Gunnery Drill Shed, Shoebury Garrison

The Gunnery Drill Shed at Shoebury Garrison was built in 1859, with a lecture room added in 1908. It features a rendered plinth and brick construction, covered with 20th-century asbestos on the original iron-framed north-light roof. The building is a single-storey, nine-bay range with some 20th-century additions. Coupled red brick pilasters with moulded capitals flank stock brick panels that contain tall arched openings with brick keystones. Each facade has central tall sliding iron doors, and most bays feature high-level large-paned windows above blocked former gunposts. A modillion cornice with a stone top is located below the asymmetrical gables of the north-light roof, which is outlined in projecting brickwork.

Inside, the shed has single-span valley girders made of bolted plates. It was purpose-designed for gunnery drill and is an early example of free-span north-light roofs. The oak-framed gun posts were bricked up in the 1960s. Shoebury Garrison was expanded in 1859 to become the first British School of Gunnery, and this drill shed is one of the earliest indoor drill sheds, forming part of a complete mid-19th-century barracks.