Hms Excellent: Quarterdeck Block (Buildings Numbers 17 To 21,24 And 25)

The Quarterdeck Block at HMS Excellent on Whale Island, Portsmouth, comprises a church, church rooms, gym, lecture theatre, and warrant officers' wardroom, dating back to 1885 with the wardroom added in 1893, and subsequent alterations. Constructed of red brick in English bond with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs, the building follows a roughly I-shaped plan, incorporating a central gym flanked by a theatre and chapel, along with wider offices and mess areas.

The exterior features a 6:3:6 bay arrangement with end cross-wings. The two-story wardroom on the left has paired gables, while the single-story church rooms on the right include a projecting gabled bay with a porch set in the angle. The building displays a chamfered plinth, offset buttresses, stepped eaves, and ashlar coping. Small-pane windows incorporate continuous ashlar sills and lintels, with transoms and dripmoulds to the gym and ground floor of the cross-wings, and paired 2-light windows to the hall and church. Caernarvon-arched board doors are present.

A central square bay window with a cornice and blocking course surmounts the gym, topped by a large Royal Coat of Arms. Windows of 3 x 3 lights rise through the eaves under gablets. A central clock tower rises above, featuring a swept metal base, pedimented wooden architraves to the clock faces, and an ogee metal roof with a decorative iron weather-vane. Flanking sections have end doors below 3-light windows, half-hipped roofs, and central ridge louvres capped with ogee and finials. The rear elevation is similar with some 20th-century additions. Tall ribbed brick stacks with ashlar blocking courses are visible. A porch is located at the church entrance. A lower square block with a large chimney rises from the centre of the gym, topped with a pyramidal roof and a central, finialed louvre.

The church interior showcases a panelled dado, a round-arched sanctuary recess, braced wooden queen post roof trusses, and a tripartite wooden First World War memorial. The memorial at the north end includes an engraving of battleships at sea, a portrait of Rear Admiral Hood, and biblical text. The gym has a board-lined roof with matching trusses and a framed wooden substructure supporting the clock tower.

Constructed by convicts on reclaimed land using spoil from the dockyard extension, the Quarterdeck Block represents a unique example of military planning, consolidating five distinct functions within an imposing range, while maintaining a conservative architectural style.