Ze7 Lippitts Hill: Mess Block

The Mess Block, built 1939-40 by the War Office.

Materials: a timber-framed, single-storey range, with rusticated weatherboard cladding, standing on a brick plinth, with felted, shallow-pitched timber roofs and metal casement windows.

Plan: of rectangular plan.

Exterior: the double-pile, single-storey Mess Block is weatherboarded and has double-leaf timber, plank and batten doors at each end of the west facing elevation. Multi-paned metal casement windows with horizontal glazing bar patterns define each of the other bays on both the east and west elevations and on gable ends.

Interior: the Mess Block is accessed via the plank and batten doors at each end of the west elevation. Both sets of doors lead to corridors which at the southern end of the building has small offices, WCs and locker rooms off to the right and the large, open-plan canteen to the left. This corridor also leads to the large kitchen area which runs behind, but parallel to, the canteen. The northern corridor runs along the north gable leading to the canteen on the right and the kitchen to the rear. The interior throughout is utilitarian with boarded ceilings and walls but the base of trusses can be seen suggesting the original roof structure survives beneath. The carpentry is functional but consistent with the majority of the one-over-three timber panel doors surviving. Cast-iron sectional radiators and all the 1940s ‘crittal’ style window furniture also survive.