Railings To Former Chelsea Barracks

1900/0/10416 CHELSEA BRIDGE ROAD 24-NOV-09 Railings to former Chelsea Barracks

GV II Railings to former infantry barracks built c1860-63 to the design of George Morgan. Cast and wrought iron set on rounded granite plinth. The railings are about 450m long in total, curving round into Pimlico Road at the NW end and Ebury Bridge Road at the SE end. The run is interrupted by the modern entrance (not of special interest) which is on the site of the original gatehouse; the piers have incorporated sections of the original (or replicated) ironwork. Bottom, lower and double upper rails. The railings are square, turned at 90 degrees, with alternated short uprights, with simple spike heads alternated with barbs. The square piers with rounded uprights terminating with conical spikes, are each accentuated by a projection in the plinth.

HISTORY: By 1850 the overcrowded and insanitary living conditions in barracks had become cause for national scandal, fuelled indirectly by infamous hospital conditions in the Crimea, and in 1854 a War Office committee was appointed to enquire into the matter. This resulted in an open architectural competition in 1855 for the design of a new cavalry barracks at Knightsbridge and a new infantry barracks at Chelsea. The winner of the infantry competition was George Morgan, a Westminster-based architect, who also came second in the cavalry competition. Although earlier barracks had been designed by civilian architects (notably the Wyatt dynasty), this selection of private architectural practices broke the military engineers' virtual monopoly on barrack design. The complex had a long frontage facing Chelsea Bridge Road with a central gatehouse flanked by tall Romanesque-Byzantine style towers; further buildings were grouped around the edges of the site with a chapel placed centrally at the rear of the parade ground. The barracks housed four companies of Guards, about 280 troops in all. In 1960-1 the barracks were demolished apart from the chapel and railings, and replaced with new buildings designed by Tripe and Wakeham. The site was vacated in early 2008 and the troops transferred to the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The railings to the former Chelsea Barracks are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Of special architectural interest as an impressive and virtually intact run of railings set on a granite plinth, whose original military function is clearly expressed through their design. * Special historic interest as the boundary to a major London barracks, built following the establishment of the Barracks and Hospitals Commission in 1857, and an important physical reminder of the military presence in Chelsea. * Strong townscape interest.