Maida Gymnasium

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 09/10/2012

SU 85 SE 991-0/2/53 20.8.79

ALDERSHOT QUEEN'S AVENUE (South East side) Maida Gymnasium

GV II

Gymnasium. c1890. Brick with slate roof Italianate style. Rectangular plan with end and central porches to E side. Single storey; 5-bay entrance gable and 19-bay sides. EXTERIOR: Entrance gable divided by pilaster strips into bays with tall corbels under the eaves, wider central bay with round-arched doorway with fanlight and double 6-panel door and oculus above; sides articulated by thick buttresses with plinths, and round-arched metal-framed windows to sides and front. Small ridge vent to the middle. E side has 3 gabled porches, the central one with clasping pilasters and corbelled eaves and a blind round arch with mid C20 door, outer porches with hipped roofs and paired sunken round windows within flat-headed sunken panels; connected by mid C20 infill changing rooms. INTERIOR: wide roof of light-weight wide-span wrought-iron trusses with paired struts and curved ties. HISTORY: Part of the Marlborough Lines (1887-92), and modelled on Fox's Gym (qv), built as part of a national programme to improve the physical condition of soldiers through gymnastics. (Oldfield E A L: Army Gymnastic Staff. 1952-: 1-10; Childerhouse T: Military Aldershot, the first fifty years: London: 1990-).

Listing NGR: SU8596151712