Former Royal Naval Academy (Buildings Numbers 1/14, 1/116-19) And Attached Railings

Former Royal Naval Academy (Buildings Numbers 1/14, 1/116-19) and attached railings

Royal Naval Academy, now used as offices and Officers' Mess, with attached railings. Built 1729-32, extensively remodelled in 1808, bomb-damaged in 1941 with parts subsequently rebuilt.

The building is constructed of grey brick in header-bond with red brick and ashlar dressings, beneath a hipped slate roof with brick stacks.

The plan is asymmetrical H-shaped, with the cross-range positioned near the front and later additions across the rear forming a rear courtyard.

The exterior comprises three storeys with a basement. The west elevation features a central cross-range of nine bays, with the three centre bays projecting forward, flanked by pedimented wings of three bays each with three-bay inner returns. The design includes rusticated ashlar quoins, ashlar floor bands and cornice, and red brick surrounds to the windows and parapet.

Windows on the ground floor are round-arched; those above are segmental-arched with smaller openings on the second floor. All have sashes with glazing bars. Mid-twentieth-century rainwater pipes in eighteen-century style feature bulbous heads.

The central entrance has ashlar steps (railings removed) leading to a six-panel door with a frieze fanlight with radial glazing bars, an ashlar architrave, and flanking attached columns supporting an entablature with triglyph frieze and pediment. A large central octagonal wooden cupola, dating from 1808, has small round-arched windows and a domed metal roof with round-arched dormers topped by a ball-on-cushion finial.

Each wing's inner return contains central steps with plain iron railings leading up to a panelled wooden porch with attached columns supporting a deep entablature, a half-glazed double door with glazing bars, six-pane side windows, and a five-panel inner door. At the end of each wing, stone steps descend to the basement, flanked by iron railings on a low ashlar plinth with curved-sectioned bars, columnar standards (some with ball finials), and gates at the top of the steps.

Attached to the right side of the building is a two-storey three-bay addition with similar detailing but with tall flat-arched openings to the ground floor. The left return continues the detailing in brick rather than ashlar and features a projecting stair tower with a lean-to addition to its left. At the left end stands a two-storey late nineteenth-century brick addition with a central pediment.

Interior features include some surviving panelling. The entrance hall contains large decorative brackets supporting an entablature. A room on the left has panelled walls and reveals, a modillioned cornice, and fluted Ionic pilasters to the door architrave. The staircase features a panelled dado with short fluted columns and is open-string with moulded tread ends, stick balusters, and fluted columnar newels supporting a ramped moulded handrail with spiral curtail. The cupola includes a gallery accessed by a stair with turned balusters.

The Royal Naval Academy was established by Order-in-Council in 1729 and opened in 1733 as the first naval shore-training establishment and forerunner of the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. The cupola served a teaching function, with mock battles conducted from the gallery and the golden ball finial used to teach the use of the sextant. The institution was renamed the Royal Naval College in 1806, closed in 1837, and reopened as a higher education institute in 1839. As a training college for naval cadets, it exercised little influence during the eighteenth century and was largely superseded in the mid-nineteenth century by HMS Britannia and subsequently by Dartmouth.