Officers Barracks And Attached Basement Area Walls And Rails

Officers' Barracks, Dover Castle

Officers' quarters and mess, now disused. Built 1856–58, with the exterior designed by architect A Salvin and the plan and interior by G Arnold, Clerk of the Works. The building is constructed in polygonal rubble with limestone dressings, featuring lateral, ridge and corbelled external stacks with cornices, and a slate roof. It is designed in the Tudor Gothic Revival style.

The building has an axial plan with double-depth quarters on the left, and central and right-hand mess rooms. It rises to 2 and 3 storeys plus basement, with a long, asymmetrical and strongly articulated front of 3:6:6:7:4 windows. The façade is divided into end and central 3-storey sections separated by recessed 2-storey sections. Windows are predominantly flat-headed with 1, 2 and 3 lights, some featuring 2-centre arched lights and metal casements with horizontal glazing bars. Doorways are moulded in the Tudor arch style with label moulds and boarded double doors. Prominent features include coped gables, gable dormers, and roll-top crenellated parapets. External stacks are corbelled from the upper floors with sunken panels inscribed VR.

The left-hand 3-window section has a right-hand gable and a taller left-hand crenellated parapet with 2-centre-arched ground and first-floor windows. A 4:2-window return to the left has its front section set forward and divided by a second-floor stack. To the right, a lower 6-window range features a central doorway, a stack to the left, and a wide crenellated bay to the right of the entrance with paired 2-light, 2-centre-arched windows.

The central entrance section is distinguished by a cornice and crenellated parapet raised in the middle, with a lower right-hand gable. A long flight of steps leads to a moulded central doorway flanked by tall attached octagonal plinths with heraldic lions, beneath a large sunken panel bearing a coat of arms. To the right, a lower gable contains a canted bay with parapet and 3-light transom window. To the left, the main hall displays a pair of 3-light Tudor arched transom windows with labels and head stops.

To the right, a 7-bay range has central and right-hand doorways with small gables at each end and between the doorways. The right-hand end comprises a 4-window range with an end gable and smaller half dormers to the left separated by a corbelled stack, and a 3-window return to the right with a rear gable.

The rear elevation is similarly articulated and fenestrated, including a pair of Tudor arched cross windows to the main hall.

The interior has been extensively altered in the late 20th century, with removal of dividing walls, floors and stairs. The mess room retains 2 good fireplaces featuring Tudor arches with cusped panels, enriched spandrels and a panel of quatrefoils, along with moulded lateral and transverse beams. The left-hand section contains a dogleg stair with turned balusters and uncut string.

Subsidiary features include a basement area enclosed by dwarf walls with moulded cast-iron rails.

This building is one of the first large officers' quarters constructed by a nationally renowned architect since the Napoleonic Wars. Its design is notable for strong articulation and varied, picturesque form, clearly conceived to complement Dover Castle.