Gymnasium, Royal Military Academy

The gymnasium, dating to around 1910, was likely designed by H.B. Measures, the Director of Barrack Construction at the War Office. It is constructed of brick and render with Bath stone ashlar dressings, topped with a slate roof.

The building has a rectangular main gym with corner stair towers, and includes changing rooms on the south side, a central north fencing room, and flanking store and boiler rooms with a chimney. The style is Edwardian Baroque.

The exterior is three storeys high and thirteen bays wide. It features gabled elements with banded rustication in the lower section and clasping quoin strips. The windows are mullion and transom bottom-hung casements, largely with metal frames. The corner towers are three-stage, with quoin strips culminating in swagged caps, a first-floor cornice, and a segmental pediment topped with a copper-clad dome and finial. Doorways are positioned within gables, each with brackets supporting segmental arched canopies and double half-glazed doors. The first floor windows are 9/9-pane. End gables incorporate an ashlar band, a wide tripartite window above a cill band with cill blocks, banded jambs, and a cornice. Keyed oculi are situated at the top of the gables, flanked by banded pilaster strips and a swan’s neck pediment with swag detailing. The south side features a central two-storey gabled porch and a segmental arch to a pair of double doors, flanked by small windows. The north side incorporates a central gabled wing, a service range with garage doors and roof lights, and a square, battered chimney with a cornice and coping. The rendered gym has four three-light lunettes under the eaves on each side of the porch.

Inside, the roof is bowed with concrete beams, and there are galleries on both sides with metal balusters, alongside a dogleg staircase rising from the lobby.

The gymnasium forms part of the early 20th century expansion of the Royal Military Academy, initially referred to as the New College. It is the most architecturally developed of the late 19th and early 20th century expansion of Army gyms and is notable for its fine decorative use of materials, particularly when considered in conjunction with the earlier gym, now the Library.