Medical Centre (Building 24), Hounslow Barracks

The Medical Centre, also known as Building 24 at Hounslow Barracks, is a regimental hospital built around 1862 and designed by Captain Douglas Galton of the Royal Engineers. The building is constructed from cream-coloured terracotta blocks with red brick dressings and features an ashlar plat band, brick lateral stacks, and a slate hipped roof.

The layout follows an in-line pavilion plan, with wards on either side of a central administrative block, along with a detached kitchen and storage area. The exterior is single-storey and features a symmetrical arrangement with a window range of 1:7:7:7:1. The red brick quoins and dressings accentuate the openings, and the boxed eaves add to the architectural detail. The projecting two-storey administrative block has a plat band and a recessed three-window centre, which includes an arcade of central doorways with radial fanlights and double doors. The narrow windows at the parapetted corner blocks and the 12/12-pane ground-floor sashes on the inner sides enhance the façade. The fronts of the projecting blocks feature 6/6-pane sashes, and there are paired first-floor plate-glass sashes. Central gable dormers are present on each side, flanked by lateral stacks. The single-storey wards on either side have flat-headed 6/6-pane sashes, while the projecting end pavilions boast triple round-arched windows at the front and rear, with similar windows beside the end recessed doorways.

Inside, the building retains former ward rooms at either end, with a central dogleg stair that was encased around 1930, along with mid-20th-century partitions.

Historically, Captain Galton was a key figure in hospital reform and worked closely with Florence Nightingale. He was responsible for the influential Herbert Hospital built in 1865 and promoted model pavilion plan hospitals for barracks through the Royal Engineers. Hounslow Barracks is based on a 60-bed in-line hospital and is possibly the earliest example of the pavilion principle in the country, remaining largely unaltered within its original barracks layout.