City Museum And Art Gallery

City Museum and Art Gallery, Portsmouth

Originally built as barracks in 1893, this building was designed by Lieutenant-Colonel R Dawson-Scott RE for the War Office and converted to a museum and art gallery in 1973. It is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with stone dressings and has plain tiled roofs. Moulded brick stacks with oversailing brick caps are positioned on each side of bays 3 and 15 and to each side of the centre part, with two similar external grouped brick stacks to each 3-storey link part.

The building displays French Chateau styling and follows an axial plan of double-depth rooms. It rises to 4 storeys with 3-storey links connecting the main elements, arranged across 17 bays (2/1/3/1/1/1/1/1/2/1/1/1/1/1/3/1/2). The elevation facing Museum Road is richly decorated with a projecting centre part flanked by 2-leaf glass entrance doors set under segmental brick arches recessed behind stepped brick jambs and segmental arches, with octagonal brick buttresses on either side featuring stone coping. Quoin buttresses extend through to the second floor, with inner buttresses reaching the fourth floor.

The centre of this elevation features three recessed 12-pane sash windows each set under gauged brick segmental arches with splayed brick jambs. A brick plinth runs across the elevation, with a brick band and pierced brick parapet between buttresses with stone coping. The first floor displays paired 2-leaf 8-pane recessed casements divided by a stone Gothic column, with single casements on either side featuring pointed fanlights with timber grilles set under pointed stepped brick arches and jambs, with stone sills and deep stepped stone outer sills. The second floor has three 12-pane recessed sashes each set under gauged brick cambered arches with splayed brick jambs and stone sills, flanked by similar 18-pane sashes. Above rises a facing stone coped gable with spaced stone steps. Within the gable are three small 2-pane recessed casements each set under gauged brick cambered arches with stone bands below the sill and recessed brick aprons. The gable contains a date stone marked 1897 and a brick relief of the Royal Coat of Arms set under a flat pointed brick arch with stone apex.

The left and right returns each feature a 16-pane fixed casement, a first-floor 4-pane fixed casement and a second-floor 12-pane sash, all set under gauged brick cambered arches, with octagonal stone eaves turrets supported on oversailing brick bases. On each side of the centre part stands a 3-storey link block four bays wide, with four 18-pane recessed sashes on the ground floor each set under gauged brick cambered arches with splayed brick jambs and stone sills. A brick sillband marks the first floor. The first and second floors have four similar 18-pane sashes, with the second floor sashes set within facing semi-dormer stone coped gables. Beyond each link block is a square projecting tower with three narrow 5-pane unequal sashes on each floor set under gauged brick cambered arches with splayed brick jambs and brick sillbands. First-floor sashes bear brick labels. The towers feature machicolation and pyramidal roofs with ornate iron finials.

To the left of the left tower and right of the right tower is a recessed bay with a twentieth-century door and 4-pane fanlight set under a stepped brick segmental arch and jambs. A brick sillband at the first floor marks an 18-pane recessed sash set under a gauged brick cambered arch with stone sill and brick label. The second floor has a similar sash without a label, and the third floor has a narrow recessed 12-pane sash set under a flat stone arch with splayed brick jambs and a facing stone coped gable. The far left and far right end bays project with paired narrow 12-pane recessed sashes each set under gauged brick cambered arches, with projecting brick strips from the window head running through to the second floor. The first, second and third floors have similar recessed sashes with brick sillbands, each set under flat stone arches and facing stone coped gables with stone bands.

The south-facing front is similar but features round towers flanking the inner sides of the gabled end blocks and to the left and right of the centre part, each topped with a conical roof and iron finial. The centre part displays a large canted stone mullioned oriel supported on heavy stone brackets over the entrance, with an open relieving arch above screening the recessed second floor, machicolation and crenellated parapets.

The interior is plain and contains large open well stairs with iron balusters.

This building formed part of the very large Clarence and Victoria barracks for infantry and artillery, built from 1885, and was almost certainly the officers' quarters fronting the parade square to the rear. It is all that survives of this extensive complex. Built under the Military Works Act, it is one of the few surviving examples from an area just outside the former Portsmouth Lines which contained a large concentration of barracks in the 19th century. The design is unique and unrelated to other English barracks, which were almost uniformly standardised in planning and architecture at this period. It represents one of the most striking examples of French Chateau style architecture in the country.