Beaumont Riding School

SU 85 SE AUCHINLECK WAY 991/2/2 Beaumont Riding School 29-MAR-73 (Formerly listed as: AUCHINLECK WAY THE RIDING SCHOOL)

II*

Also Known As: SOUTH CAVALRY (BEAUMONT) BARRACKS, ALEXANDRA WAY Riding school at cavalry barracks. 1856-9 to the designs of R M Laffan, CRE of Aldershot district. English bond yellow brick with Portland stone and rubbed brick dressings, and slate roof. Italianate style. Rectangular plan with 2-bay projecting front office. EXTERIOR: single storey; 3-bay front and 2:15-bay sides. Plinth, walls with banded rustication to a cornice with brick dentils, the pedimented entrance end set in front of the matching wider and taller gable end to the riding school. Articulated by tall round-arched blind arcades with rubbed brick rusticated voussoirs and moulded imposts, the front end has flat-headed central doorway with an overlight and double doors and 3-light windows in the flanking bays, an oculus in the pediment, and 3-light lunettes in the tops of the arches; the sides have taller round-arched windows. Louvred ridge lantern extends along roof. INTERIOR: contains a lobby with doors each side, and a roof of timber Queen post trusses with iron strapping. Officers' gallery at first floor level reached by 2 flights of stairs located in lobby area. Originally had a floor of 'tan' (clay over sand and brushwood). HISTORY: architecturally the finest surviving cavalry riding school, part of the Beaumont Cavalry barracks (demolished in the 1960s). They formed part of three identical cavalry barracks built at the Wellington Lines. With the entrance gateway and guardrooms (qv), this is the last surviving part of the first permanent generation of cavalry barracks at Aldershot. It is well known that this is the finest example of a cavalry riding school in England and an exceptional example of the high architectural standards practised by the Royal Engineers from their foundation in 1837. It stands out in a national context as one of the most magnificent equestrian buildings and the finest example of riding school architecture after that at Bolsover in Derbyshire. Winston Churchill trained as a cavalry officer in this building.