Racquet Court, Burgoyne Barracks, Shorncliffe Camp

Racquet Court, Burgoyne Barracks, Shorncliffe Camp

This racquet court was built between 1867 and 1873 at Shorncliffe Camp. It is constructed using pier and panel construction, with walls and gable elevations in stock brick laid largely in English bond with alternate header and stretcher courses, though later patching uses variant bonds. The buttress piers on the side and west elevations are in red brick, with further red brick patching evident throughout. Stone, buff brick and concrete provide dressings. The roof comprises lightweight metal trusses (a combination of wrought and cast iron, or steel) covered with slate.

The building follows the standard racquet court dimensions, measuring roughly 30 feet by 60 feet by 30 feet high, aligned east-west. Originally it contained a single court preceded by an entrance lobby from which stairs rise to a full-width gallery overlooking the court. Small ground-floor rooms, marked as store rooms in 1907, flank the entrance on either side. At a later date, a smaller flat-roofed squash court was inserted within the racquet court, fully enclosing the gallery.

The main east elevation is in two storeys and three bays, articulated by offset brick buttress piers beneath a segmental pedimented gable. It features a brick chamfered plinth and buff brick finely-jointed segmental arches to ground-floor openings, with similar round arches to first-floor openings that also have raised keystones and concrete cills throughout. The central entrance beneath a three-light overlight has a pair of flush-panel doors, flanked by windows with six-over-six pane horned sashes recessed in plain brick reveals. Three similar first-floor windows have round-arched heads. A shallow simple moulding runs to the cornice and pediment, which is surmounted by a small flat-headed cupola with a stock brick base and an upper part (presumably rebuilt) in red brick, flanked by rendered or concrete scrolled brackets. A clock face is set within the pediment.

The side elevations are articulated in seven bays by red brick buttress piers and a stock brick dentil cornice. An offset approximately seven feet above ground runs across all but one altered bay on the northern elevation. The south elevation has a further offset at approximately two-thirds height in the western three bays. The eastern two bays of the south elevation are rendered to first-floor height where dressing rooms, water closets and a bath (present in 1907) have been removed. The wall shows repairs and scarring from bomb damage in the Second World War, with two inserted metal-framed small-paned lights and a door. The northern elevation is similarly detailed with patched upper courses in the eastern bays; lower courses, now internal, are painted. The west elevation is articulated in three bays by red brick buttress piers. Its lower part is obscured by an attached building dated 1901. The racquet court has a segmental pedimented gable with a cornice similar to the east elevation and is surmounted by a larger blocking course with a moulded cornice. Within the gable is a small round-arched vent with a flush rendered surround, now blocked.

The roof interior is constructed of lightweight segmental arched trusses from which a bracket-like strut rises to the apex. The inner roof is laid on two planes. The outer planes have square-cut timber rafters lined with moulded matchboard panels. The upper planes appear to have been built as a glazed toplight, the only source of natural light to the court, with moulded rafters; the glass has since been replaced with timber boarding. Longitudinal timber planks fixed to the base of the trusses appear to be original, possibly providing maintenance access to the roof. The vent in the eastern gable wall is covered with a grille. The walls are rendered in hard cement and have been adapted as a climbing wall.

The entrance lobby is lined in matchboard panelling with an arched opening leading to the court. Closed string stairs have square chamfered newels, square balusters and a rounded rail of later nineteenth-century character, rising to a gallery where the balustrade is also enclosed in matchboard panelling. The gallery frame is supported on posts rising to the roof. The gallery appears originally to have been open to the court with a timber rail and has since been enclosed. At roof height the clock mechanism is contained within a timber box. Doors are of standard four-panel design except for the inner door to the court, which is exceptionally thick. At its centre is an inserted square opening, covered on the outer face by a box with a ball-sized hole in the top and on the inner face by a hinged flap shutting flush with the door. The door has heavy brass handles and sunk closing mechanisms.

A twentieth-century squash court has been inserted and built against the existing east and north walls of the racquet court. The racquet court has been adapted for use as a climbing wall. The twentieth-century brick south and west walls and flat steel roof of the squash court, the inserted twentieth-century panelling above the original gallery associated with the squash court, and the later twentieth-century timber steps and structure above the gallery associated with the climbing wall are not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest.