Officers Quarters And Mess, Brock Barracks

Officers' quarters and mess, now offices, were built in 1877 as part of Brock Barracks, designed at the War Office by Major HC Seddon, RE, with supervising engineer Major Flint RE. The building is constructed of red brick with yellow brick bands, moulded brick heads, and stone dressings. It features lateral and ridge stacks; the left-hand end stack has octagonal shafts, while the others are truncated. The roof is tiled and cross-gabled. The architectural style is Gothic Revival.

The plan is based on a single-depth, axial, L-shaped layout, with kitchens located to the rear. The two-storey, ten-window-range exterior presents an asymmetrical facade. It incorporates three unevenly-spaced projecting coped gables. A deep, single-storey, canted mess room bay is situated to the left of the left-hand gable. To the right, there’s an open ashlar porch with a hipped roof supported by round columns with stiff-leaf capitals, creating 2-centre arched openings. The inner doorway has double doors. The bays and gables contain paired and three-light windows with narrow segmental-arched transom lights and two-over-two-pane sashes. The outer gables have three-light first-floor windows set beneath 2-centre arched tympana with patterned brick infill. Ground floor windows between the gables and to the sides and rear have flat heads, while those on the first floor have shouldered lintels. A hipped porch with tympana to the paired side windows is located at the right-hand end.

The interior includes an entrance stair hall with a dogleg staircase, a rear axial passage leading to another dogleg staircase at the right-hand end, and tiled floors. Original joinery and plaster mouldings remain.

The building was constructed as officers' accommodation, mess facilities, and administrative offices for the Reading Localisation depot. It represents a standard design as seen at the former Richmond depot, adapted by a local officer. The Cardwell reforms, which redistributed barracks to foster local ties and aid recruitment, prompted the construction of Brock Barracks. The officers' quarters was the most well-appointed building within the depot and, alongside the depot at Bodmin, represents one of the two most complete surviving depots.