Bamford House, Dowell House, Finch House, Halliday House Former Long Barracks And Screen Walls To East And West, Marine Gate Harvey House, Prettyjohn House, Wilkinson House

A terrace of barrack blocks, now houses, dating to 1863-5, designed by William Scamp for the Admiralty Works Department and converted to residential use in 1995. The complex forms part of RM Eastney Barracks and is located on Cromwell Road, Eastney, Portsmouth. The terrace comprises seven linked blocks constructed of brown brick in Flemish bond, with red and yellow brick accents and Portland stone dressings. Slate roofs are topped with brick stacks. The plan features a terrace of seven linked blocks, each with a central stair/ablution block projecting to the front and rear, flanked by barrack rooms.

The exterior is three storeys high, with each block exhibiting a 4:3:4 bay arrangement, the central portion projecting under a hipped roof. Rusticated red brick bands and quoined pilasters define the blocks. Stone sillbands are present on the first and second floors. A stepped, cogged brick eaves detail is also visible. Windows are 12-pane sashes; on the ground floor, they are round-arched and set within recesses featuring dropped “keystones” and “stepped voussoirs” of red and yellow brick. First-floor windows are segmental-arched, and second-floor windows have rubbed flat arches. Each block features a central three-quarter glazed door with a fanlight. Rising between alternate windows are tall chimneys with coupled flues and oversailing caps.

Attached to the east and west ends are rusticated red brick screen walls. Each wall includes a tall central carriageway flanked by lower pedestrian arches. The pedestrian arches have plain stone cornices and coped brick parapets, while the carriageways have stone cornices and blocking courses supporting outward pointing mortars and piles of mortar balls. The rear of the barrack block is plainer with brick sillbands and windows simply segmental-arched on the ground floor. The interior has not been inspected.

This is a remarkable barrack block, the longest in the country after the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich. William Scamp, assistant director of the Admiralty Works Department, was associated with the Royal Dockyards. The layout of the site beside the seashore reflects its use by Marines and represents the last large defensible barracks built in the country, exemplifying the best and most complete barracks of the post-Crimean War period.