Former Infirmary Stables, Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)

Former Infirmary Stables, Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)

This is a former Royal Artillery infirmary stables building, constructed in 1874-75 to designs by Lieutenant General Charles Brisbane Ewart RE, Deputy Director of Works for Barracks at the War Office. The building was extended and altered between 1899 and 1904, with further alterations carried out in the late 20th century. It is now disused.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond to the front and gable ends and English bond to the rear, with yellow stock and blue engineering brick dressings. It has a brick chimney stack and a slate roof.

The building is of rectangular plan, aligned roughly north-east to south-west, and is divided along its length into seven loose boxes. The box at the east end (formerly a pharmacy) and the two boxes at the west end (formerly a sling box and sick box) are 1899 to 1904 additions.

The building is of a single storey with a gabled roof. Architectural detailing includes a chamfered plinth, a continuous sill band to the high-level windows, and a cogged eaves cornice, all of yellow stock brick. Both gable ends are blind with corbelled stone kneelers, two courses of cogging to the eaves, and a stone-coped blocking course of blue engineering brick, though some of the coping has now been replaced with concrete. A late 20th-century lean-to shed adjoins the west gable end.

Below the eaves, continuous ventilation grills run along all but the easternmost loose box (the former pharmacy). The original 1870s section has a pierced fretwork design, while the late 19th and early 20th-century additions have louvered vertical slats. All the lintels are cast stone replacements, probably of mid to late 20th-century date, with chamfered soffits. The window sills are of concrete. All windows and most doorways are flat-headed; at the time of inspection in September 2023, they were externally boarded.

The principal elevation faces south-east. The easternmost loose box has two doorways: the left-hand doorway retains its original braced and ledged heck door, while the right-hand doorway has a narrower and shallower braced and ledged door set within a timber surround inserted into the original opening, both of late 20th-century date. The adjoining five loose boxes to the right are identical, each with a doorway to the left-hand side fitted with late 20th-century narrower and shallower braced and ledged doors, and an original high-level hopper window with square-paned glazing to the right-hand side. The westernmost loose box (the former pharmacy) has a late 20th-century timber door in an original surround and a late 20th-century timber casement to its right-hand side.

The rear elevation facing Artillery Barracks Folley has eight high-level hopper windows, all original, with square-pane glazing, cast stone sills and lintels, and deep reveals. The westernmost loose box has two windows.

Internally, all window and door openings are cambered-headed apart from the late 20th-century casement to the pharmacy, which has a timber lintel, though the original cambered-head survives above it. The eastern and westernmost loose boxes have white or off-white painted walls; the former has a timber floor and the latter a concrete floor. The walls of the other five boxes are painted black up to the level of the door lintel and then white above, all with cobble floors laid towards a central drainage gulley. The roof is of principal rafter type with white-painted timber. The easternmost loose box has a timber-boarded ceiling with deep coving, while the westernmost box was ceiled in the later 20th century, now partially collapsed. The remaining five loose boxes are open to the roof and display boarded-up openings for now-removed ridge vents. Fixtures and fittings include tethering rings, the concrete base for a removed stove in the easternmost box, a cast-iron fire surround in the westernmost box, and two timber beams and coupling rings for securing a horse sling in the sixth box from the left-hand side.