Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks

The Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks is a reinforced concrete building constructed between 1962 and 1963, faced externally with 'Granitex' rendering composed of white marble chippings and mica bound in white Portland cement, lightly hammered to produce a rough textured finish. The plinth is Portland stone with black Welsh slate dressings and bronze fittings. Tubular steel trusses support the low-pitched roof covered with insulated copper. The Memorial Cloister is built of red brick on a Portland stone plinth, with Portland stone entrance and other dressings, and five copper-clad domes to the roof. The sanctuary is stock brick, faced internally in marble and mosaic.

The chapel follows a rectangular plan, conceived as a modern interpretation of the classical temple, echoing the neo-classical ideology of the original chapel. Internally it incorporates the 19th-century apse flanked by vestries, with chancel, nave, narthex and west portico. To the north, the Memorial Cloister projects at right angles, forming a cross axis aligned with the Household Division Cenotaph in the south-west corner of the chapel. Side chapels line the south wall of the nave.

The main entrance is from the west via six steps leading to a tetrastyle portico of three low, broad openings separated and terminated by four higher but narrower openings set into the stark, flush facade, which is pierced by a single square opening containing a Greek cross. The portico is top-lit between a framework of horizontal, narrow concrete slabs. Behind the portico is a glazed west window extending the full width of the building, divided by simple mullions and a single transom, containing stained glass by JR Clayton from the earlier chapel depicting Old Testament scenes to the north and New Testament to the south. Below, within the central bay, are three pairs of bronze doors, a gift from the Sixth South African Armoured Division to whom the Guards were attached in 1944 when the original chapel was destroyed. The doors are flanked by inscriptions to those whose monuments were included in the earlier chapel. Six uplighters are fixed at intervals above the doors. Between the portico and west wall, bronze trusses each enclose a cross.

The nave is inscribed on the north and south with a continuous narrow fillet of black marble. The north elevation overlooking the Memorial Garden is lit by a row of 52 plain, vertical slit-windows at lower level. Six full-height openings at the east end form a closed east portico that envelopes the 19th-century apse, finished in gold-painted render. A small bell turret rises from the north wall of the nave, above a cross fixed to the nave wall. The inscription on the bell is taken from First Kings, chapter 9, verse 3, the text used by Dr Dakins in his sermon at the dedication of the original chapel: 'I have hallowed this house which thou has built, and Mine eyes and Mine heart shall be there perpetually.' The east end is plain except for a recessed panel and plaque inscribed with the Household Division's insignia bearing the motto 'Septem Junta In Uno – Seven Joined in One'. The south elevation is staggered, as if the wall has been peeled back from the main structure, in six equal bays which accommodate the Regimental Cloisters. Each bay has a narrow south-west facing window supported by a horizontal metal truss containing a cross.

The Memorial Cloister, in a traditionalist classical revival manner, projects north at right angles towards Birdcage Walk. It is of red brick on a tall Portland stone plinth with other stone dressings. The single-storey enclosed cloister has five bays, of which the end bays are top-lit. It has a continuous deep eaves cornice with moulded brackets above a moulded entablature. The east elevation is punctuated by stone-lined, round-arched blind alcoves. To the north, steps enclosed by parapet walls lead up to the entrance which breaks forward slightly. A pair of panelled entrance doors in a wreathed architrave are flanked by square pilasters, one-and-a-half to each side, below the inscription 'Pro Patria Mortuis' on the frieze above. The east elevation has three pairs of French doors and steps leading down to the Memorial Garden, set between paired pilasters. The cloister is attached to the north elevation of the chapel by a part-glazed link. To the west the chapel overlooks a reflective pool built in 1973.

The chapel interior is austere yet powerful, and prolifically endowed with memorials to the Household Cavalry and Guards' regiments. The interior is simply treated with plain white walls of rough plaster. The ceilings of the nave and narthex are of polished Columbian pine, the floor of black and grey composition tiles. Square ceiling lights emit natural light into the nave while artificial lighting is concealed within the ceiling and distributes light throughout the space by a series of reflectors and shades projecting from the ceiling.

