Former Nelson Barrack

The former Nelson Barrack, dating to approximately 1902, was designed by Sir Henry Pilkington and is now used as offices and laboratories. Constructed of red brick with Portland stone dressings, it features brick gable and ridge stacks and a slate cross-gabled roof.

The building is an example of Free Edwardian Baroque style. The plan is based on a single-depth axial layout.

The exterior is three storeys high with attics to the end cross ranges, presenting as a 25-bay range. The symmetrical facade has 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. The 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 have 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 sash windows feature large split keystones to the ground and first floors, with brick and stone voussoirs to the second floor; ground floor windows in the intermediate sections are wider, incorporating side lights.

Return gables feature an outer blind bay, with a central porch. The porch contains blocked Tuscan columns supporting an entablature bearing the name NELSON in raised lettering and a segmental pediment, surmounted by a half-glazed double door. A bay above the porch has an entablature and parapet, paired 4/4-pane sashes in a keyed architrave, and 4/4-pane sashes to the sides. Above these is a round-arched 8/8-pane sash with an architrave and brackets supporting a round-arched pediment that projects forward from the cornice, above a cartouche with flanking fish.

The rear elevations are simpler, with square latrine towers at each end, capped with pyramidal roofs, connecting to the barracks by a ground floor arch and a one-light range above. The building retains good cast-iron hoppers dated to the original construction, as well as square downpipes. The roofs have banded ridge and lateral stacks, some of which have been truncated, and are punctuated by late 20th-century dormer louvres and air conditioning units.

The interior is plain, with axial corridors and stairs located in the end and central projecting sections.

The barracks are one of four matching units that comprised the former HMS Pembroke, forming part of a carefully planned group with the Officer’s Mess, Captain’s House, Motor Department, and other ancillary buildings.