Government House Mess

This is a commanding officer's house in Aldershot, built in 1883 and altered internally in 1903 after a fire. It is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with decorative brick detailing and a Welsh slate roof. The roof is hipped and gabled, and incorporates brick stacks with thin brick pilaster shafts and corbelled brick caps.

The house is arranged around an L-shaped plan. The main block is square, with an entrance through a porte-cochere on the southeast side leading to a spacious hall and staircase hall, beyond which are the principal rooms facing the southwest garden. A billiard room wing extends to the rear on the northwest side, and a long service wing is located on the northeast side.

The architectural style is Queen Anne. The three-bay southeast front has a slightly projecting left bay and features pairs of narrow sash windows. The first floor has brick pilasters, keyblocks in segmental arches, and elaborate moulded brick Dutch gables with arched sunflower panels. A brick platband runs along the facade, and the central porte-cochere is now glazed with pilastered elliptical arches and a broken pediment with a ball finial.

The northeast side incorporates large brick bay windows on the ground floor and an advanced bay on the right with narrow stair windows featuring lattice panes and a Dutch gable above. A long, single-storey service wing with flat-roofed dormers, featuring shaped brick aprons beneath the eaves, projects to the right. The three-bay southwest garden front includes a small projecting bay at the right corner with a pedimental gable, a large central projecting bay with a Dutch gable, and a lateral stack. An advanced gabled bay on the left has paired windows with brick pilasters and a moulded brick cornice with an arched panel above. A large canted bay and a later cast-iron conservatory occupy the centre of the ground floor.

The rear northwest side features a large brick bay window on the ground floor, first-floor windows with small pedimental gables, and a single-storey billiard room wing on the left, connecting to the service wing. A wooden canopy covers a terrace at the end of the billiard room wing. Most of the windows are sash.

The interior, largely reconstructed after the 1903 fire, remains largely complete. It includes a grand arcaded screen to the open-well staircase, balustrades, dining rooms, saloons, and drawing rooms featuring Classical marble fireplaces, moulded plastered ceilings, and generally intact joinery.

The house represents an important component of the Aldershot garrison and is a good example of a Victorian Queen Anne style house.