Hms Excellent: Drill Shed (Building Number 190)

PORTSMOUTH

SU60SW WHALE ISLAND 774-1/3/467 HMS Excellent: Drill shed (Building 08/07/98 No.190)

II

Naval drill hall, gunnery school. Dated 1892. Red brick in English bond with brighter-red brick arches and ashlar dressings; corrugated-iron roof. PLAN/EXTERIOR: large rectangular structure of one storey, 3 x 19 bays, open on north side (onto Parade Ground). Chamfered plinth; giant brick pilasters flanking recessed panels and linked by stepped eaves bands. End elevations each have projecting central bay with wide round-arched entrance containing double door below tympanum of diagonally-laid brickwork, imposts, keystone with fouled anchor (and date at west end) rising into brick band; above, oculus with radial glazing bars; pedimented gable flanked by swept brackets and with ashlar coping and ball-on-spire finial; to flanking bays, blind segmental-arched windows. South elevation: small-pane metal windows in segmental-arched openings, the bays defined by buttresses with offset heads. North elevation: square-columned arcade, each bay having 9-light glazed head. Full-length ridge clerestory with louvres. INTERIOR: a wide-span roof of tensile trusses made of diagonal wrought-iron ties from a canted cross tie to angle iron principals, and braces of paired flat iron. HISTORY: the first barracks were built here in 1863 as part of the naval gunnery school. A large hall for indoor drill practice, comparable with the large examples at the main naval barracks at Plymouth and Chatham and included for its historic technical interest. (The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy: Oxford: 1995-: 255).

Listing NGR: SU6377602639