Former Riding School, Calvary Barracks

The former riding school, part of Calvary Barracks, was built between 1862 and 1864 to designs by Captain Douglas Galton of the Royal Engineers. It is a brick building with yellow brick dressings and a slate roof.

The building is rectangular and single-storied, comprising fourteen bays. The sides feature full-height buttresses, with a segmental-arched six-light window with a transom above each bay. The window arches are constructed with alternating red and yellow brick voussoirs. An oculus is present at the north-east end, along with wide double doors. A lower, three-window range office block, with a hipped roof, is attached, featuring plate-glass sash windows and a door at the right-hand end. A tall, round-arched doorway is located at the south-west end.

The interior features metal trusses with wrought-iron ties and paired struts. Battered panels are present in the lower walls to prevent horses from becoming trapped, and a window provides a view down from the front office.

Riding schools were essential components of cavalry barracks during the 19th century, used for exercising and practicing maneuvers. This example is included due to its significance as part of a near-complete complex, representing the most important surviving example of its type on an English barracks. Calvary Barracks was the first permanent barracks in Colchester and is the second-to-last example of the new barracks layout first developed at Aldershot in the 1850s for large-scale training; the adjoining Royal Artillery Barracks, built between 1874 and 1875, is the last.