The Barracks Business Centre

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 6 September 2021 to update the name and address and to reformat the text to current standards

SE 42 SW 1282-012/64

WAKEFIELD ROAD (North East side) The Barracks Business Centre

(Formerly listed as The Barracks Public House)

15.11.88

II

Armoury, guard house and store, now public house. 1878, designed at the War Office by Major HC Seddon PE; extended at rear mid C20. Brick with black brick dressings and flat ashlar roof Fortress Gothic Revival style. Square plan with corner stair towers to front and central rear.

EXTERIOR: three storeys, four-storey tower; 3:6:3-window range. Battered plinth, black bands to cills and heads, cornice and crenellated parapet; segmental-arched heads to metal-framed windows. Towers have sunken panels beneath pseudo-machicolations and a cornice, with taller top section with raised corners; rear corners raised, and rear C20 tower with plain top.

INTERIOR: Has a fireproof interior of cast-iron columns to jack arches, and winder stairs.

HISTORY: The Keep was a secure armoury, store, and lock-up, and was the characteristic building of the Localisation depots. They were part of the Cardwell reforms, which redistributed barracks around the country to encourage local connections and assist recruitment. With the matching example at Bury St Edmunds, one of only ten surviving examples of this important symbolic building.

(Watson Colonel Sir H M: History of the Corps of Royal Engineers: Chatham: 1954-: 157-160).

Listing NGR: SE4459621202