Pairs of bronze doors lead from the portico to the narthex, which is separated from the nave by a monumental full-height Portland stone screen of three tiers of flat-arched openings. The list of memorial inscriptions continues into the narthex. The Household Brigade Cenotaph stands in the south-west corner opposite the entrance to the Memorial Cloister. It takes the form of a moulded stone sarcophagus with a polished timber lid, set within a recessed chamber which resembles the simplified, shortened profile of a buttressed church spire. Windows within the recess fill the chamber with natural light.

Six Regimental cloisters or chapels line the south side of the nave, one for the two Household Cavalry regiments and one each for the Foot Guards, each with its coat of arms carved on a rear wall of Portland stone and each with a Portland stone altar table. The windows are decorated with cut and etched designs on white glass chosen by the regiments. These include the Archangel Gabriel by John Hutton in the Grenadiers' chapel, and work by Gordon Beningfield, Lawrence Whistler and Rosemary Barnett. The same etched treatment on white glass is intended for the 52 slit-windows in the north wall as the need for memorials arises. Coloured glass is restricted to Clayton's stained glass in the west wall, which was saved from the former chapel. The heavy square-based stone and marble font from Street's chapel, embellished with intricate stone inlay and carving, stands in the nave.

A low screen of white Pentelic marble that incorporates the 19th-century iron chancel gate by J Leaver precedes Street's highly decorated apsidal sanctuary that dominates the east end. The screen is flanked by panels of cast aluminium designed by Geoffrey Clarke ARCA in 1963: 'Passive Standard' to the north and 'Active Standard' to the south, with the choirs and musicians' galleries behind. The pulpit and desk in front of the screen are of white marble. The pulpit was a gift of the Royal Family and has a Celtic cross incised in the front; the desk has the Household Division emblem. Nave pews seating 500 and choir stalls are of polished afrormosia wood. Underfloor heating avoided the need for intrusive heating.

The chancel, between the screen and Street's sanctuary and treated as the nave, houses the choir stalls and white marble-fronted musicians' and organ galleries. The floor is of white, black and grey marble laid in a geometric pattern. The chancel is lit by circular pendant lights. The organ and trumpets were installed in 1971; the organ was subsequently enlarged.

The walls, columns and arcades of Street's apsidal sanctuary are lined in veined cream and brown marble with cornices and capitals picked out in gold. The sedilia is of red, black and white marble. Lavish gilded mosaic decoration, designed by JR Clayton of Clayton and Bell and executed by Salviati, Burke and Co and completed by 1911, depicts the Story of the Passion, with the Crucifixion immediately behind the altar and Christ in Majesty above within the vault. Flanking walls depict figures of the Apostles; above the sedilia, angels carry scrolls inscribed with virtuous qualities – love, peace, goodness, temperance and so on. To the north is The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Floors are of encaustic tiles. Floor mosaics and the altar are of coloured marble, with a frontal panel in blue and gold mosaic designed by Sir Nevile Wilkinson in 1937, who had served in the Coldstream Guards. The sanctuary steps form a memorial to King George V, unveiled in 1936.

From the west end of the nave, four steps descend to the interior of the War Memorial Cloister laid out in five bays, each bay under a vaulted roof of coursed ashlar blocks supported on moulded stone piers. On each side, apsidal chambers house memorials to each regiment, except for the central three bays overlooking the Memorial Garden which have pairs of full-height fully-glazed small-paned doors. The central aisle has a white and black marble floor leading to the entrance on Birdcage Walk. Black marble floors line the memorial chambers and each is defined by a carved wall-mounted stone plaque bearing the regiment's insignia and a low Portland stone plinth supporting a book of remembrance on a gloss-black moulded stone base.

A reflective pool to the west of the Memorial Cloister was conceived as part of the George Trew and Dunn scheme and constructed in 1973.