Beaumont Riding School

Beaumont Riding School, part of the former Beaumont Cavalry Barracks, was built between 1856 and 1859 to designs by R M Laffan, the Corps of Royal Engineers’ officer in charge of the Aldershot district. Constructed of yellow brick in English bond, with Portland stone dressings, rubbed brick detailing and a slate roof, it is an example of Italianate style architecture. The building has a rectangular plan with a two-bay projecting front office. It is single-storey with a three-bay front and fifteen-bay sides. Features include a plinth, walls with banded rustication to a cornice with brick dentils, and a pedimented entrance set before a wider, taller gable end of the riding school. The front is articulated by tall, round-arched blind arcades with rubbed brick rusticated voussoirs and moulded imposts, and includes a flat-headed central doorway with an overlight and double doors, three-light windows in the flanking bays, an oculus in the pediment, and three-light lunettes at the tops of the arches. The sides feature taller round-arched windows. A louvred ridge lantern runs along the roof.

The interior features a lobby with doors on each side, and a roof with timber Queen post trusses and iron strapping. There is an officers' gallery at first floor level, reached by two flights of stairs located in the lobby area. Originally, the floor was of ‘tan’ - a surface of clay over sand and brushwood. The riding school represents the finest surviving cavalry riding school, and, with the entrance gateway and guardrooms, constitutes the last remaining part of the first permanent cavalry barracks at Wellington Lines. It is considered the finest example of its type in England, comparable to that at Bolsover in Derbyshire, and is recognised nationally as one of the most magnificent equestrian buildings. Winston Churchill trained as a cavalry officer in the building.