Former Blake Barrack

The former Blake Barrack, now offices and laboratories, was built around 1902 by Sir Henry Pilkington. It is constructed of red brick with Portland stone dressings, featuring brick gable and ridge stacks and a slate cross-gabled roof. The building exemplifies the Free Edwardian Baroque style and has a single-depth, axial plan.

The exterior is three storeys with attics to the end cross ranges, forming a 25-bay range. The symmetrical design incorporates a plinth, banded rustication to a ground floor plat band, a second-floor impost band that develops into a corniced frieze on the end gables, and a modillion eaves cornice. Eight-bay intermediate ranges are divided by shallow paired lateral stacks to the first and second floors, with a central downpipe. The three-bay end gables feature clasping pilaster strips, scrolled ends to the raking coping, and thin lateral stacks flanking central windows to a tall gable stack with a central rib. A deep, full-height central canted bay is also present. Segmental-arched 6/6-pane sashes are fitted to the windows, with large split keystones on the ground and first floors, and brick and stone voussoirs on the second floor. Ground-floor windows in the intermediate sections are wider and include side lights.

Return gables have an outer blind bay, while a central porch features blocked Tuscan columns supporting an entablature bearing the name “BLAKE” in raised letters, a segmental pediment, and a half-glazed double door. Above the porch is a bay with an entablature and parapet, featuring paired 4/4-pane sashes in a keyed architrave, and further 4/4-pane sashes on either side. Above this is a round-arched 8/8-pane sash with architrave and brackets supporting a round-arched pediment that projects from the cornice, above a cartouche flanked by fish.

The rear elevations are simpler, with square latrine towers at each end topped with pyramidal roofs, connected to the barracks by a ground floor arch and one-light range above. Notable features include good cast-iron hoppers and square downpipes. The roofs have banded ridge and lateral stacks, some of which have been truncated. Later 20th-century dormer louvres and air conditioning units have been added.

The interior consists of plain axial corridors and stairs located in the end and central projecting sections.

The building was once one of four matching barracks at the former HMS Pembroke, and was part of a carefully planned group of buildings including the Officer's Mess, Captain's House, Motor Dept, and other ancillary structures.