H M Prison

H M Prison

A complex of barracks buildings comprising guard house, armoury, officers' mess and offices, now used as prison offices. Built in 1886 and 1887, designed by Royal Engineers officers under the Inspector General for Fortifications. The buildings are constructed in brick with red sandstone and terracotta dressings, featuring ribbed brick lateral and ridge stacks with cornices and tiled roofs. The style is Artisan Mannerist Revival.

The plan is arranged axially, with the guard house, armoury and offices on the left-hand side and the officers' mess and clock tower on the right-hand side.

The exterior presents a long and strongly articulated range of 2 to 3 storeys with attic accommodation. It is arranged in a 4:2:5:3:4:6:7:1-window sequence. The main features include a first-floor cill band and moulded eaves throughout. Windows are of rubbed brick with segmental arches, fluted keys and raised aprons, containing 9/9-pane and 6/6-pane sashes with thick glazing bars. Patterned terracotta tiles decorate the tops of the main gables.

The left-hand guard house features a battered round right-hand corner tower with a doorway at its base and segmental-arched louvred openings beneath an ashlar dome. The tower contains narrow sashes and a wide truncated external stack. A timber verandah beneath a small gable extends from the left-hand side, with a 1-window rear gable above.

The main entrance is located to the right of the guard house. It comprises an elliptical archway with a matching left-hand wicket, both set on ashlar piers with imposts. These are framed within a gable with moulded coping topped by a ball finial. A round-arched sunken panel above contains the regimental shield.

To the right of the entrance, the 3-storey armoury has ashlar cill bands to narrow metal-framed lights and a modillion cornice to swept eaves. Five small gable dormers rise from the roof. The similar rear elevation features a segmental-arched doorway, standard ground-floor windows, and a right-of-centre external stack.

A lower single-storey range adjacent to the armoury has two gabled half dormers over paired windows. The rear of this range contains three dormers and a projecting single-storey parapeted service block.

The tall symmetrical central section features a prominent central gable with first-floor clasping pilaster strips, paired first-floor windows and four small attic lights. Gabled dormers flank either side. A left-hand square tower rises from this section, topped with an octagonal cupola containing louvred openings and a leaded octagonal dome. The rear of this section has a left-hand gable and two dormers, with a central doorway fitted with a 20th-century door. A lower range to the right of this section has a central first-floor pedimented panel inscribed with the date 1886.

The officers' mess occupies the right-hand portion of the complex. It has projecting end gables, with the left-hand gable featuring a canted 2-storey bay with balustrade. A 5-bay stone verandah with elliptical arches and balustrade connects this bay to a first-floor balcony. Three gabled dormers rise from the roofline.

The rear elevation of the officers' mess displays a right-hand flush gable with an attic Venetian window. A left-hand projecting gable contains an ornate canted oriel with a fluted ogee base and segmental pediment. Two round-arched doorways between these gables feature plate-glass fanlights. A large gabled porch with pilasters rises to the right of centre, framing a flat-headed doorway with small-paned overlight and 6-panel door. The porch is finished with a moulded frieze and a round-arched panel above topped by a raised pediment with ball finial, containing a keyed oculus.

The complex terminates to the right with a 5-storey square tower featuring a banded plinth and clasping quoin strip rising to a cornice. The top storey contains a pedimented panel housing a blue clock. A modillion cornice and leaded ogee dome with dormer oculi and weather vane complete the tower.

The interior was substantially altered in the mid-20th century and contains no special features of note, except for the armoury which retains a stone stair with jack arch floors.

This represents the most architecturally sophisticated 19th-century barracks in England, featuring a plan arrangement not found at any other British barracks. It is a unique example of the Queen Anne style applied to a barracks building, comparable with the work of Norman Shaw or R M Stevenson of the period, although the architect's identity remains unknown. The building forms part of a group with the nearby Regimental Museum.