Former mess block 8 metres to south of central mess block, HMS Pembroke

This is a former mess block and offices, dating from 1900 and designed by Sir Henry Pilkington. It is located 8 metres south of the central mess block within HMS Pembroke, Gillingham. The building is constructed of red brick with Portland stone dressings, featuring gable and ridge stacks and a slate roof.

The architectural style is Edwardian Baroque. The building has a double-depth, H-shaped plan with a central stair hall.

The exterior is three storeys high and has five windows across the front. The range is symmetrical, with a rusticated banded ground floor, stone cill and plat bands, a stone frieze, a modillion cornice, and a parapet. A central bowed distyle in antis porch features Tuscan columns, blocked antae, an entablature, and a balustrade, leading to a doorway with an architrave and double doors. Above the porch is a four-storey central section with angled lateral stacks flanking a two-storey round-arched window that rises through the cornice. This window has mullions and transoms to metal casements, large alternate voussoirs, a keystone, and enriched aprons. The stacks are linked by a crenellated parapet and a round arch supporting a balustrade.

The outer windows have large split keystones and architraves to the first and second floors, with 6/6-pane sash windows. Dormers with paired 4/4-pane sashes are set into the parapet on either side of the central feature. The ends of the building have two gables with corbelled gable stacks, separated by a recessed central section containing a large diagonally-set lateral stack.

The rear elevation has a 2:1:2 window range, with a wide section projecting two bays out from the centre, featuring tripartite flat-headed windows and a tall coped attic. A rear arched link connects to the Central Mess Block. A large central ridge lantern has casements. The building retains cast-iron dated hoppers and square downpipes.

The interior has not been inspected, but is reported to lack special decorative features.

The building forms part of the south range of three richly detailed mess blocks, and is part of a carefully planned early 20th-century naval barracks, alongside the Captain’s House, barracks (Pasley Road), and ancillary buildings.