Hardinge Block (Building 8), Hounslow Barracks

Hardinge Block (Building 8) at Hounslow Barracks is a barracks building constructed between 1872 and 1880, designed by Major H.C. Seddon from the Inspector General of Fortifications' Office. The building is made of yellow stock brick with lighter bands and features a slate roof.

It is a three-storey structure with a total of 38 windows. The long range of the building includes paler sill and lintel bands and a dentil eaves cornice. There are two projecting stair sections, each with three windows and a gabled design, along with a two-storey round-arched recess that has a balustrade on the first and second floors above a doorway, situated on either side of the central eight-window section. A five-window extension with a gabled end block is present, featuring segmental-arched 9/9-pane sashes. The rear of the building has bowed ablution towers with half conical roofs flanking a narrow gable behind the stair sections.

Inside, the barrack rooms are arranged with axial stair flights, with non-commissioned officer rooms located at the front and ablution rooms in the rear bays.

Historically, this building was added to the late 18th-century barracks when Hounslow became a double-battalion Localisation depot during the Cardwell reforms. It is one of the large standard War Office designs from that period, similar to those at the Guard depot in Caterham. Hardinge Block is recognized as part of one of the most significant and complete barracks in the country and exemplifies one of the largest types built in England.