Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)

The former Sergeant's Mess, part of the Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks) in Colchester, was built in 1874-75 to a design by Lieutenant General Charles Brisbane Ewart RE, Deputy Director of Works for Barracks at the War Office. The barracks form the second permanent military establishment at Colchester following the earlier Calvary Barracks constructed in 1862-64.

The building is constructed of red brick with yellow brick and limestone dressings. It has a slate cross-gable roof with brick ridge and lateral stacks. The plan is single-depth and T-shaped. The two-storey, 2:3-window facade features a projecting left-hand gable, a yellow brick plinth, cill and lintel bands, a brick eaves cornice and coped gables. The windows are 6/6-pane sashes with ashlar flat heads; the ground floor of the projecting gable has paired sashes, while the upper floor has a tripartite window with a Caernarvon arch containing simple plate tracery. A single-storey porch in the re-entrant angle has a raking roof and a plain flat-headed doorway. A square lantern with a pyramidal roof and finial rises from the roof.

The interior was not inspected.

The Gothic detailing displays an unusually ornamental approach for a barracks design. Le Cateau Barracks represents the last surviving example of the new layout of cavalry barracks developed at Aldershot in the 1850s, intended for large-scale military training camps.