and single first-floor round-arched and second-floor segmental-arched eight-pane sashes, with boarded oculi in the stepped gables.

Inside, the barrack rooms are heated and arranged back-to-back, divided by a spine wall containing stair flights from the entrances, featuring an uncut string and two rails. The officers’ rooms are separated by an axial corridor with a staircase, which has column newels and stick balusters.

A parallel rubble wall with interval piers encloses the rear yard, running approximately 80 metres from the northwest corner south to meet the officers' mess.

This building is part of the earliest planned barrack complex in England, constructed nearly 80 years before most other English barracks, due to the need for a permanent garrison near the Scottish border. It is one of a group of Ordnance buildings from this period associated with Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh, reflecting 17th and early 18th century planning.